Folk customs and practices not accepted by a religion’s elite, who determine the religion’s official content. In Judaism, as in other religions, superstitions are often related to extra-religious powers or to spiritual experience and frequently are associated with magic and medicine.
Insofar as Judaism distinguishes folk practices (minhag) from required behaviors (halakhah), the designation “superstition” is most likely to be attached to the former and may, as such, include even such accepted Jewish practices as covering mirrors in a house of mourning, breaking a glass at a wedding ceremony, or eating sweet foods at ROSH HASHANAH to ensure a sweet new year. Notably, there is a frequent lack of clarity in Jewish law regarding which behaviors belong in the category of minhag and which are required, and, similarly, practices that start as minhag often become accepted by the religious elite and come to be viewed as obligatory. This suggests the extent to which a practice’s categorization as superstition may depend as much upon the community’s attitude as it reflects the objective character of the behavior under consideration.
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