The ritual not only provided a benediction for the parturient, but was also
considered a way of freeing the woman after birth from any lurking evil spir-
its.^82 Some considered this ritual so important that families requested that
women who had died during childbirth be churched before burial.^83 At the
same time, others, especially after the Reformation, saw the ritual, and purifi-
cation in general, as unnecessary. The meaning of the rite, as well as its valid-
ity, was the topic of heated debates in England, as well as in Protestant Ger-
many. While the Lutherans continued to allocate a divine place to Mary as the
mother of God, they were not completely comfortable with a rite of purifica-
tion. Part of their objection was that it was a Jewish ritual and that those who
observed it were Judaizers. In spite of the objections of the clergy in Germany,
however, the rite continued to be practiced at the insistence of women.^84
While important differences exist between the rituals, especially in their in-
stitutional aspects, the similarities between them are striking. Among the dif-
ferences between the two ceremonies, one element central to the Christian
rite, the bearing of candles symbolizing the Virgin Mary, was obviously lack-
ing from the Jewish custom. Not only did the Jewish ritual clearly distance it-
self from Mary, but candles could not have been carried at a ritual held on the
Sabbath. An additional distinction is the place of the parturient in the ritual.
The Jewish woman went to synagogue but stood in the separate women’s sec-
tion, while her husband and other men were active in the sanctuary—her hus-
band recited a blessing for her during the reading of the Torah and the cantor
sang special tunes in her honor. The only thing the woman did, in the case of
the celebration of the birth of a son, was to pass the wimpel to her husband. By
contrast, Christian women were more active. They answered questions posed
by the priest and received the postpartum benediction (benedictio post par-
tum); they knelt on a special churching stool and were the center of attention
during the ritual.^85 It is possible that these differences are not all that signifi-
cant, since we find similar distinctions between Jews and Christians in other
instances. Jews lacked priests, and the husband and cantor seem to be filling
in for them in this case.
The similarities between the churching ritual and the Sabbath ritual for the
parturient are more obvious. The two rituals not only share the same underly-
ing concept; they also possess many common features marking the entire post-
partum period, from birth until the performance of the institutional rite. Both
rituals were performed for the mother and not for the infant, and both shared
a similar timetable for the process of her return to regular social functions. An-
other feature common to both rituals is women’s involvement in the ritual
process—watching the woman during and after birth, providing festive meals
and accompanying her to church/synagogue. Although the men, at least in
Jewish society, often helped draw and mount the amulets around the Kindbett,
this was done before birth. After the onset of labor, they no longer entered the
birthing chamber. In both Christian and Jewish society, the women remained
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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