Religious Experience and Social Status in the Ashkenazi Liturgical Domain

The last decades of the thirteenth century witnessed the development of private illuminated prayer books that flourished in succeeding generations alongside the large public mahzorim. These manuscripts, usually of modest format befitting their personal use, also included the everyday prayers and additional halakhic texts. Some of them were commissioned by prosperous patrons; others were copied and designed by scholars for their own use. The use of private prayer books at communal ceremonies highlighted the social inequality among community members inside the prayer hall. A private prayer book was a sign of status that distinguished its owner from those in the community who could not afford it. The use of private books in the synagogue during the public ceremony in parallel with the cantor created within the synagogue a thin elite stratum differentiated from the rest of the community on the basis of education and wealth. It could have also created different personal liturgical experiences within the communal service, depending on the intimate interaction between each owner and his specific book.