Ok, I’ve never heard of religious Jews getting themselves whipped, even if only a little symbolic bit, for Yom Kippur. You can see some pictures here. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I find them both odd and rather intimate. Every year you learn something new. I’m not really sure what to think. Not for me, thank you, but why not for them? I guess it goes to show that you can’t really say “Jews don’t do that” because there’s nothing that someone won’t do. I’m confused though. Why doesn’t this get talked about much among academics? All the things that are supposed to interest us are here: embodiment, discipline and punishment, performance, male on male homo-sociality.
See Mordkhe Spector’s Yiddish short story “Malkes” מלקות in the school textbook (!) “Leyenbukh far der yidisher shul” volume 6, NY 1925 pp. 155 – 163, ed. Israel Steinbaum,
for an East European context…
Wow! Way to go Judaism. Why do academics prefer the non-sexy version of religion? This could be HUGE in attracting and retaining people seeking penance.
That’s funny. You’re not the only one to have chimed in on this, for the same reasons!