ABSTRACT
From the perspective of the discipline of religious studies, a comparative study of the religious life of the Jewish communities of Kaifeng, China, and Cochin, India, is particularly instructive. Jewish religious life is governed by the ethical and ritual code known as Halacha. This code of law defined the requirements of traditional Jewish life: its dietary code (kashrut); system of family purity (taharat mishpacha); the observance of Shabbat and Judaism's festivals, fasts and commemorations; the performance of rites of passage; and ethical and spiritual norms. As Jewish religious acculturation was manifested in ritual practice through minhagim, so Jewish religious thought was influenced as well. This chapter examines how Judaism became acculturated into Hindu and Confucian societies; or, how the Judaisms of Kaifeng and Cochin differed and how they were similar.
