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

138. For the Christian position, see Brundage, Law, Sex and Christian Society, 199, 242, 508.
     For the ancient Jewish discussion, see Tosefta, Niddah 2:6. The permission given to nursing
     women (as well as young girls and pregnant women) to use some form of contraception was not
     without objection. Others claimed that the issue was to be left to the mercy of the heavens and
     that no preventive measures should be taken.


139. Chapter 1, pp. 24–28.


140. R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar leRabbenu Tam, H·eleq haShe’elot vehaTeshuvot, ed.
     Shraga Fish Rosenthal (Berlin, 1898), no. 166.


141. Note that in this source the mother is doing the hiring!
     142.SHP, no. 1188.


142. BT Yevamot 12b and the comments made by the Tosaphot ad locum, s.v. “Shalosh nashim
     meshamshot bemokh.” For two different discussions of this topic, see Cohen, “Be Fertile and In-
     crease,” 142; Judith Hauptman, Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice(Boulder, 1998), 130–41.


143. I would suggest adding this example to the list of shared ideas pertaining to fertility dis-
     cussed in chapter 1.


144. The fact that contraception was women’s business poses a challenge to historians who wish
     to study its history, as few written sources remain. Nevertheless, a number of studies have focused
     on this topic: Angus McLaren, A History of Contraception(Oxford, 1990), 101–40; John T. Noo-
     nan, Contraception—A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists(Cam-
     bridge, Mass. and London, 1986), 170–257.


145. See the suggestion made by Soloveitchik, “Review Essay,” 233–34.


146. Examples of exactly such behavior are well known in the history of Niddah(menstrual pu-
     rity). For example, Cohen, “Purity, Piety and Polemic,” 82–100.


147. R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar, She’elot uTeshuvot, no. 166.


148. For example: R. Asher b. Yeh·iel, Shut haRosh, no. 53, 2, who determines that children
     should not be given in custody to those who are their potential heirs.


149. Recent scholars have estimated that divorce rates were high, especially after the Black
     Death. See Israel J. Yuval, “An Appeal against the Proliferation of Divorce in Fifteenth-Century
     Germany,” Zion48(1983): 177–216; and more recently: Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 398–


150. We do not know, however, how many women were widowed at a young age; nor do we have
     divorce statistics for the period before the Black Death.


151. In many questions, it is difficult to discern who is doing the asking, in part because of man-
     uscript considerations.


152. About R. Samson see: Gross, Gallia Judaica, 477–78; Urbach, The Tosaphists, 118–20;
     Reiner, Rabbenu Tam, 57–60. For his rulings, see: R. Solomon b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi,
     no. 217, n. 13; Teshuvot H·akhmei Provence, ed. Abraham Schreiber (Sofer) (Jerusalem, 1967),
     no. 54.


153. R. Solomon B. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, no. 217, n. 13; R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar, no.
     11 and parallels: Tosafot, Yevamot 42a, s.v. “stam”; Tosafot, Ketubbot 60b, s.v. “vehilkhata”;
     Mordekhai, Yevamot, no. 3.


154. R. Solomon, b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, no. 217; R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar, She’elot
     uTeshuvot, no. 748.


155. This was the accepted opinion, that of the house of Shammai.
     156.See Reiner, Rabbenu Tam,57–60, and R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar, She’elot uTeshu-
     vot, no. 11. R. Tam bases his ruling on a Gaonic precedent set by R. Ah·ai Gaon. This same ruling
     appears in Sefer haNiyar, ed. Gerson Appel (Jerusalem, 1994), 283.


156. Sotah 4:3.


157. BT Yevamot 42b.


158. R. Jacob b. Meir, Sefer haYashar, She’elot uTeshuvot, no. 11.


159. Supra, n. 158.


160. The appearance of women before rabbinical courts is a topic that requires further scrutiny.

230 NOTES TO CHAPTER 4