1/19 Is Judaism Boring? The role of symbols in “imagistic” Jewish movements in the nineteenth century Tamás Biró ACLC, University of Amsterdam Groningen Centre for Religion & Cognition

2/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Overview The McCauley-Lawson model, tedium and Judaism Jewish movements in the 18th and 19th c. Why these movements? A frustrated mental activation model. The role of “symbols” in this model

3/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Tedium – McCauley & Lawson McCauley-Lawson model: – Action representation scheme: agent, patient, instrument (etc.?) – Ritual if and only if at least one slot is filled by counterintuitive agent (CIA) – “Special agent rituals” vs. others – Balanced ritual systems need both – Tedium if no special agent rituals

4/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Judaism is boring… Mitzvoth (commandments): religious acts and non-acts (Almost?) no rituals according to the definition of McCauley & Lawson Hence, no special agent rituals, either So, McCauley & Lawson predict: tedium “Solutions”: mystical movements (Kabbalah), popular magic, messianic movements (e.g., Shabbatai Tsvi),…

5/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, th century: 2x2 solutions (NB: the analysis below is meant to complement, and not to replace traditional historical, economic, sociological, etc. explanations.) Reaction to traditional rabbinical elitism + counter-reaction: Chassidism vs. Yeshiva movement Reaction to modernity + counter-reaction: Reform Judaism vs. Orthodoxy Additionally: each is also reaction to tedium! Four strategies are used (at least).

6/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Strategy 1: Introducing special agents Chassidism: rebbe = charismatic leader High-arousal special agent rituals, such as tish Non-orthodox Judaism: the rabbi as a “priest” with special blessing capacities 20 th century ultra-orthodoxy: even non-chassidic leaders often turn into “rebbes”

7/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Strategy 2: Intellectual emphasis on existing religious acts Existing mitzvoth (religious acts and non-acts) performed more consciously Equivalent to “arousal”? Yeshiva movement (et al.): emphasis on study (to increase consciousness) Musar movement: emphasis on ethics as part of the system of religious acts and non-acts (i.e., halakha; e.g. lashon ha-ra ‘evil tongue, gossips’)

8/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Strategy 3: Religious dimension to high-arousal details Arts: Chassidism: music: chassidic niggunim (tunes) Western-Europe and non-orthodox movements: – Music: cantorial art à la Romanticism – Synagogual architecture – Sermons, rabbis’ cloths, etc. Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe: strong opposition

9/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Strategy 4: New acts and new non-acts Each Chassidic group + followers of the Vilna gaon, etc.: introducing their own minhagim (traditions). Reform: introducing their own practices Strict orthodoxy (esp. Hungary): strict prohibitions to avoid any similarity with reform and with Christianity (no choir, no rabbinic dress, no towers on the synagogues,…)

10/19 WHY THESE STRATEGIES SOLVE TEDIUM??? 1. Introducing special agents 2. Intellectual emphasis on existing religious acts and non-acts. 3. Religious dimension to high-arousal acts. 4. New acts and new non-acts

11/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Symbols in a network of concepts white peace war dove black white flag harmless What fires together, what fires in the opposite condition? (Cf. psycho- logical and linguistic experiments.) NB: this is not a neural network! death war harmless peace white flag dove white black

12/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Network including religious acts and concepts kosher lighting fire synagogue eating liturgy shabbat CIA music architecture

13/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 NB: Samson Raphael Hirsch ( , founder of German neo-orthodoxy): commandments are symbols, for instance: – Shabbat, phylacteries, circumcision = covenant – Pesach and much more: remembrance – Aim of all mitzvoth: to increase the ethical level of those observing them Our interpretation: performing mitzvoth also activate other nodes, such as CIA, history, ethics.

14/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Network of concepts vs. solutions to tedium Hypothesis: Tedium = node CIA not activated. Introducing special agents: the agent of the special agent ritual directly activates node CIA. Emphasis on religious acts / non-acts: a.) stronger activation of nodes w positive connection to CIA; b.) strengthening connections between nodes. Religious dimension to high-arousal acts: indirect, though strong activation of node CIA. New acts / non-acts: more ways to activate CIA.

15/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Mental network reflecting social network Orthodoxy I (ego) Judaism Christianity Person 4 Reform Judaism Person 1Person 2 Person ? ? ? ? Person 1Person 2 Person 3 - Person 4 Orthodoxy Reform Judaism Judaism Christianity MYSELF

16/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Frustrated networks: Network inhibits adding religious dimension to arts Orthodoxy MYSELF Judaism Christianity Tower on prayer place Reform Judaism CIA synagogue ? ? +

17/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Frustrated networks Optimisation under contradicting constraints: Spin-glasses (statistical physics) Simulated Annealing (e.g., artificial intelligence) Linguistics: Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, aka 2004), etc. (especially: Smolensky and Legendre 2006; Bíró 2006)

18/19 Tamás BIRÓ Symbolization in Religion, Cognition and Culture Aarhus, June 1, 2007 Summary Application of McCauley & Lawson’s model to Judaism (more: cf. SBL) New ways to overcome tedium A mental network-theory to explain these ways: – Connected to social networks – Frustrations: related to other cognitive models

19/19 Thank you for your attention! Tamás Biró Download this presentation from: