Mothers and Children. Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe - Elisheva Baumgarten

65. It should be noted that this is a unique Ashkenazi approach. In Spain, during the Middle
    Ages, polygamy was allowed. Grossman, ibid.; Yom Tov Assis, “The ‘Ordinance of Rabbeni Ger-
    shom’ and Polygamous Marriages in Spain,” Zion46:(1981), 251–77.


66. Elimelech Westreich, “Polygamy and Compulsory Divorce of the Wife in the Decisions of
    the Rabbis of Ashkenaz in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries,” Bar Ilan Law Studies6(1988):
    118–64, esp. 143–63 [in Hebrew].


67. BT Ketubbot 64a; BT Yevamot 65a.


68. BT Yevamot 65a.


69. R. Solomon b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, ed. Israel Elfenbein (New York, 1943), no. 207.


70. Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 415–23.


71. Nedarim 11: 12; BT Nedarim 91a–b.
    72.Sefer Or Zaru’a, 1: no. 653; Teshuvot Maimoniyot, no. 6. On this response, see Urbach, The
    Tosaphists, 1:262–63.


72. Avraham Grossman, “The Origins and Essence of the Custom of “Stopping the Service,”
    Milet1(1983): 199–219 [in Hebrew].
    74.Sefer Or Zaru’a, 1: no. 652.


73. Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 415–23. For a different approach to this responsum, see:
    Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Social Attitudes Towards Marginal Individuals in Medieval European
    Society, Ph.D. Diss., Hebrew University (Jerusalem, 2002), 299–302 [in Hebrew].


74. R. Meir b. Barukh, Shut Maharam(Prague), no. 947.


75. Mordekhai, Yevamot, no. 113.


76. Grossman’s book, Pious and Rebellious, 415–24, discusses infertility. Although Grossman
    discussed many of the same sources examined in this chapter, his interpretation differs from that
    offered here because of the geographic provenance of his sources and the general thrust of his ar-
    gument. While I agree with Grossman that claims of impotence became one of the channels for
    women demanding divorce, especially after other options were no longer accessible because of the
    growing restriction legal authorities put on such claims, I do not read these sources as evidence of
    the strength of women’s position in society. The question of what divorce records may teach us
    about the place of women in society requires a broader theoretical and empirical basis. For ex-
    ample, does a higher frequency of divorce indicate stronger or weaker male status?


77. Ortner, Making Gender, 38.


78. Zeev W. Falk, Marriage and Divorce: Reforms in the Family Law of German-French Jewry
    (Jerusalem, 1961), 20–25 [in Hebrew], discusses the possibility of Christian influence on the Jew-
    ish rabbis. For Regino of Prum, see J. Laudage, “Regino,” LdM7: 579–80. For Burchard of Worms
    and his decrees, see: Brundage, Law, Sex and Christian Society, 172, 200–203; Laurent, Nâitre
    au moyen âge, 13–14.


79. R. Solomon b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, no. 207.


80. Grossman cites many sources from Spain in discussing this issue. See Pious and Rebellious,
    422–24.


81. MS Parma Palatina 2757, fol. 73a, no. 263.


82. Mc Murray Gibson, “Scene and Obscene.”


83. For recent literature on birth in medieval and early modern society, see Ya’ara Bar-On, The
    Crowded Delivery Room: Gender and Public Opinion in Early Modern Gynecology(Haifa, 2000)
    [in Hebrew]; Hilary Marland (ed.), The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe
    (London-New York, 1993); Michel Salvat, “L’accouchement dans la littérature scientifique mé-
    diévale,” L’enfant au moyen âge. Littérature et civilisation9(1980): 87–106.


84. This literature is listed and reviewed extensively in chapter 3.


85. Barkai, Jewish Gynecological Texts; idem, Les infortunes de Dinah: Le livre de la generation,
    la gynecologie juive au moyen âge(Paris, 1991).


86. Amanda Carson Banks, Birthchairs, Midwives and Medicine(Jackson, MS, 1999), 1–32.


87. For example, in SHP, nos. 1046–1047.


88. MS Oxford, Bodl., Opp. 170 (1205), fol. 131b–c.

202 NOTES TO CHAPTER 1