Christian midwives was less frequently repeated. While the prohibition against
employing Christian wet nurses is repeated more than fifteen times during the
period from the last third of the twelfth century until the mid–thirteenth cen-
tury, the employment of Christian midwives is mentioned in only three docu-
ments.^154 Even more significant is the fact that we find no prohibition against
the employment of Christian midwives in the documents of the Third Lateran
Council, whereas the employment of Christian wet nurses by Jews is forcefully
condemned.^155 The only time the employment of Christian midwives is men-
tioned in Jewish sources is in restating the legal decision that they may not at-
tend a woman alone. By contrast, Christian wet nurses are mentioned many
times.^156
The reason for this difference in attitudes toward the employment of Chris-
tian midwives, as opposed to Christian wet nurses, is not stated in the texts and
one can only surmise its rationale. One possibility is that the smaller number
of references to Christian midwives is a reflection of reality. Whereas every
child whose family hired a wet nurse needed his or her own wet nurse, the same
midwife could help a number of Jewish women give birth. Therefore, even if
the community had only one Jewish midwife, she could help perform many
deliveries, obviating the need to turn to a Christian woman for help.
A completely different argument for the relative paucity of references to Jews
employing Christian midwives in Christian and, especially, in Jewish sources
is related to the medical profession in general. It is clear from studies of the pe-
riod that Jews regularly employed Christian medical professionals. Two
Ashkenazic sources from the thirteenth century provide good examples of how
widespread this practice was. On the one hand, R. Elh·anan (d. 1184), the son
of R. Isaac the Elder (known as Rhi haZaken) states that a baby should not be
left in the home of a Christian doctor or healer for a lengthy period of time.
He says: “As for a baby [male or female] who needs a cure from a non-Jew, it
seems from [this ruling] that they should not be left in the home of the non-
Jew on their own without any Jew present for a month or two.”^157 Although R.
Elh·anan’s ruling aimed at limiting the time spent by a child in a Christian
home, the details of this ruling reveal much. Children may stay at a healer’s
home for more than a month if they have an adult Jew with them, and they
may also stay for a shorter time by themselves. This, in and of itself, is evidence
of regular contact between Jewish and Christian medical practitioners.
Rabbi Isaac b. Moses gives his permission for contact between Jews and
Christian medical professionals and states: “And it seems in my eyes, to me the
author, that all this [the restrictions concerning the use of Christian medical
professionals] is restricted to cases when the service is for free; but if it is paid
for, it is allowed.”^158
There are many examples of the employment of Christian doctors by Jews
in Ashkenaz. The Ashkenazic manuscript of Sefer Assaf mentions by name a
number of Christian doctors who live along the Rhine valley. A story in Sefer
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(Rick Simeone)
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