The Amen Meal: Jewish Women Experience Lived Religion through a New Ritual

Abstract:This article focuses on Jewish women's experiences of the amen meal ritual. The central intention of this meal is to achieve many recitations of the word "amen" in response to benedictions recited for different sorts of food. The women's voices and experiences, reflected in in-depth interviews with participants and participant observations, facilitate our understanding and conceptions of how some contemporary Jewish women experience lived religion. The amen meal experience is characterized by continuity, relationships and activeness, and it creates a safe place for Jewish women to develop their self-and communal-religious identities. The multiplicity of independent and united communities of women helps them connect to themselves, their community and their identity as Jewish women, and it gives them a sense of empowerment.