seems that as it is the father who is commanded to circumcise him, he must ful-
fill his mother’s bidding.^80This source does not provide details on the role of the woman acting as the
ba’al brit, but it does speak of the honor connected to the task as well as what
might have been a common practice, the bestowal of the honor upon one of
the baby’s grandmothers. No mention is made in the source of the baby’s
mother, her role in the ritual or her opinion in this argument. In addition, no
men are mentioned in connection with either of the grandmothers.
R. Jacob the Circumciser’s book Klalei haMilah,^81 as well as a number of
other later fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sources, also mention the ba’alat
brit. In these writings, however, she is the wife of the ba’al brit. Her role con-
sists of bringing the baby to the synagogue:
And the wife of the ba’al brit carries him with splendor to the synagogue. As soon
as the congregation has finished their prayers, her husband comes out of the syn-
agogue to meet her. He receives the infant from her and brings him into the syn-
agogue to be circumcised, and the congregation stands for him [when he enters]
and says, “Blessed is he who comes.”^82R. Jacob’s description differs from that which we saw in Mah·zor Vitry. Here,
the ba’alat brit brings the infant only as far as the synagogue door, whence the
ba’al brit takes him in his arms.
Three names for the woman participating in the circumcision ceremony
emerge from these sources: ba’alat brit; the wife of the ba’al brit (a term that
defines her relationship to the other participants in the ritual), and ba’al brit
(in the discussion of the two grandmothers who wanted to serve at their grand-
son’s circumcision ceremony). Although these three terms are almost identi-
cal, they are not exactly the same. One explanation for the variety of names
might be the fragmentary nature of our sources. One source (Mah·zor Vitry)
only mentions the presence of the ba’alat brit, but does not explain her role.
Another source discusses her washing of the infant; a third source talks about
bringing the infant to the synagogue, while a fourth only tells of the argument
between the grandmothers.
In my opinion, the paucity of information and the variety of details in each
source stem from the evolution of the role of the ba’alat brit. Before I trace the
development of this role, I must consider one group of sources that can be dated
with precision and that describe the diminution of her role. As these sources
describe both her actual role and the intended changes, they are of great im-
portance. A central source appears in the book Sefer Tashbez·, written by R. Sam-
son b. Z·adok, a student of R. Meir b. Barukh of Rothenburg (d. 1293), who re-
ports his teacher’s opinion:
The custom that is practiced in most places does not seem to me permissible: A
woman sits in the synagogue with the men and they circumcise the baby in her