He Who Enters the Bath-House Utters Two Blessings
On the Evolvement and Decline of an Ancient Jewish Prayer
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3566775 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abraham Ofir Shemesh (0000-0002-5330-1857, Ariel University, corresponding author), Abraham Shemesh |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 225 |
| Publication date | 2017-10-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel8100225 |
| OpenAlex | W2766593405 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
One of the improvements introduced by the Romans was the public bath-house. This article discusses the formation of Jewish prayers, which were composed during the early rabbinic period, following the dangers of the public baths. Sages from late antiquity published two prayers: Before entering to the bathhouse, the bather has to pray for his safety, and after leaving the bath-house he has to thank Gd for not having suffered harm. The dangers of the bathhouse were deemed to include: Weakness, fainting or dehydration due to the heat of the bathhouse; Legs injury of the bathers due to the heat of the warm floor; Dental damage; Sliding on the wet floor; Fear of death due to collapse of the hypocaust. Due to changes in the bath-house in the modern era; these prayers lost their relevance up to a point; or at any rate; they were no longer prescribed or recorded in practice. Bathhouse heaters were no longer located in the hypocaust; and were rather only located close to the wall of the upper room. Hence; falling into the hot lower space was irrelevant. Following the introduction of domestic baths; these prayers have completely vanished
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Harm · Judaism · Political science · Prayer · Psychiatry · Sociology · Theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Demography · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |