so as to avoid heating water on the Sabbath. Although this act was permitted when a woman was
about to give birth, they preferred not to violate the Sabbath. SHP, no. 515 as well as R. Moses
Parnas, Sefer haParnas(Vilna, 1895), nos. 283–84; R. Eleazar b. Judah, Perush haRokeah·al ha-
Torah(New York, 1978), Yitro 20: 12.
111.Sefer Tosafot haShalem, Gen. 38:5, no. 5; 27, no. 2.
- Rashi, Berakhot 3a, s.v. “Shilya,” and see Arsène Darmsteter and David S. Blondheim, Les
Glosses françaises dans les commentaries talmudiques de Raschi(Paris, 1926), 146 no. 1058. - For example, his commentary on Hos. 6:11; 13:13.
- R. Isaac b. Nathan, Perush Rivan leMassekhet Yevamot, ed. Efraim Kupfer (Jerusalem
1977), 42a, 193. - Marianne Elsakkers, “In Pain You Shall Bear Children: Medieval Prayers for a Safe De-
livery,” in Women and Miracle Stories. A Multidisciplinary Explanation, ed. Anne Marie Korte
(Leiden, Köln, and Boston, 2001), 179–210. - Rashi, Bava Kama 59a, s.v. “Nekhi h·aya.” Compare: Ann Giardina Hess, “Midwifery Prac-
tice among the Quakers in Southern Rural England in the Late Seventeenth Century,” in The Art
of Midwifery. Early Modern Midwives in Europe, ed. Hilary Marland (London and New York,
1993), 56–57. - Klaus Bergdolt, “Schwangerschaft und Geburt,” LdM, 7: 1612–16.
- Gerhard Baader, “Der Hebammenkatechismus des Muscio—ein Zeugnis frühmittelal-
terlichen Geburtshilfe,” in Frauen in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, ed. Werner Affeldt (Sig-
maringen, 1990), 115. - R. H·ayim b. Isaac, Sefer She’elot uTeshuvot Maharah·Or Zaru’a, no. 8 s.v. “Yelamdenu al
otah isha”; and see also R. Joseph b. Moses, Sefer Leket Yosher,2: 20, for another example of the
wise women’s expertise. - R. Asher b. Yeh·iel, Shut haRosh, no. 33.
- Baumgarten, “Midwives,” 73, and in R. Gershom haGozer, Sefer Zikhron Brit, ed. Jacob
Glassberg (Berlin, 1892), 142. This supports the suggestion made by Monica Green almost a
decade ago (Monica Green, “Women’s Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe,”
Signs14(1989): 434–73, esp. 438–46), in which she suggested that women served as medical
practitioners of many different kinds and were not restricted to gynecology. Thus, the distinction
sometimes made in modern literature between doctors and midwives is irrelevant. The women
referred to as wise women in the Jewish texts should be included in any account of medical
professionals. - See, for example, SHP, no. 68 where a midwife is listed as the only female professional not
obliged to fast when a city is under siege. - Theodore Kwasman, “Die mittelalterlichen jüdischen Grabsteine in Rothenburg o.d.
Tauber,” in Zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen judischen Gemeinde in Rothenburg ob der Tauber;
Rabbi Meir ben Baruch von Rothenburg zum Gedenken an seinen 700 Todestag, ed. Hilde Merz
(Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, 1993), tombstones nos. 40, 154. The practice of recording midwifery as
a female profession on gravestones is known from antiquity. See, for example, Nancy Demand,
Birth, Death and Motherhood in Classical Greece(Baltimore and London, 1994), 152. - She is mentioned in Salfeld, Martyrologium, 90.
- Thus in the lists of the dead from Rothenburg in 1298 we hear of Marat Yuta haMeyaledet
who was killed with her great grandson Avraham (ibid., 43). Marat Beila, the midwife of Würzburg,
was killed in 1298 with her daughter and three of her great-grandchildren (ibid., 57). Marat Berla,
the midwife of Winheim, was killed with her sons, daughters, and four of her grandchildren (ibid.,
56). In a list from Nürnberg (1298) we hear of Marat Zarlieb haZekana (the old) haMeyaledet and
Marat Miriam haMeyaledet (ibid., 36). In 1349 in Worms the midwife Marat Minna was killed
with her son and his wife together with the midwife Marat Ogia who was killed with her daugh-
ter (ibid., 75–76). - Zvi Avineri, “Nürnberg”; Germania JudaicaII 2: 598–604 as well as Moritz Stern, “Verze-