Appendix
THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTURIENT’S RITUAL
ACCORDING TO R. JUSPA SHAMMES OF WORMS
—R. Jousep ( Juspa) Schammes (1604 –1678), Minhagim
deKehilat Kodesh Wormeisa(Wormser Minhagbuch), no. 288The Custom of Parturients Who Give Birth to Males or FemalesImmediately after birth they make a circle with a neter[chalk] in the room of
the parturients and write on it “barring Lilith” and underneath this: “Adam and
Eve.” In this way, they write all around that circle, as is the custom everywhere.
And some write on the entrance of the room like this: “Adam, and Eve, barring
Lilith, Sanoi, and Sansoi and Samengloff,”^105 and this is a fitting custom....
From the jüdische Windel[cloth diaper], after the third day after circumci-
sion [shlish hamilah], they make the wimpel,^106 and they write on it the sig-
natures of the child—when he will be called to the Torah, and also the day of
his birth, the month of birth, as well as the year of his birth—and they draw on
it the horoscope of that month. And the parturient does not go out of her house
of birth until the fourth Sabbath after the birth and sometimes the fifth Sab-
bath.^107 How? First, I will inform you that each woman who gives birth needs
to be in her house until the end of der Kreis aus ist. In other words, each night
beginning with the day of birth, the woman who waits by her bedside to serve
her takes a drawn sword^108 and turns the parturient with it several times and
recites some chants that the women know. And so they do every evening, for
four weeks from the day of the birth....
The Sabbath preceding the Sabbath that she goes out of her [house of ] birth
[that is, the Sabbath that is called sie geht aus der Kindbett],^109 on that Sab-
bath, during the morning prayers, she wears fine clothing and beautifies her
bed and beautifies the child and his bed and cleans the room she is in very,
very well and beautifies it. And the women come to visit her and they see her
clothing and her bed and the child’s bed, and this is called Pfühl [pillow or
bed]. And the Sabbath afterward, that is the same Sabbath on which she leaves
her house of birth to go to the synagogue, on that Friday night, as the Sabbath
arrives, she beautifies her bed with white sheets and pillows and the women
come and visit her, and this they call die weisse Pfühle. It is also customary for
neighbors and relatives to send food to the parturient. And most of them send