Appendix
RITUAL OBLIGATIONS OF CHILDREN:
CHANGING CONCEPTIONS
As we have seen in this chapter, the thirteenth century was a period in which
women’s ritual participation underwent substantial change. Figures such as
R. Meir of Rothenburg were central in promoting this change and many of his
recommendations were forcefully endorsed and gradually accepted. The chap-
ter has focused on explaining some of these changes, first and foremost those
concerning the circumcision ceremony. However, as we have seen, many of
these issues have broader implications and contexts. One such example of a
broader context that is central to this book’s topic, although to a later stage of
life, has to do with male children’s ritual obligations. The obligations were dis-
cussed in the context of boys who were on the verge of or already at the age of
education—ages five, six, or seven. Because these children have been studied
extensively over the past years and because they are not included in the cate-
gories defined for this project, they will not be discussed at length.^146 However,
awareness of the changes young children’s ritual obligations were subject to
enhances the historical conclusions of this study as well. This appendix will
summarize conclusions of previous research.
In the medieval Jewish communities the question of how to educate chil-
dren and what religious responsibilities they were to take upon themselves was
a charged one. As a general trend one can see that during the course of the
thirteenth century certain responsibilities were emphasized more and more as
exclusively adult male responsibilities. During the thirteenth century, there are
a number of instances in which the scholars debate the age at which children
were obligated to perform certain duties. At this time, these obligations, re-
quired of all upon reaching age thirteen, were often taken on by children of
younger ages, according to their abilities. Most of the obligations in question
are traditionally male. During the second half of the thirteenth century and
during the fourteenth century, understandings of these obligations changed.
While a thorough examination of this development is beyond the scope of
this appendix, I will cite one example to illustrate this point. The precept of
phylacteries, tefillin, worn on the arm during morning prayers, was not one
that depended on the age of a child. Rather, tefillin were given to boys who
were able to take care of them and to control their bodily functions. While
eleventh- and twelfth-century scholars discuss boys not yet in school as don-
ning tefillin,^147 thirteenth-century sources discuss tefillin in the context of boys