Jewish Midwives, Wise Women, and the Construction of Medical-Halakhic Expertise in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract:This article analyzes rabbinic responsa and court cases from eighteenth-century western Europe to illustrate the central role of Jewish midwives and wise women in halakhic venues where medical information proved decisive. It demonstrates that midwives frequently shared their knowledge with rabbinic figures and contributed specialized medical knowledge to rabbinic questions of Jewish ritual practice, especially in cases concerning female bodies and sexuality. This article thus sheds light on an unrecognized dimension in Jewish legal culture in the early modern era—a consistent phenomenon in which midwives were recognized by rabbinic decision-makers as an important source of knowledge about the female body, and therefore as vital components of the halakhic decision-making process. It argues that the heightened involvement of Jewish medical women in the production of Jewish legal knowledge was due in large part to the value placed upon empirical practitioners beginning in the early modern period. As a shift in epistemic values privileged experience and observation above theoretical prowess, women began to develop more epistemological credibility in medicine. Rabbinic cases that concerned questions of medical knowledge thereby provided an opening for women's expertise and practical experience to become more valuable.