Custom and Ritual
Due to the paucity of resources in English about Western Sephardic ritual, this page is both the shortest on our site and the only one in which compositions in other languages are reviewed.
On the subject of language, it should also be noted that Western Sephardim do not speak the Judeo-Spanish dialect known as Ladino. Having stayed in Iberia as conversos before rejudaizing, they were present on the Peninsula as Spanish and Portuguese took on their modern forms, while Ladino developed in the Ottoman Empire on the other side of the Mediterranean. The predominant languages spoken by Western Sephardim today are Dutch, English, and French.
On the subject of language, it should also be noted that Western Sephardim do not speak the Judeo-Spanish dialect known as Ladino. Having stayed in Iberia as conversos before rejudaizing, they were present on the Peninsula as Spanish and Portuguese took on their modern forms, while Ladino developed in the Ottoman Empire on the other side of the Mediterranean. The predominant languages spoken by Western Sephardim today are Dutch, English, and French.
Thesouro dos Dinim – Source is in Portuguese, but a developing website offers some translations
- Subtitle: Que o Povo de Israel he Obrigado Saber e Observar
- Author: Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel
- Publisher: [Varies by volume], 1645-1647 – 5 vols, 835 pp.
- LOC Permalink: [None]
- Availability: this book is in the public domain, and can be accessed HERE
- Review: click HERE for Cecil Roth's review of the book from 1934
Keter Shem Tob – Source is in Hebrew, but there is an English-language website devoted to it
- Subtitle: 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
- Author: Rabbi Shemtob Gaguine
- Publisher: [Varies by volume], 1934-1981 – 7 vols, 2037 pp.
- LOC Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/he68001039
- Availability: in print, and the majority can be viewed online (vols. 1-2, vol. 3, vol. 6, and vol. 7)
- Review: click for a review of the book and its table of contents
A Treasury of Sephardic Laws and Customs
- Subtitle: The Ritual Practices of Syrian, Moroccan, Judeo-Spanish, and Spanish and Portuguese Jews of North America
- Author: Herbert C. Dobrinsky
- Publisher: Yeshiva University Press, 1986 – 520 pp.
- LOC Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86005539
- Availability: out of print, but used copies are affordable
- Review: click HERE for a short review of the book and its table of contents