mation of the fetus and the development of the different parts of his body, the
determination of the gender of the fetus was attributed to his or her mother.
The extent of the mother’s enjoyment of the act of procreation determined the
gender of the child. This belief was shared by Jews and Christians alike.^108
Medieval Jewish texts provide many other details on pregnancy and birth.
Although it was commonly accepted that pregnancy lasted nine months, me-
dieval medical sources understood that the term of pregnancy was somewhere
between seven and nine months. Children born after an eight-month term
were doomed to death, but those born after a seven- or nine-month term were
healthy children. Some halakhic discussions, as well as exegetic texts, distin-
guish between these two possibilities. For example, most medieval biblical
commentators understood the births of the ten tribes as following short preg-
nancies, whereas Jacob and Esau underwent a full-term birth, as it is written,
“when her time to give birth was at hand” (Gen. 25:24).
These ideas on pregnancy had practical implications as well. For example,
H·asidei Ashkenaz were very concerned about women giving birth on the Sab-
bath. Although helping a woman in travail was permitted and overrode the
laws of the Sabbath,^109 H·asidei Ashkenaz preferred to avoid such an instance.
They determined that the duration of pregnancy as between 271 and 273 days.
Consequently, they believed they could calculate the day of the baby’s birth.
Thus, the readers of Sefer H·asidimwere instructed to refrain from sexual in-
tercourse on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, days that might lead to a Sab-
bath birth.^110
These many references to birth and its processes in halakhic writings testify
to men’s intimate knowledge of this world of women. Although men were ex-
cluded from the birth chamber, they were well aware of the many activities
within. We may even situate the physical location of the father during birth.
One commentator derives the names given to Judah’s sons from his involve-
ment in their respective births. Judah’s first son was called Er (literally, awake);
the commentator explains that Judah was awake all night and listened to his
wife’s screams during labor. The second son was called Onan (lament), for
Judah cried and lamented his wife’s pain during birth. His third son was called
Shelah, (literally, hers), since “the sorrow was hers alone, as he was at Kzivat
the time of her birth.” (Gen. 38:5) In the account of the birth of twins related
later in that chapter, commentators remark on the birth of twins in medieval
culture and the methods of examining and determining multiple births.^111
The male authors display familiarity with the female anatomy of birth as well.
For example, Rashi explains what the placenta is and says: “It is a kind of cloth-
ing that the baby lies in and is called ‘vashtidor’ in French.”^112 It is interesting
to note that, in many of these discussions, including most cases of Rashi, com-
mentators almost always provides a parallel vernacular term when discussing is-
sues related to childbirth.^113 Clearly, the women who provided accounts of
birth used these terms, whereas the Hebrew names were not well known.
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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