This two-volume set brings together Daniel Sperber's The Jewish Life Cycle Vol. 1 (Second Edition) and The Jewish Life Cycle Vol. 2.
The series describes the major rites of passage of Jewish life: birth, circumcision, marriage, divorce, sickness, death and mourning. Sperber examines the customs attending these events in light of their original sources, how they developed in different Jewish communities, and the explanations given for them, both historically and today. He draws on the whole range of rabbinic literature, compares its stories and explanations with the folk beliefs of other cultures, and analyzes illustrations of Jewish practice from books written by non-Jews.
Daniel Sperber, former Dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University, has written over forty books and over four hundred articles on Talmudic history, philology, archaeology and Jewish art history. He is best known for his eight-volume series on the history of Jewish customs, and in 1992 he was awarded the Israel Prize in Jewish Studies.