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

41. See p. 67.


42. Exod. 13:48; Pesah·im, 5:3. I thank Gidon Rothstein with whom I discussed this issue.


43. R. Jacob b. Gershom, Zikhron Brit, 94–95. This source seems to allude to another name
    given the child before the circumcision ceremony. I will return to this point in chapter 3.


44. Rashi, Kiddushin, 74a, s.v. “Kol shiv’a.”


45. R. Jacob b. Moses Mulin, Sefer Maharil. Minhagim, ed. Shlomo J. Spitzer (Jerusalem,
    1989), Hilkhot Mila, no. 19.


46. Taglia, “Cultural Construction of Childhood,” 258–65.


47. The idea that uncircumcised babies need help reaching heaven appears in the Midrash,
    and this fact is recounted many times in medieval literature. Midrash Bereshit Rabbah19 [in He-
    brew]. The Midrash is dated to the fifth century in Palestine. This Midrash is repeated time and
    again in medieval Ashkenaz: for example, R. Jacob b. Gershom, Zikhron Brit, 91–92; R. Eleazar
    b. Judah, Perushei Siddur2:727. For a Christian comparison, see Caroline Bynum, Fragmentation
    and Redemption, 239–97.


48. When the father did perform the circumcision himself, a special blessing was recited. See
    Benjamin Shlomo Hamburger, Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz (Jerusalem, 1995), 357–82.


49. For example, see Goitin,Mediterranean Society, 3:230–31.
    50.Mah·zor Vitry, no. 506.


50. For example, see MS Darmstadt Cod. Or. 25, fol. 76d: “And as for someone who has a son
    to circumcise, do not take a circumciser because of the love of the person; [choose] rather an ex-
    pert.” In this text, the same stipulation applies to midwives. This too seems to indicate a profes-
    sional connection between midwives and circumcisers.


51. For example: R. Moses Parnas, Sefer he Parnas(Vilna, 1897), no. 138.


52. BT Shabbat 134a.


53. 1 Macc. 1:60, 2 Macc. 6:10.


54. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of
    Biblical Gender(Stanford, 2000), 128–59.


55. BT Avodah Zara 27a.


56. Yaacov S. Spiegel, “Woman As Ritual Circumciser—the Halakhah and Its Development,”
    Sidra5(1989): 150–54 [in Hebrew].


57. See, for example: R. Jacob b. Gershom, Zikhron Brit, 52–53, who says a woman can cir-
    cumcise if no man can do the job as well.


58. Compare my analysis to that of Grossman: Pious and Rebellious, 332. While Grossman also
    summarizes Spiegel’s article, he does not cite Spiegel’s entire argument. He merely states that until
    the thirteenth century, many Ashkenazic rabbis allowed women to circumcise and that this opin-
    ion was restricted somewhat during the course of the thirteenth century. He terminates his dis-
    cussion without stating that subsequently women were forbidden to circumcise. He also states that
    the permission for women to circumcise is an indication of their high status. This line of argument
    seems unproductive. Since, prior to the Middle Ages, women were allowed to circumcise, the
    main focus should be on the limitation of women’s roles.


59. See p. 62.
    61.Mah·zor Vitry, no. 507. This meal will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 3.


60. MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. Add. 34 (641), fol. 93b: “On the day before the circumcision cere-
    mony, the father and the ba’al britbathe in order to beautify the commandment (hidur hamiz·va),
    and the community also bathes with them out of respect for circumcision.” R. Jacob the circum-
    ciser reports the same practice (Zikhron Brit, 63–64). A fourteenth-century manuscript of Sefer
    haTashbez·reports on immersion in the mikve (MS Paris héb. 643, fol. 34a).


61. For example: Sefer Maharil, Hilkhot Mila, no. 14; ibid., no. 1. Compare: Zikhron Brit, 64–
    66; Sefer Or Zaru’a, 2: no. 107; R. Eleazar b. Judah, Sefer haRokeah·, no. 113.
    64.Sefer Tashbez·, no. 398 and parallels: R. Meir b. Barukh of Rothenburg, Teshuvot Psakim
    uMinhagim, 2: Psakim uMinhagim no. 204; Mordekhai, Shabbat, nos. 472, 473; R. Asher b.

210 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2