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

69. R. Moses of Couçy, Semag, negative commandment no. 81.


70. Natalie Zemon Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France(Madison, 2000), 51–53.


71. This is based on Esther 9:22.


72. At the beginning of this chapter, I pointed out the problems faced by scholars of Christianity
    in distinguishing between nannies and wet nurses; both these functions are designated by the Latin
    nutrix. The Hebrew, however, distinguishes between maids who took care of the infants and wet
    nurses, see chapter 5, p. 158.


73. R. Solomon b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, no. 131 and parallels: Mah·zor Vitry, no. 245; Sepher
    haPardes, attributed to Rashi, ed. Haym Judah Ehrenreich (Budapest, 1924), 255; R. Z·idkiyah b.
    Abraham, Shibbolei haLeket, 158, no. 202. (In this source, the practice is forbidden by R.
    Kalonimus haZaken. Kalonimus was a contemporary of Rashi’s, and Rashi might have studied with
    him); Siddur Rashi, 168; R. Abraham b. Nathan of Lunel, Sefer haManhig(Jerusalem, 1978),
    Massekhet Megillah, no. 26; MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. Add. 34 (641), fol. 135a, margins Laws of
    Purim. In all these sources, the custom of giving gifts to the Christian servants is referred to as im-
    proper and as something that should be prohibited.


74. R. Samson b. Z·adok, Sefer Tashbez·, no. 172 and in manuscripts: MS Parma 571, fol. 159a–
    b, no. 173; MS Paris héb. 327, fol. 86d, from 1386.


75. MS Montifiore 134, fol. 95a. For details of R. Menah·em b. Jacob, see Urbach, The Tosaph-
    ists, p. 406.


76. Since no personal information about the wet nurses who were employed by Jews has
    reached us, we can draw no firm conclusions as to who they were. While it is probable that a
    woman who worked for a Jewish family made more money than a wet nurse who worked in a
    foundling house, as working in a Jewish home was against church laws, it was certainly not a de-
    sirable job. Beller, in her thesis, Jews before the Modenese Inquisition: 1600–1645, describes two
    cases of wet nurses brought before the Inquisition in Modena, one who worked for a wealthy fam-
    ily and the other who worked for a poorer family. Her description of the two women, and espe-
    cially of the woman who worked for the poorer Jewish family, presents them as on the margins of
    Christian society.


77. For example: R. Menah·em Ibn Z·erah·, Z·edah laDerekh, part 1, rule 3, chap. 14: “The food
    the Blessed Name has prepared for the boy is milk, and anyone who wants to save him from ill-
    ness will ensure that his food will not be anything but milk, but this is natural food. One should
    always choose a wet nurse between the ages of twenty and thirty of good complexion, without blem-
    ishes and of even temper, not thin or fat. And she should beware of intercourse that stimulates
    menstrual blood, so that she will have sweet white milk without a foul smell, not too thin and not
    too thick, but rather of medium quality. She should be of good qualities and not angry or cross,
    since these traits harm the milk. And the food that encourages good milk is sweet and fatty: the
    meat of lambs and young goats and moist fish and almond paste and other such things. And when
    the mother herself can nurse her son, this is best, because this is the food he was nourished with
    in the womb when the menstrual blood turned into milk. She should not nurse him too much so
    that he not lose the milk in his stomach, nor should she nurse him too little, for then his body will
    heat up. Rather, moderately, according to his strength. And when he is first born, his mother should
    not nurse him until eight days have passed by and her milk has evened out.... The wet nurse must
    make the baby happy and she should sing to him to make him cheerful and put him to sleep; for
    sleep is very good for him, and he should sleep in a dark place. And while he is awake, he should
    become accustomed to seeing the sun and the stars and to hearing all kinds of tunes, because every
    organ that is trained is strengthened. And they should teach him to talk, because infants imitate
    those who talk to them. Compare Goodich, Birth to Old Age, 80. Other Jewish sources also en-
    courage maternal breast-feeding. For example: A Hebrew manuscript from fourteenth-century
    Italy details the care the mother and child should receive after birth. This manuscript provides de-
    tailed instructions for both maternal breast-feeding and employing a wet nurse. See Cambridge
    Ms. Dd. 68/10 fol. 22–24, “MiTikun Shemirat haValad”; supra n. 5.

NOTES TO CHAPTER 4 225