Food and holiness: cooking as a sacred act among Middle-Eastern Jewish women

Explores the religiosity of elderly Middle Eastern Jewish women in Jerusalem. For these women the "sacred' is fully embedded within the "profane'. Their lives center around networks of interpersonal relationships that traditional kosher food preparation strengthens and sacralizes. The women see Jewish identity, tradition, law and holidays in terms of feeding others. Many of their foods embody potent Jewish symbols, and the rituals of food preparation imbue their everyday domestic work with holiness. It is argued that the type of diffuse religiosity practiced by these women represents a major mode of human religious experience. -Author