not consent to their conversions. Some felt that they should be mourned as if
they were still part of the community. Although R. Tam disagreed,^138 the ques-
tion in and of itself is evidence of the tremendous dilemma around this issue.
The Crusade chronicles also provide ample evidence for the dilemmas
faced by parents forced to choose between their children’s physical and spir-
itual welfare. This is evident in both the words attributed to parents who chose
to kill their children and the words of those who did not. The narrative con-
trasts the parents’ instinctive behavior toward their children with their actions,
both when describing their actions and in the choice of biblical imagery.
Thus, the women are called merciful and loving mothers, even as they choose
to kill their own children. In addition, those parents who chose not to sacri-
fice their children do not receive the same attention. Entire communities, as
in the cases of Metz and Regensburg, made this choice, and, as R. Solomon
b. Samson explains, they did as the Crusaders instructed them in order to save
their children.^139
The case of R. Isaac b. David (of Mainz) who converted and then returned
to the community demonstrates that the children were a central concern. He
explains his decision to convert by stating: “I listened to the enemies only in
order to save my children from these evil people.”^140 When he decides to re-
turn to the community and be killed as a Jew together with his children, he
chooses the spiritual over the physical. The story of the mother Marat Rachel
illuminates these ideas as well. Marat Rachel, the wife of R. Judah and the
daughter of R. Isaac b. Asher, kills her four children rather than allowing them
to fall into the hands of Christians. She tells her friends:
I have four children. On them as well have no mercy, lest these uncircumcised
come and seize them and they remain in their erroneous faith. With them as well
you must sanctify the Holy name.^141After killing three of her four children, she chases after her youngest, Aaron,
vowing not to have mercy on him. Her husband then sees the four dead chil-
dren and kills himself as well.^142
In this story, which has been read and reread in recent years, it is Rachel,
the daughter and wife of prominent rabbis, who does not act like a mother. Yet
the narrative is constructed to highlight the difficulty of this ordeal, ending with
the words “Em al banim rutsha”—when mother and babes were dashed to
death together (Hos. 10:14)—that evoke the well-known opposing quotation
“the mother of the children rejoices” (Ps. 113: 9).^143
Several other cases are reported in the chronicles, in which mothers express
their painful deliberations on the decision as to whether to allow their hus-
bands to kill their children. Z·ipporah of Worms, who is described, like Sarah
the Matriarch, as having waited years to have a child, begs her husband to kill
her before he kills their child, so that she will not have to witness such hor-
ror.^144 Ultimately, maternal pity must give way before spiritual piety. Concern