offspring, since a woman without children is like a dead person.^10 While
sources provide some expressions of the sorrow of men without offspring, as
when it is said that a man without children is like a dead person,^11 it is more
common and more categorical in discussions on women. In the Biblical ex-
amples above and frequently used in medieval literature, while the husbands
of the barren women are surely not pleased with their situations, their wives
are distraught.
The idea that the fertile wife is the happy and good wife appears not only in
theoretical discussions of happiness or barrenness but also in practical advice
on how to choose a wife. Sefer H·asidimcontains a few directives on the topic.
Aside from the religious attributes one should seek in searching for a spouse,
the author says that it is important to make sure that the chosen woman will
be able to give birth. He suggests: “And one should check the woman because
most daughters take after their mothers. If their mother miscarries so will her
daughter. Therefore one should pray that God grant him a woman of middot
[good qualities].”^12 Note that here, the good quality mentioned is not a spiri-
tual attribute, but rather the woman’s physical ability to bear children. Once
again, this demonstrates that, at least when dealing with women, the distinc-
tions between what we today would consider biological or physical, as opposed
to cultural attributes, were blurred.
This idea is repeated in an additional comment in Sefer H·asidim. There, the
author explains that men should love and show affection to their wives because
of their wives’ ability to bear children, even in cases in which much love does
not exist between the couple.^13 He bases his explanation on Jacob’s relation-
ship with Leah and explains that Leah justifiably expected Jacob to love her
after she gave birth to his children (Gen. 29:32), and as a result, all men, even
those who do not love their wives ahava shebalev(with their hearts), should
show affection to their wives because of the children they bear. In short, ac-
cording to the men whose writings have reached us, women were expected to
have children, and this was their purpose and goal. As will be seen throughout
this book, women’s cultural role included not only giving birth, but all the tasks
linked to having and caring for young children.
Jews and Christians: Attitudes toward ReproductionThese cultural understandings of male and female reproductive “nature” be-
come more complex when different religious beliefs emphasize different as-
pects of them. Such is the case with Jewish and Christian attitudes toward re-
production. The disparity between Jewish and Christian attitudes is well
known and has been the root of many debates over the centuries. While Jews
saw the commandment to procreate—“pru urvu” (be fertile and increase)
(Gen. 1:28)—as an important foundation of Jewish belief, Christians did not.
Many scholars have referred to this distinction as limiting the possibilities for