FOLKLORE,
popular traditions, including beliefs, customs, ritual practices, music, songs, dances, legends, and tales, originally oral but no longer exclusively so since the spread of literacy. Jewish folklore comprises traditions that are specifically cultivated and practiced by Jews. In a community spread around the world, these traditions also inevitably reflect the influence of the respective environments. The bearers of so-called “high” culture, whether literary, philosophical, theological, or halakhic, have tended to regard folklore as a debased or lower form of culture, often associated with magic, superstition, and non-Jewish and pagan traditions. Hence the term is sometimes used with a pejorative connotation, and many beliefs and ... ...
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