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

(Rick Simeone) #1

rope from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries,” in Sanctity and Secularity: The Church
and the World, ed. Derek Baker (Studies in Church History, 10), (Oxford, 1973), 129–43; idem,
“Godparenthood: The Fortunes of a Social Institution in Early Modern Christianity,” in Religion
and Society in Early Modern Europe 1500–1800, ed. Kaspar von Greyerz (London, Boston, and
Sydney, 1984), 194–201.



  1. Sidney W. Mintz and Eric R. Wolf, “An Analysis of Ritual Co-Parenthood (Compadrazgo),”
    Southwestern Journal of Anthropology6(1950): 341–68; Sidney W. Mintz, “Culture: An Anthro-
    pological View”; The Yale Review(1982): 506–08; see p. 82 for a discussion of their work.

  2. Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate,English section, 172, no. 157.

  3. Supra, unnumbered note.

  4. Sara Lipton, Images of Intolerance: The Representation of Jews and Judaism in the Bible
    moralisée(Berkeley, 1999), 18.

  5. For example: Siddur R. Solomon b. Samson of Worms, ed. Moshe Hershler (Jerusalem,
    1972), 246–47; 282–90; Perushei Siddur haTefila laRokeah·, eds. Moshe Hershler and Judah Alter
    Hershler (Jerusalem, 1992), 2:722–32, and in manuscript: MS Verona Seminar 34, fol. 177a–b;
    see also the mah·zor (prayer book) from 1470 where a blessing for the baby in Hebrew appears: MS
    Parma 403/2, fol. 87a. For a discussion of the omission of these blessings in Ashkenaz, see Sefer
    Or Zaru’a, 2: no. 107; R. Jacob b. Gershom, Zikhron Brit, 60.

  6. The main Talmudic sources on circumcision are Mishna Shabbat, 19:2–6; BT Shabbat
    134–35.

  7. For example, Luke 1:59; PT H·agiga 2:1 fol. 9b.
    32.Sefer Sha’arei Tzedek(Jerusalem, 1966), 3, section 5, 51, no. 11: “Whether to circumcise
    an infant on sand or water or to bring the infant to the synagogue—it does not matter. As it is not
    forbidden either way, we will not instruct you to change your custom.”

  8. For early modern Europe, see: Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, 192; Richard I.
    Cohen, Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe(Berkeley and London, 1998), 34–52; El-
    liot Horowitz, “‘A Different Mode of Civility’: Lancelot Addison on the Jews of Barbary,” in Chris-
    tianity and Judaism, ed. Diana Wood (Studies in Church History, 29), (Oxford, 1992), 322.
    34.This becomes clear through the comparison of a newborn to a groom. See, for example, p.
    189, as well as sources from the Cairo Geniza: Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3:230–31. I have
    not been able to establish where the circumcision ceremony took place in medieval Geniza society.

  9. Lynch, Godparenthood, 290–304.

  10. Bourdieu, “Rites of Institution.”

  11. Bell has noted that even if a ritual is performed with no alterations or changes, there is great
    importance to this continuity (Ritual Theory, 204–23). For an opposing view, see: Jack Goody,
    “Against Ritual: Loosely Structured Thoughts on a Loosely Defined Topic,” in Secular Ritual, eds.
    Sally F. Moore and Barbara G. Myerhoff (Assen, 1977), 34.

  12. For the compiling and editing of this book as well as for the genre of mah·zorim that existed
    in medieval France in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, see Grossman, Sages of France,
    395–403; Israel M. Ta-Shma, “Al Kama Inyanei Mah·zor Vitry,” ‘Alei Sefer11 (1984): 81–89;
    Simha Emanuel, “Leh·nyano shel Mah·zor Vitry,” ‘Alei Sefer12 (1986):129–30; Israel Ta-Shma,
    “Response to Simha Emanuel,” ‘Alei Sefer12 (1986):132. For manuscripts of the Mah·zor in which
    the laws of circumcision appear: MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. 59, (1100), fol. 224a–229b; JTS mic.
    8092, fol. 161a–164e dated to 1203; MS Parma 403, fol. 228a–229b; MS Moscow Günzburg 481,
    fol. 225a–229d; MS Paris héb. 1408, fol. 140a–141b. The printed version is based on MS London
    British museum 655 with the exception of the first few pages, which are based on the Oxford 1100
    manuscript. I have used this edition unless otherwise noted.

  13. In some manuscripts the blessing is “So may he enter miz·vot.” See, for example, MS Ox-
    ford Bodl., Opp. 59, fol. 229a and MS JTS mic. 8092, fol. 164b.
    40.Mah·zor Vitry, nos. 506–507. A slightly more detailed version is MS JTS mic. 8092. These
    details will be discussed later in this chapter, pp. 65, 70.


NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 209
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