During this first stage, the parturient is attended to by friends and, in some
cases, a maid. On the Sabbath about three weeks after birth, the parturient got
out of bed, changed her sheets and clothing and hosted her friends who came
to visit. This stage was called the Pfühl(lit. pillow). She then spent an addi-
tional week in bed. The third stage began a week later, on Friday. The par-
turient changed her clothes and put white sheets on her bed. She cleaned and
dressed the baby. This was called die weisse Pfühle. That Sabbath morning, she
proceeded to the synagogue, accompanied by her female friends and neigh-
bors. She wore her Sabbath clothes covered with shrouds and on her head she
wore a hat covered with a veil or scarf. The scarf and the shrouds were meant
to trick any lurking evil spirits by suggesting that this woman was mourning
rather than celebrating.^48 The woman’s arrival in the synagogue was timed to
coincide with the beginning of the morning blessings that preceded the recital
of the Shema, and special tunes were sung in her honor.
If the baby was a boy, the woman gave the synagogue the embroidered wim-
pel. The wimpel was the cloth diaper from the circumcision ceremony that was
embroidered by the mother and her friends. These wimpels were used to wrap
the Torah scrolls in the synagogue (see figure 6). The father of the baby was
called to the Torah and said a blessing for his wife. The parturient herself did
not play any active role in the synagogue ritual. After services, she took off the
scarf she had covered her head with and the shrouds she had worn and returned
to her home accompanied by her friends. She prepared a meal for them and
gave them small gifts of baked goods and fruit. That same afternoon, the Holle-
kreisch ritual took place. Aspects of this ritual process are illustrated in two il-
lustrations from eighteenth-century books (see figures 6 and 7).
A different seventeenth-century source emphasizes the fact that every par-
turient, even those whose babies died immediately after birth, underwent this
ritual. R. Yuda Levy Kirkhum’s (d. 1632) book Sefer Minhagot Wormeisa states:
“If the infant died within the first thirty days, the h·azan(cantor) nevertheless
says Kaddish in a special tune on the Sabbath that the women lead the par-
turient to the synagogue.”^49 The parturient is such a central focus of this rit-
ual, that even if the baby died she was still expected to undergo this ceremony.
R. Yuda Kirkhum emphasizes that despite the death of the infant, services are
to be held in a joyous manner. A different custom book from the sixteenth cen-
tury supplies an alternative explanation for the ritual:
It says in the Torah concerning a parturient: “On the completion of her period of
purification, for either son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest, at the entrance
of the Tent of Meeting, a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon
or a turtledove for a sin offering.” R. Simeon b. Yoh·ai was asked by his disciples:
“Why did the Torah ordain that a woman after childbirth should bring a sacri-
fice?” He replied: “When she kneels in bearing she swears impetuously that she
will have no more intercourse with her husband. The Torah therefore ordained