Florence: The Smothering Hypothesis Reconsidered,” in Medieval Family Roles: A Book of Es-
says, ed. Cathy Jorgensen Itnyre (New York and London, 1996), 137–53.
- One should note that while we are familiar with penances in Christianity from the Early
Middle Ages, there are few penances in Jewish culture in ancient times. Penances were popular
among H·asidei Ashkenaz, and some scholars have suggested that the adoption of penitential prac-
tices by Jews was due to their immersion in Christian culture. See Yitzhak Baer, “The Religious-
Social Tendency of ‘Sepher H·assidim,’” 1–50; Fishman, “The Penitential System of H·asidei
Ashkenaz,” 201–30. These penitential practices were quickly and widely accepted. - MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. Add. 34, fol. 57b in the margins. My thanks to Professor Ivan Mar-
cus who referred me to this manuscript. - MS Darmstadt, Cod. Or. 25, fol. 116d and with minor variations: MS Parma 86, fol. 29b,
no. 104. The same penance is also attributed to R. H·ayim Paltiel, MS Oxford Bodl., Mich. 84, fol.
27b: “My dear Samuel. I am deeply saddened by the incident, and you should know that the
Ge’onim ruled that a woman who finds a child dead next to her [in bed], this is an accident that
borders on a deliberate deed. Nevertheless, I cannot be stringent with the woman with regard to
fasting. For some women miscarry as a result of excessive fasting. And her penance will be within
a 365–day period, Mondays and Thursdays, or forty consecutive days, or three consecutive days
and nights. But this is impossible for a pregnant woman. And it is good if she calculate how many
Mondays and Thursdays are in a 365–day year, excluding H·anuka and the month of Nisan and
H·ol haMo’ed when one may not fast. And she should fast one day a week until she completes [her
fasting period], and give as much charity as she can, and shalom to all, H·ayim Paltiel.” In the same
manuscript on fol. 28 in the margins, we find: “And my teacher told me what his teacher R. Judah
Katz said about women who find small children dead in their beds; he said that one should be
strict with them, and that [the deaths of the children] are considered deliberate deeds and not ac-
cidental transgressions. And so I found in the responsa of Maharam.” I thank Dr. Simh·a Emanuel
who generously shared his vast knowledge of these manuscripts with me. - For example, R. Jacob Mulin, Shut Maharil, no. 45; Eisik Tirna, Sefer haMinhagim, ed.
Shlomo J. Spitzer (Jerusalem, 1979), 89, n. 97. - The response, as it appears in the early modern literature, combines the different medieval
responses. See Urbach, “Mavet biShegaga,” 322, who quotes the later responsa but states that he
could not find the medieval ones. For the early modern response, see Jacob Elbaum, Repentance
and Self-Flagellation in the Writings of the Sages of Germany and Poland 1348–1648(Jerusalem,
1992), 48–49, n. 6, 230. The distinction between cradle and not-cradle cultures and the corre-
sponding responsibility of parents for these deaths is found in Mishna Makkot, 2:1; Tosefta Makkot
2:4; PT Makkot chap. 2, no. 4. The Babylonian Talmud does not discuss the issue. For a discus-
sion of these sources, see Urbach, “Mavet biShegaga,” 319–20. - This attitude is demonstrated clearly in the sixteenth-century response. Urbach, “Mavet
biShegaga,” 321–22, quotes from R. Benjamin b. Abraham Selnik’s responsa: “About the woman
who laid her child down in the cradle and knows nothing more. [She knows not] how her child
got [to her bed] from the cradle; she has no memory of when she laid the child lying dead in her
arms. No one knows who hit him and when, and the servant says that she gave the infant to his
mother and that she put the breast in his mouth, and that the mother took the child from her. And,
furthermore, the servant says that when she gave the child to his mother she got angry at the ser-
vant and cursed her. But the mother says she is unaware of all of this.” Benjamin Aaron b. Abra-
ham Selnik, Mas’at Binyamin(Krakow, 1633), no. 26. - McNeill and Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance, 254, 275, 293, 302.
- Alexandre-Bidon et Closson, L’enfant à l’ombre des cathedrales, 25.
- Peter Abelard, Ethica, ed. and trans. David E. Luscombe (Oxford, 1971), 17, nos. 79–80.
- Boswell suggested that oblation was also a form of abandonment: Kindness of Strangers,
225–28. On mothers who abandoned their children and joined monastic orders, see: Atkinson,
Oldest Vocation, 167–91; Newman, From Virile Woman, 78–96.