Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe by Elisheva Baumgarten - Essay Example

Critical Review of Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe by Elisheva Baumgarten Jewish family life in Medieval Europe was very different than it is today. In fact, it seemed as though there were no problems in these early years and the book states that Christians and Jewish people were able to get along and live side by side (p. 9). The author states that the book covers "Jewish family life in medieval France and Germany during the High Middle Ages from the ninth century to the early modern period" (5). The book was very thorough in its emphasis and Baumgarten took her time to gather the information needed to give a very comprehensive look at family life, from the perspective of women who lived it. One interesting aspect of the book was the fact that she gathered information from a very wide variety of sources and all of the texts were "written by and for men" (19). Baumgarten used the following sources for her research: "Halakhic response (questions asked of rabbis), exempla, information recorded in ritual books, comprehensive books of commandments, biblical and Talmic commentary, liturgical poetry, medical tractates, polemical compositions, lists of the dead and gravestones. He also used canon law, municipal records, medical texts, commentaries on the Bible (both the old and new testaments), legenda that gives information about the Jewish community and contacts between the Jews and Christians (p. 17). Her work also was heavily influenced by a book called the "Sefer Hasidim", which provided the information about parent and child relationships and attitudes towards children and family life" (19). The book is divided into five chapters and they are categorized by the issues that women dealt with: Birth, Circumcision and Baptism, Additional Birth Rituals, Maternal nursing and wet nursing: Feeding and caring of infants and Parents and Children: Conflicting values ("Contents"). These categories provided a way for the reader to compartmentalize the information so that it would not be so overwhelming. In the first chapter on birth, I found it appalling that women were left out of birth. They were supposed to have children (particularly male children) but the fathers were more important in the process as seen by several quotes from the firt quote opened chapter one and spoke about how it is a mans responsibility to pray for the child at every part of its birth. They leave out the womans part in the process (21). The second quote is attached to the "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it" (Gen. 1:28) (28). This suggests, according to the author, that men are in the position of conquering and it is not in a womans nature (28). These two statements were difficult because they totally leave the woman out of the birthing process, but without women, the men would not have had a child from the beginning. To understand that this is the High Middle Ages helped some but it was difficult in this day and age to examine. Fertility was also an interesting quest for these families. One of the most interesting ideas from the thirteenth century was the way in which fertility was determined. To see whether a man was fertile, his semen was put in a cup of water. If it took the shape of a man, then he was fertile; if not, he was sterile. For women, they took a pumpkin leaf and asked the women to urinate on it. If it dried up, the woman was sterile and if it did not, the woman was fertile (31). This was an interesting concept and it showed how much people really did not understand the relationship between men and women. However, as in any time period in history, the reader must take into consideration what people were going through and it cannot compare to what happens today. In chapter two, rituals around the birthing experience are discussed. Circumcision was done eight days after the male baby was born to "protect [it] from evil spirits" (55). Although the ritual was practiced by the Jews, the Christians changed the ritual to baptism (57). The author points out that although only boys were circumcised, both girls and boys were baptized. This information was the beginning of a blending of a sorts of the two religions. The author suggests that in medieval Christian Europe, "the two rituals identified and signified Jews and Christians …" (61). However, Jews saw baptism within their community as "betrayal" and "conversion" and it was especially important because Jews were under pressure to be converted to Christianity (61). In reading this passage, it occurred to this reader that in our way of thinking, this may have been a "backward" practice but it was something that devout people were very much involved in. The author gives a very in-depth understanding of circumcision from many different perspectives. Since most of the information that was found was written for and by men, it seems that this author did not really spend time on women as much as she did with men. This was a drawback for the book because the author said she was covering women, but she does not cover women in the way she suggests. To this reader, it seemed that the second half of the book was more solely dedicated to women than the first half. One point that she makes early in the book was that "Jews during this time did not acculturate from the outside but rather brought in new ideas to their Jewish culture that were influenced by Christians" (9). This is more prominently displayed within the book. As an example, the idea of baptism was one of the ways that the author showed an idea coming into Jewish life from the Christians. Although they did not like thisk it was an idea that directly influenced their culture. There were many situations that were surprisingly similar. As an example, the way im which mothers were treated after they had a baby were similar. The Christians called the ritual, "Churching" while the Jews called it the "Sabbath ritual" but they were both done to purify the mother after birth (109). In both rituals mothers were involved in part of the ritual. As an example, both Jewish and Christian women were watched once they had their child and they were brought food and escorted to church or to their synagogue (109). Both women were taken care of before, during and after their birthing within their own homes (110). These were rituals that were very similar and where women were responsible for taking part. Medieval times were very patriarchal and women were definitely second class citizens in every situation. Another example of how male oriented this time was shown in the hiring and use of a wet nurse. Although the women were going to use this service, the wet nurse was chosen by the husband in both the Christian and Jewish home. The contract was set up by them and women were just supposed to go along with whomever the husband chose (128). Women could choose a wet nurse if they had a child out of wedlock or if they were widowed; both situations that were looked down upon by Jewish life. It was always the father of the childs responsibility in both Christian and Jewish homes to hire he wet nurse (129). This simple act showed how women were not really looked at as anything but a vessel to bear children and do what the husband said. In some religions today, this is still the case and it was interesting to see this from a culture that lived so long ago. I think this book gave a strong understanding of Jewish life from a patriarchal viewpoint. I think that the book is important in Jewish history because it is a perspective that allows the reader to understand the challenges that women faced just because they were women. Another idea that was fascinating was the fact that the Jews employed Christian wet nurses in their homes. Jewish law said that this was the only time that it was permissible for a "gentile" to nurse a Jewish child (135). Many poor or single Jewish women were also employed as wet nurses in Christian homes. What was found by the author is that there was a larger need for wet nurses in the Jewish community than there were Jewish wet nurses, so they had to go outside of their religion to find what they needed (135). I found myself reading the book with a wary eye because although this was deeply entrenched in the customs of that time, it seemed to me that women have never had a very strong place in society. I did not see the womens fate changing much throughout the period that the book covers. I was appalled in some places because women just took what was handed out to them, but I also understand this was because of their way of life. Women and men had a job to do and it was sanctioned by Jewish law and by the Talmud and other religious writings. Women had no reason to question these things and they knew exactly what was expected of them and they did it. I did not see women changing their role in the society at all during that time. For the most part, I found the book very interesting but it was irritating in some spots because the author took too much time telling about the study. I was more interested in what she found out and I felt that stopping to tell how she conducted the study took away from the content of what she found. I also felt that she took too long getting into the research in the beginning of the book. As an example, she talks about the research and what she is going to do for 20 pages of introduction, and then she has to introduce each section with more information about the research. Although I realized that the book is more a research study than a general read, it was tedious to have to go through this information in each section. I also felt that the author spent too much time in some sections. As an example, she kept adding on information in the section on birth that to me went beyond the amount of information that I actually wanted to know about the subject. Although the book has good information and it brings about an understanding of Jewish life from the male point of view, I would be interested to read other literature that was written from the feminine point of view in the future. Read More