Yeh·iel, Shut haRosh, no. 12, n. 3. The accepted halakhic ruling that the honor should be given
to the first person it was promised to is attributed to Rabbenu Tam: MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. Add.
34 (641), fol. 95b. “It happened in the days of Rabbenu Tam that a man had a son.”
65.Sefer Tashbez·, no. 398 and parallels: R. Z·idkiya b. Abraham, Sefer Shibolei haLeket haSha-
lem, ed. Shlomo Buber (Vilna, 1887), 196; Mordekhai, H·ullin, no. 655.
- R. Moses of Zurich, Sefer haSamak miZurich, ed. Isaac Har Shoshanim (Bnei Brak, 1973),
2: commandment 154, no. 77. - For later sources that use the term sandek, see Joseph b. Moses, Sefer Leket Yosher, 2:52.
68.Midrash Tehillim haMekhune Shoh·er Tov, ed. Shlomo Buber (Vilna, 1891), chapter 35. The
manuscript in which this passage appears, MS Cambridge Or. 786, dated 1282, is called manuscript
6 (Vav) by Buber. On fol. 91c, it states “With my thighs I become a sandikanosfor children who are
circumcised on my knees.” Note the difference between this and the printed version (thighs vs. knees). - For the dating of the Midrash, see: Leopold Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden
historisch entwickelt: ein Beitrag zur Alterthumskunde und biblischen Kritik, zur Literatur- und Re-
ligionsgeschichte(Frankfurt, 1892), 278–80.
70.Midrash Tehillim, 248, n. 8. - R. Nathan b. Yeh·iel, Arukh haShalem, 6:83–84, “sandikus.”
- I follow the suggestion of Leopold Zunz, Der Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes, ge-
schichtlich entwickelt(Berlin, 1919^2 ), 4 n.a. For a contrasting view, see Israel M. Ta-Shma, “The
Earliest Literary Sources for the Bar Mitzva Ritual and Festivity,” Tarbiz·, 68 (1999), 595–96 [in
Hebrew]. Ta-Shma suggests that the role of sandekis an ancient one. See also Moshe Goshen-
Gottstein, “Likrat H·eker haShekiin shel Masorot haTirgumim haArami’im,” in Studies in Rab-
binic Literature, Bible and Jewish History, Ezra Zion Melammed Festschrift, eds. Isaac D. Gilat,
Hayim Y. Levine and Tzvi M. Rabinowitz (Ramat Gan, 1982), 43–47. - Löw, Lebensalter, 83–84.
- R. Yeh·iel b. Yekutiel haRofeh, Sefer Tanya Rabbati(Vilna, 1899), no. 96.
75.Oz·ar HaGaonim: (Thesaurus of the Gaonic Responsa and Commentaries) Shabbat, ed. Ben-
jamin M. Lewin (Jerusalem, 1930), 139, no. 425.
76.Sefer Or Zaru’a, 2: no. 107. A similar quotation, explaining the chair prepared for Elijah,
can be found in the Italian Sefer haTanya, there without mention of the ba’al brit, stating simply
that the chair is for Elijah (Sefer haTanya, no. 96). This comment is similar to the wording of R.
Isaac’s quotation of R. Sherira, but omits mentioning the ba’al brit. - Elijah is, according to tradition, the angel of circumcision. See Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, ed.
Hayim M. Horowitz (Jerusalem, 1973), end of chapter 29. - JTS mic. 8092, fol. 164b.
79.SHP, no. 1287, and parallel: SHB, no. 407. There are differences between these versions as
well as between the version as it appears in the Parma manuscript (Sefer H·asidim according to MS
Parma H3280, introduction by Ivan G. Marcus (Jerusalem, 1985), no. 1287), and the printed ver-
sion SHP, no. 1287. I have reconstructed the passage using all three sources. - Efraim Kupfer, Teshuvot uPsakim(Jerusalem, 1973), no. 71.
- Published and referred to as Zikhron Brit; see chapter 1, n. 21.
82.Zikhron Brit, 64. - The wording is “as God had spoken to him” (dibber) and not commanded (z·ivah), as the
text reports. - I have translated mekho’aras ugly, because of the explicit sexual connotations the word has.
85.Sefer Tashbez·, no. 397. - Kupfer explains that many of the responsa in this manuscript are from the twelfth and thir-
teenth century. In any case, the manuscript was copied by 1315–16. - The Verduner altar in Klosterneuburg, Austria, was designed by Nicholas of Verdun in 1184.
Three circumcision scenes are depicted on it: that of Isaac, Samson, and Jesus. In all three scenes
a woman is holding the infant.