Anthropologists label many activities as “rituals” ranging from private ceremonies (including those with just one person or only a few participants) to large gatherings and from single acts to long sequences spread over months or years. The occasions for ritualized behaviors vary also, either contingencies such as illness or misfortune; life-events, such as birth, initiation, and death; or recurrent occasions such as seasonal changes. The focus of this article, however, will be the connections between religious rituals and biblical concepts. It will discuss these different rituals and draw attention to the psychological effects of them. Briefly, just as the community is bound by the Torah, the Torah is bound by the community. Psychologically, these rituals enforce group commitment and thereby foster social group stability.
Ritual studies has long understood that individuals participating in ritual processes experience an altered psychology which leads, among other distinct effects, to...
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Rashkow, I. (2015). Ritual, Psychology, and the Hebrew Bible. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_9368-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_9368-1
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