Scope
The subtitle of Keter Shem Tob helps demarcate the area of Jewish law that piqued Rabbi Gaguine’s interest. In English, it reads: The Rites and Ceremonies and Liturgical Variants of the Sephardim of the East and West, and the Ashkenazim – Their Origin and Significance Based on the Talmud (Babylonian and Palestinian) and All Ancient and Modern Codes and Treatises.
In other words, the driving force of the work is the ritual halakhot and customs of Jews, particularly when not all groups do or say the same thing. This classifies it squarely in the arena of Orah Hayyim, with the caveat that the treatment of Shabbat is limited to what Jews do on Shabbat as opposed to how they keep Shabbat in a technical sense. There is a smattering of additional material from Yore Denga (Torah scrolls, firstborn, mourning) and Eben Hangezer (marriages), but little from Hoshen Mishpat because of its legalistic nature. Attention to Sephardim predominates throughout, but Ashkenazim have an important place in all volumes.
In addition to simply describing what is done in various communities throughout the Jewish year, Gaguine investigates the origins of these behaviors in our sacred texts and Rabbinic literature. He is especially drawn to cases in which practices changed or diverged over time, when they appeared earlier or later than what was popularly believed by his contemporaries, when they seem to contradict or simply be absent from rabbinic writings, and when they are so commonly accepted that people do not typically wonder what might have been done instead.
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In other words, the driving force of the work is the ritual halakhot and customs of Jews, particularly when not all groups do or say the same thing. This classifies it squarely in the arena of Orah Hayyim, with the caveat that the treatment of Shabbat is limited to what Jews do on Shabbat as opposed to how they keep Shabbat in a technical sense. There is a smattering of additional material from Yore Denga (Torah scrolls, firstborn, mourning) and Eben Hangezer (marriages), but little from Hoshen Mishpat because of its legalistic nature. Attention to Sephardim predominates throughout, but Ashkenazim have an important place in all volumes.
In addition to simply describing what is done in various communities throughout the Jewish year, Gaguine investigates the origins of these behaviors in our sacred texts and Rabbinic literature. He is especially drawn to cases in which practices changed or diverged over time, when they appeared earlier or later than what was popularly believed by his contemporaries, when they seem to contradict or simply be absent from rabbinic writings, and when they are so commonly accepted that people do not typically wonder what might have been done instead.
Back to "About the Book"