thers for the lives of children, the source emphasizes the father’s responsibility and sorrow, a point
I will discuss later.
65.SHPdeviates here from the original meaning of the verse. The verse discusses the House
of Jacob, who was told by the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, that it will be shamed no more. The
commentator here has Jacob redeeming Abraham.
66.SHP, nos. 1526, 1916. For other examples: Moshav Zekenim, Gen. 29:31, s.v. “Ki senu’a
Leah.”
67.SHB, no. 364.
68.SHP, no. 103. See also SHP, no. 102.
- The Hebrew reads bah·ur gadol.
70.SHP, no. 327.
71.SHP, no. 345. - Quoted in Shah·ar, Childhood, 152–52.
- Supra, n. 70.
- This distinction is discussed in medieval sources in Sefer Or Zaru’a, 2: no. 422; R. Solomon
b. Isaac, Responsa Rashi, no. 188.
75.Massekhet S’mah·ot, 3:2–3; BT Mo’ed Katan, 24b. - For example, they discuss whether or not a child should be eulogized, and distinguish be-
tween children younger and older than age three or five or seven (depending on the opinion).
These sources are repeated in the medieval literature with few additions or comments. For exam-
ple: R. Eliezer b. Nathan, Even haEzer. Sefer Ra’avan, Mo’ed Katan 184c–d; R. Moses of Zurich,
Semak of Zurich, no. 402, Mordekhai, Mo’ed Katan, no. 912. We do not know if there were dis-
tinctions made in markings on childrens’ graves, depending on the age of the child, as none of the
medieval tombstones note the age of the child at death. The same is true of Christian gravestones.
See Janet Nelson, “Parents, Children and the Church,” 91–92.
77.Sefer haGematriyot leRabbi Judah heH·asid, fol. 22b. - This distinction between younger and older children can be found in the medieval Chris-
tian sources as well. See Schultz, Knowledge of Childhood, 52–62; Gottlieb, Family in the West-
ern World, 155–58. - Introduction, p. 2.
- Goldin, “Die Beziehung der jüdischen Familie,” 211–56; Kanarfogel, “Attitudes Toward
Childhood,” 1–35. For a more moderate approach, see Ta-Shma, “Children in Medieval Ger-
manic Jewry,” 263–80.
81.SHP, no. 173. - The wife’s rights varied from place to place. Scholars have pointed especially to differences
between northern and southern Europe: Shah·ar, Women in the Middle Ages, 90–93; Leyser, Me-
dieval Women, 168–86; James Brundage, “The Merry Widow’s Serious Sister: Remarriage in Clas-
sical Canon Law,” in Matrons and Marginal Women in Medieval Society, eds. Robert R. Edwards
and Vickie Ziegler (Suffolk, 1995), 33; idem, “Widows As Disadvantaged Persons in Medieval
Canon Law,” in Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval
Europe, ed. Louise Mirrer (Ann Arbor, 1992), 194–205. - Klapisch-Zuber, “The Cruel Mother,” 117–31, esp. 119–24; Brundage, “Widows As Dis-
advantaged Persons,” 197–201; Elaine Clark, “Mothers at Risk of Poverty in the Medieval English
Countryside,” in Poor Women and Children in the European Past, eds. John Henderson and
Richard Wall (London and New York, 1994), 140–42; Brundage, “Merry Widow’s Serious Sister,”
33–34, 45–48. - Leyser, Medieval Women, 168–69.
- Several articles on this topic have been published by Cheryl Tallan, but a broader study is
still a desideratum. Cheryl Tallan, “The Economic Productivity of Medieval Jewish Widows,”
WCJS11 B1 (Jerusalem, 1994): 151–58; “Opportunities for Medieval Northern European Jew-
ish Widows in the Public and Domestic Spheres,” Upon My Husband’s Death, ed. Louise Mirrer