Ritual Chairs of Circumcision Ceremonies: Reassessing Meaning through Materiality

Abstract This essay will showcase a process of contextualizing a Jewish ritual object through synthesizing a range of sources. The object at the center of this research is the chair in the context of the circumcision ceremony in medieval Ashkenaz and the early modern Ashkenazi diaspora. The two ceremonial chairs are designated, respectively, for the ba′al brit, who holds the infant, and Elijah the Prophet, whose association with circumcision will be explored. The essay will present the central themes that medieval Ashkenazi Jews wished to highlight during the ceremony and suggest how these themes were reflected and communicated in the affordances of the chair.