dency of Sepher Hasidim,” Zion3(1938): 1–50 [in Hebrew], but subsequently rejected. Recently,
Talya Fishman has revived this idea: “The Penitential System of H·asidei Ashkenaz and the Prob-
lem of Cultural Boundaries,” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy8 (1999): 201–30.
- David Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages(Philadelphia, 1979),
section 205, 209. Comments on the same topic also appear in sections 42, 69–70. - Ibid., 70; Bernhard Blumenkranz, Les auteurs chrétiens latin du moyen âge sur les juifs et la
judäisme(Etudes juives, 4), (Paris, 1963), 98. - Sylvie Laurent, Nâitre au moyen âge: De la Conception à la naissance, la grossesse et l’ac-
couchement XIIe–Xve siècle(Paris, 1989); Jacques Gélis, L’Arbre et le fruit: La naissance dans l’oc-
cident moderne(Paris, 1984). - Rashi, Eruvin 27a, s.v. “P’riyah ureviyah”; Rashi, Kiddushin34a, s.v. “UP’riyah ureviyah.”
- For example in connection with tefillin(phylacteries), women are excluded from perform-
ing this mitz·vabecause of requirements of guf naki—a clean body. See R. Samson b. Z·adok, Sefer
haTashbez·(Warsaw, 1901), no. 270. - John W. Baldwin, The Language of Sex: Five Voices from Northern France around 1200
(Chicago and London, 1994), 206–10. - For example: Catherine M. Mooney, “Claire of Assisi and Her Interpreters,” in Gendered
Voices, 69–70. - This idea comes across in the word used in Midrash Yez·irat haValad Oz·ar Midrashion, ed.
Judah David Eisenstein (New York, 1915), 1: 244, where the woman’s body is referred to as a k’li,
or receptacle. - Ron Barkai, “Greek Medical Traditions and Their Impact on Conceptions of Women in
the Gynaecological Writings in the Middle Ages,” A View into the Lives of Women in Jewish Soci-
eties. Collected Essays, ed. Yael Azmon (Jerusalem, 1995), 124–26 [in Hebrew]; Joan Cadden,
Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science and Culture(Cambridge, 1991). - This is outlined in the versions of Midrash Yez·irat haValad, 1:244–45.
39.SHP, no. 1188, and see a fuller discussion of this source (ch. 4, n. 14). - These laws appear in Tractate S’machot(7:15) and are repeated throughout the Middle
Ages. See for example: Sefer Or Zaru’a, Hilkhot Evel (Laws of Mourning), no. 448. - In some cases, special magical chants and prayers were said to help ensure the birth of a
son, especially in cases where a man had already fathered several daughters. Some of these for-
mulas appear in MS Oxford Bodl., Mich. 9, (1531), fols. 175a–186a. - For example: Rashi, Shabbat, s.v. “Ga’aguin—bremors... and this cure does not pertain to
females since the father does not love them as much from the start.” For this preference in Chris-
tian society, see Gélis, L’arbre, 163. - In an excerpt from a thirteenth-century commentary on Genesis from northern France, the
author writes: “And she was named Dinah”: It is not explained why she was named thus, for it is
not necessary to explain except in the case of males, for they are the ikar—the core (cf. MS Vati-
can 123, fol. 8b); Sefer Tosafot haShalem, Gen. 30: 21, no. 10 “and named her Dinah”: One does
not give thanks for the birth of a daughter like for a son.” - Gélis, L’arbre, 160–64.
- On child brides: Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 63–87. Some girls were sexually active
even before reaching sexual maturity. For example: SHP, no. 1155; MS Paris héb. 1120, fol. 66b,
discusses difficulties during birth. One of the difficulties mentioned is: “And if for internal reasons,
the girl conceives before she brought signs [of sexual maturity] and her straits are narrow.” For the
history of this text, see: Ron Barkai, “A Medieval Treatise on Obstetrics,” Medical History33(1988):
96–119. This passage describes the difficulties of young girls giving birth. Another fifteenth-
century source voices concern over girls sexually active from a young age and recommends that
doctors instruct these girls on how to prevent conception. See MS Paris héb. 1122, 46a, on preg-
nancy and birth control: “And you should know that the doctor must give these medicines to a
woman so that she does not conceive when she is young and has not yet reached her time.” It seems