tuam purificatis tibi mentibus presentari.” This sentence is taken from the purification ritual. See
this prayer 1:143; 2:229.
- Rieder, Churching of Women, 93–97.
- Caspers, “Leviticus 12, Mary and Wax,” 295–309.
- Karant-Nunn, Reformation of Ritual, 76.
- For churching customs related to the chasing away of demons and evil spirits, see: Mari-
anne Beth, “Aussegnung,” HdA, 1: 645–47; Gustav Jungbauer, “Freitag,” HdA, 3: 56; Karl Beth,
“Kathartik,” HdA, 4: 1091; Hugo Hepding, “Knien,” HdA, 4: 1580; Bernhard Kummer, “Wöch-
nerin,” HdA, 9: 692–716.
83.Karant-Nunn, Reformation of Ritual, 78; Browe, Beiträge zur Sexualethik, 20–21. - For discussions of these developments in England and post–Reformation Germany, see
Wilson, “Ceremony of Childbirth,” 91–93.
85.It is possible that these differences are not all that significant, since we find similar distinc-
tions between Jews and Christians in other instances. Jews lacked priests and the husband and can-
tor seem to be filling in for them in this case. - Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth-
and Seventeenth-Century England(London, 1971), 42–43. - This view of the process was suggested by Wilson, “Ceremony of Childbirth,” 83–85, who
argues that one cannot separate the churching ritual from the entire process the woman under-
went after birth. - Ibid., 85–88.
- Davis, Society and Culture, 124–51.
- Wilson, “Ceremony of Childbirth,” 88–93.
- Ibid., 93–97.
- Gibson, “Sun and Moon,” esp. 142–44.
- Rieder, Churching of Women, 233–74.
- Chapter 2, p. 76.
- R. Joseph Juspa Hahn Neurlingen, Sefer Yosef Omez·, 343–44.
- Moses Henochs Altschul-Jeruschalmi, Brantspiegel, ed. Sigrid Riedel (Frankfurt a.M.,
1992), chap. 35. - R. Joseph Juspa Kashman, Noheg kaZ·on Yosef(Tel Aviv, 1969), 95, no. 4. It is interesting to
note that Kashman emphasizes the fact that until four weeks have passed, in other words, until the
parturient is ready to go to the synagogue, she should not perform ritual activities. He even sug-
gests that she should bathe (but not immerse!) before doing so. - See introduction, p. 9.
- William Chester Jordan, “Marian Devotion and the Talmud Trial of 1240,” in Religions-
gespräche im Mittelalter, eds. Bernard Lewis and Friedrich Niewöhner (Weisbaden, 1992), 61–
76; Denis L. Despres, “Immaculate Flesh and the Social Body: Mary and the Jews,” in Jewish His-
tory12(1998): 47–70. - Mary Minty, “ ‘Judengasse’ into Christian Quarter,” in Popular Religion in Germany and
Central Europe 1400–1800, eds. Bob Scribner and Trevor Johnson (Basingstoke, 1996), 58–86;
Hedwig Röckelein, “Marienverehrung und Judenfeindlichkeit in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit,”
in Maria in der Welt. Marienverehrung im Kontext der Sozialgeschichte 10.–18. Jahrhundert, eds.
Claudia Opitz, Hedwig Röckelein, Gisela Signori and Guy P. Marchal (Zürich, 1993), 279–307. - Supra, n. 66. Jews’ awareness of Mary was the result of theological debates and more mun-
dane contacts. For example, in some parts of Germany, Lichtmess was the date on which new ser-
vants were employed and old ones let go. In addition, Hedwig Röcklein has noted that in some
cases this was also a day on which Christians attacked their local Jewish communities. See Hed-
wig Röcklein, “Vom Umgang der Christen mit Synagogen und jüdischen Friedhöfen, Ashkenaz,
Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden 5(1995): 11–45, esp. 34–38 and note 134, chap-
ter 1, pp. 49–52.