Z·ava’at Rabbenu Yehuda heH·asid, no. 35. In reality, this custom might have been accepted by
only a few.
- For a summary of these incest restrictions, see Brundage, Law, Sex and Christian Society,
355–57. - This topic has not been addressed in the medieval context and is worthy of further inves-
tigation. For antiquity: Michael Satlow, Jewish Marriage in Antiquity(Princeton, 2001), and re-
cently for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: David Warren Sabean, “Kinship and Pro-
hibited Marriages in Baroque Germany: Divergent Strategies among Jewish and Christian
Populations,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book47(2002): 91–103. - For both of Bossy’s articles on this topic, see supra, n. 4.
- As described by Bell, Ritual Theory, 171.
- Supra, n. 19 and n. 20, and most recently in his new book: Spiritual Kinship As Social
Practice: Godparenthood and Adoption in the Early Middle Ages; translated by Pamela Selwyn
(Newark and London, 2000), 29. - Supra, n. 111.
- Jacob Katz, “Marriage and Sexual Life,” 21–54; Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 98–106.
Much has been written about Christian marriage in the Middle Ages. See, for example: Gau-
demet, Le mariage en Occident; Brooke, The Medieval Idea of Marriage; Georges Duby, Medieval
Marriage: Two Models from Twelfth Century France; trans. Elborg Foster (Baltimore and London,
1978); Jean-Louis Flandrin, Familles: parenté, maison, sexualité dans l’ancienne société(Paris,
1976); Alan MacFarlane, Marriage and Love in England: Modes of Reproduction 300–1840(Ox-
ford, 1986). - For discussion of some of these changes in the medieval period as well as a comparison
with the Christian marriage ritual, see Abrahams, Jewish Life, 202–28; Cohen and Horowitz, “In
Search of the Sacred,” 225–50; Roni Weinstein, Jewish Marriage. - Bava Batra, 10:7–9; Sanhedrin, 3:5; Tosefta, Berakhot, ed. Saul Lieberman, 2:10; Pe’ah,
4:16; Shevi’it, 7:9; Shabbat, 17:4; BT Berakhot 61a; BT Eruvin, 18b; BT Succah 25b; BT Ketub-
bot, 6b, 77b; BT Gittin, 57a; BT Bava Batra, 144b–145a; BT Sanhedrin 27a. Only in BT Kid-
dushin 61a does shushvin appear in the female form, shushvintae. Stories about the shushvinim
(pl.) can be found in a variety of Midraishim. In many of these stories, he appears along with a
king and the king’s daughter or wife. In such cases, the shushvin usually defends the woman’s right
to whatever was the issue in question. See, for example, Exodus Rabbah, 31:10; 41:6; 42:8; 43:7;
44:4; 46:1; 47:2; Leviticus Rabbah, 20:10; Numbers Rabbah 1:5; 2:15; 2:25; 18:12; 21:2; Deuteron-
omy Rabbah 1:2; 3:16; Midrash Tanh·uma (Buber ed.), Ki Tisa 12:17, Ah·rei Mot 8; Bamidbar 5;
Korah·22; Tosefet leKorah·2; Pinh·as 2; Vaeth·anan 2; Midrash Tanh·uma (Vilna) Ki Tisa 24; Ekev
10, 1; Eikha Rabba 1:1. - For a review of some of the information concerning the shushvin, see Naftali Tur-Sinai,
“Shushvin”: in Sefer Assaf. Kovetz Ma’amarei Meh·kar, eds. M. D. Cassuto, Joseph Klausner, and
Joshua Guttman (Jerusalem, 1954), 316–22. - For example, R. Meir b. Barukh, Shut Maharam(Prague), no. 17; R. H·ayim b. Isaac, Shut
Maharakh Or Zaru’a, nos. 92, 125, 194; R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar leRabbenu Tam, She’elot
uTeshuvot, ed. Shraga Rosenthal (Berlin, 1895), no. 92. - Weinstein, Jewish Marriage, 242, describes the intense involvement of the shushvinim in
the ritual. He shows that they were in some ways like additional grooms—they spoke, recited spe-
cial prayers, and wore their talitot(ritual shawls) under the wedding canopy.
127.SHP, no. 587. - In his study of marriage rituals among the Jews of Italy in the Renaissance, Roni Weinstein
has argued that the institution of the shushvin was very similar to that of the co-parent (224–58).
While I agree that both are honor systems by which others are included in the ritual, I suggest that
Weinstein’s comparison reveals the strength of the co-parent-ba’al brit comparison suggested here.
Indeed, both the shushvinim and the ba’alei brit, like the co-parents, expressed and forged bonds