ABSTRACT
Laws tell you what you can’t do and what you must do at particular times and under defined circumstances. In some societies laws dictate how one dresses, prepares food, eats that food, deals with business and nonbusiness associates, and, of course, conducts ceremonies that constitute the rites of passage from one state of life to another. Religious ceremonies and rituals are prescribed in considerable detail; yet there is a recognized latitude for local customs to provide the odd unique embellishment to orthodox dogma. Notwithstanding the complaint, or boast, of Tevye, the milkman in the motion picture Fiddler on the Roof who asserts that each and every act of the Jewish people of his nineteenth century Russian village, Anatevka, is governed by tradition, there is yet room for variance and novelty-but not much. In these Jewish societies people are required to assemble and pray at least three times a day (the men), wear ritually defined clothes, and eat food that has been selected and prepared in accordance with written laws. The times when sexual relations may occur are determined by the female’s menstrual cycle and her ritual immersion in a cleansing bath. Even the order of putting
on one’s shoes is ordained. By contrast most modern secular societies are far less prescriptive in their legislation.
