Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Elisheva Baumgarten

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2022

Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Elisheva Baumgarten

In the series Jewish Culture and Contexts

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812297522

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Elisheva Baumgarten examines how medieval Jewish engagement with the Bible—especially in the tellings, retellings, and illustrations of stories of women—offers a window onto aspects of the daily lives and cultural mentalités of Ashkenazic Jews in the High Middle Ages.

In Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Elisheva Baumgarten seeks a point of entry into the everyday existence of people who did not belong to the learned elite, and who therefore left no written records of their lives. She does so by turning to the Bible as it was read, reinterpreted, and seen by the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz. In the tellings, retellings, and illustrations of biblical stories, and especially of those centered around women, Baumgarten writes, we can find explanations and validations for the practices that structured birth, marriage, and death; women's inclusion in the liturgy and synagogue; and the roles of women as community leaders, givers of charity, and keepers of the household.

Each of the book's chapters concentrates on a single figure or a cluster of biblical women—Eve, the Matriarchs, Deborah, Yael, Abigail, and Jephthah's daughter—to explore aspects of the domestic and communal lives of Northern French and German Jews living among Christians in urban settings. Throughout the book more than forty vivid medieval illuminations, most reproduced in color, help convey to modern readers what medieval people could have known visually about these biblical stories. "I do not claim that the genres I analyze here—literature, art, exegesis—mirror social practice," Baumgarten writes. "Rather, my goal is to examine how medieval Jewish engagement with the Bible offers a window onto aspects of the daily lives and cultural mentalités of Ashkenazic Jews in the High Middle Ages."

In a final chapter, Baumgarten turns to the historical figure of Dulcia, a late twelfth-century woman, to ponder how our understanding of those people about whom we know relatively more can be enriched by considering the lives of those who have remained anonymous. The biblical stories through which Baumgarten reads contributed to shaping a world that is largely lost to us, and can help us, in turn, to gain access to lives of people of the past who left no written accounts of their beliefs and practices.

Author / Editor information

Elisheva Baumgarten holds the Professor Yitzchak Becker Chair for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is author of Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance and editor, with Ruth Mazo Karras and Katelyn Messer, of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, both published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Cultural Paradigms: Blessed Like Eve Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2 Personal and Communal Liturgy: Prayers to the Matriarchs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
3 At Her Husband’s Behest: Deborah and Yael Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4 Women as Fiscal Agents: Charitable like Abigail Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
5 A Woman of Every Season: Jephthah’s Daughter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
6 From Medieval Life to the Bible . . . and Back Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Illustrations
- Other: 45 illus (color throughout)
Keywords: Religion; History; Jewish Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Religious Studies; Bible; women; medieval Ashkenaz; gender and Judaism; daily life; Medieval Jewish womens history; biblical narrative; non elite religious ritual practice; liturgy; charity; piety; Eve; Deborah; Abigail; Jephthah’s daughter; matriarch; Torah; Jewish law

eBook

Published: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 9780812297522