Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz. Elisheva Baumgarten
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had not decided in his heart [to fast] until the evening before,233 he was permitted to fast and recite the liturgy for fasts, fulfilling his vow as if he had articulated it on the previous day…. It is preferable to publicly declare [one’s] fast during afternoon prayers (minhah) on the preceding day. When Isaac (of Dampierre) fasted on a Sunday, he would proclaim his fast on the Sabbath during his recitation of the ’Elohai Netzor prayer.234
This explanation relies on the same verses in Numbers that spell out the limitations on women’s vows, stating that a vow must “cross the lips.” Our talmudic selection asks if one could be credited for a fast that had not been declared during the afternoon prayers immediately preceding the fast, as was customary. The text does not specify whether such vows were usually made silently or aloud. Jacob b. Meir (Rabbenu Tam) conceded that pledging to fast in advance was preferable, but he was willing to accept fasts that were not declared beforehand because, as Peretz remarked when discussing this same topic, “decisions made by the heart (and not announced) are also decisions.”235 The divergent attitudes toward frequent fasting by men and women can be explained at least in part by their differing levels of authority to swear vows. Men had the agency to pledge themselves to fasts, whereas single and married women were dependent on approval from their fathers or husbands, respectively.
In sum, the textual evidence resoundingly indicates that medieval Jews fasted often and that piety was commonly attributed to those who fasted with outstanding frequency. While the roots of this practice originate in the Bible and the legacy from late antiquity, the penitential structure that was articulated by Judah the Pious and his followers reinforced the role of fasting, repentance, and the reputation for piety that accompanied it in Germany and northern France.236 Given that outward displays of repentance were readily visible even if the sin that preceded them was not publicly declared, it is inconceivable that such behavior could go by without being noticed by family and community members.
Those who fasted also added liturgical formulae and supplications to their regular prayers, which might not have been conspicuous in synagogue services, but if they were also flagellated in public or prostrated themselves when leaving the synagogue so others could step over them, the fact that they were fasting would have been self-evident, causing community members to be unavoidably aware and involved as participants in these practices of repentance.237 Let us now situate these Jewish practices within the majority Christian environment.
Jewish and Christian Fasting: A Comparative View
How might these changes in fasting and repentance practices among the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz be understood vis-à-vis their surrounding Christian society? As noted above, most scholars, whether intentionally or not, have skirted this question by rejecting any such comparison or, more commonly, by avoiding it altogether. For example, in her history of Megillat Ta’anit Batra, Shulamit Elizur presents forty-odd fasts that gained popularity in medieval Ashkenaz.238 Elizur suggests in passing that this list of fast days that commemorates biblical figures and significant events is reminiscent of the medieval Christian calendar, studded with saint’s days.239 However, she does not engage in this comparison in the main body of her study. She instead focuses on the textual tradition of Megillat Ta’anit Batra from its origins in late antique Palestine to its transmission and popularity in medieval Ashkenaz.240 Alternatively, scholars have assumed, much like the statement evident in Nicholas Donin’s claim against the Jews in mid-thirteenth-century Paris, that Christians fasted and Jews did not.
Figure 7. A family eating together. © Bibliothèque nationale de France. Ms héb. Paris, 1333, fol. 20b. Haggadah, fifteenth century.
Another group of scholars that has addressed medieval fasting, including Yaacov Gartner, Daniel Sperber, Meir Rafeld, and Ephraim Kanarfogel, analyze halakhic discussions of fasting from medieval Ashkenaz.241 Their work is largely devoted to halakhic details and the prominence of frequent fasting among pious rabbinic leaders. Like Elizur, these authors attribute medieval Ashkenazic fasting practices to traditions from late antique Palestine. They each attend to internal Jewish routes of intellectual transmission without touching on the cultural milieu that enveloped medieval Jewish life. Grossman and Har-Shefi, along with Elizur, highlight rituals from late antique Palestine that resurfaced in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Ashkenaz.242 Similarly, many scholars of Hasidei Ashkenaz have turned to late antique Palestinian traditions to explain the centrality of fasting within Sefer Hasidim and Sefer Rokeah.243
Admittedly, there are significant distinctions between Jewish and Christian understandings of penance. It is possible to point to four readily apparent differences. First, Eucharistic theology with penance as a concomitant requirement for participation in Mass lacks any equivalent in Judaism. A second difference concerns to celibacy, which had a role in some forms of penitent behavior among Christians and was an inherent feature of mendicant and cloistered life; however, celibacy had almost no place in the medieval Judaism of northern Europe.244 Confession is the third contrasting element. In Christian culture, confession has a clear juridical parallel and, as some scholars have shown, ideas of penance are often equated or infused with concepts of legal judgment and medical processes,245 so much so that developments in penitential theology have been explained by innovations in legal thought.246 Such similarities are less prevalent in Jewish writings due to the status of Jews and Jewish communities in medieval Europe. A final distinction between the two societies relates to models of approbation and emulation within medieval life. Judaism lacked the categories of saints and celibates who were known for their penance and were so esteemed within medieval Christian culture.
Despite these significant distinctions, I would argue that a comparison is possible nevertheless. While the contrast between extreme forms of Christian asceticism and medieval Jewish fasting practices was great, as I have demonstrated, routine and even frequent fasting belongs to the broader category of repentant practice without being inextricably tied to Eucharistic piety that characterized ascetic fasting and was separate from Jewish culture. That aspect of Christian piety did not impede the development of Jewish fasting practices within medieval Christian society at large.247
As outlined in the introduction, I suggest approaching this as a bricolage rather than trying to determine whether fasting practices were “Jewish” or “Christian” per se. Fasting as a religious practice of self-denial has been in wide circulation throughout history. Jews and Christians shared the notion that those who practiced severe self-denial deserved admiration. Jews did not need to accept celibacy, Eucharistic piety, or penitential theology to share this perspective. Medieval Jewish texts define a number of exemplary men and even a few women as pious (hasidim), ascetic (perushim), or righteous (tzaddikim) on the basis of their fasting practices. For instance, Isaac of Dampierre was referred to as a hasid, as were other rabbis who fasted regularly.248 Women and men who fasted during the High Holiday period were called hasidim and tzaddikim as well.249
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