Learning about Judaism from Apostate Writings

Through the late Middle Ages, few Christians seemed interested in learning about the Jewish religion and Jewish religious practice from reading postbiblical texts or observing Jewish behavior. Where they read Jewish texts beyond the Hebrew Scriptures, such as the Talmud, it was usually in order to highlight apparently absurd theological assertions or insulting remarks about Jesus, or occasionally to find some useful passage that would confirm a Christian theological stance. The situation changed in the sixteenth century for two reasons: the significant number of Jewish apostates who drew on their prior knowledge of Jewish behavior to score polemical points, and the increasing number of Christian Hebraists who were able to master traditional Jewish texts for their own scholarly purposes. The two books under review reveal important aspects of these dynamics.

The volume by Yaakov Deutsch has a broad purview, surveying all texts written by Christians—whether Jewish converts to Christianity or those born into Christian families—meant to provide their Christian readers with knowledge about the religious and social behavior of Jews. Some of these books were very long: in the case Gottfried Selig’s Der Jude (1768–72), nine volumes totaling over three thousand pages. The author designates these works as belonging to the category of ‘‘polemical ethnography.’’ In order to avoid a detailed discussion of the accuracy of these accounts, Deutsch sets as his focus not what the contemporary reader can learn about the actual behavior of early modern Jews but rather what these texts tell us about the attitudes of the Christians who wrote and read them (pp. 31–32).

Deutsch identifies forty-three works, dating from 1508 to 1785, that fit his criteria. Rather than attempting to cover all the material about Jews in all these works, he focuses in depth on three major themes: Yom Kippur and the process of atonement, circumcision of male infants, and dietary laws.

For the discussion of Yom Kippur, Deutsch identifies sixteen themes and in a two-page table indicates which are addressed in each of the books he surveys (pp. 84–85). Some of the themes are to be expected: kaparot, asking for forgiveness, the ‘‘Al da’at ha-makom’’ proclamation, ‘‘Kol Nidre’’; others, such as ‘‘Flagellations’’ and’’ Blessing of the Moon’’ are perhaps more surprising. The most important theme for his purpose is that of kaparot (acts of atonement), which is discussed in all but two of the forty-three works examined. This includes not only the familiar waving of a rooster or hen over the head before slaughtering it as atonement for one’s sins—of which some striking engravings are provided (figures 2.3, 2.5, 2.6)—but also some less-known customs as well. Several of the Christian writers, beginning with the former rabbi Victor von Carben in 1508, report that Jews who could not afford to purchase a rooster or hen would stand outside waiting for a Christian to pass and then ‘‘secretly say, ‘May the Lord make you my atonement this year,’ ’’ or (according to the convert Anthonius Margaritha, with the agreement of the Christian in return for a small payment), they would say ‘‘kapara mita meshuna’’ (may you die an unusual death as my atonement) (pp. 96–97). Some of the authors insisted that they had personally witnessed this practice. Despite Deutsch’s focus on Christian attitudes, it would have been useful to be referred to Jewish sources confirming or refuting the reliability of such reports, as he provides in other cases (e.g., pp. 139, 141 on customs relating to the birth of a son).

In the discussion of circumcision, it is somewhat surprising that the practice of metsitsa, or the allegedly prophylactic sucking of blood by the mohel from the infant’s newly circumcised penis, does not seem to have engaged...