On the Margins of a Minority: Leprosy, Madness, and Disability among the Jews of Medieval Europe

4. Social Attitudes toward the Insane

105 C h a p t e r 4 Social Attitudes toward the Insane Having established what the mind and thoughts of medieval European Jews considered a manifestation of madness or insanity, let us now examine how the men and woman deemed mad were actually treated in the medieval Jewish European communities. Did their behavior instigate rejection, fear, compassion or a mixture of all three? Were the men and women deemed mad incarcerated, or were they cared for in the privacy of the home? Were they treated harshly or with empathy? What rights did they have, if any? Were they cast out, set to roam the streets and fend for themselves, or were they wrapped with the warmth of familial compassion? If they were taken care of in the family setting, what were the financial, emotional, and social costs of this endeavor? Was the rule similar for both genders, or was there a distinction? Could insane individuals participate in synagogue rituals? Were they at all allowed in, or were they not granted entry? If mad people were indeed barred from participation and entry, on what grounds was their access to the most identifiably “Jewish” space denied? These questions are at the heart of understanding the mechanics of the social attitudes toward those individuals deemed mad in medieval Jewish society. The sources discussed in the previous chapter may help us understand who was thought to be mad, but in order uncover the actual treatment of mad people in medieval European Jewish society we need to broaden our parameters and look at sources from the responsa literature. The responsa examined below address the issue of madness both directly and indirectly, and thus can illuminate social attitudes toward the insane and flesh out many of the internal issues related to the treatment of insane 106 CHAPTER 4 individuals in medieval Jewish society. As we shall see, in some cases a text’s silence or unstated assumptions about an issue can also be instructive. In an attempt to simplify the analysis I have chosen to divide the discussion of the evidence into two distinct realms using the anthropological categories relating to the human theaters of experience: the private personal and interpersonal realm, and the public arena. I have included the sacred space of the synagogue in the second category. Being a minority society in medieval Europe, Jews lacked any form of control over the public sphere. Other than attempting to regulate and possibly prevent mad Jews—both male but more often female—from roaming the streets, there was very little Jews could do about the public sphere. Thus, the discussion about the sacred space of the synagogue represents in many ways a discussion of the medieval Jewish public arena. Madness in Interpersonal Space “The Heavens are between him and her” The family unit seems to have been the primary caregiver for mentally disturbed individuals in the Middle Ages, just as family members nursed and treated most physical ailments. As we have seen, hospitals and other such institutions made their appearance only toward the end of this period. Members of the nuclear family then, as today, did not find it easy to provide such care. Living under one roof with an insane spouse, parent, or child was necessarily demanding and exhausting.1 It is hardly surprising, then, that Maimonides addressed the Sages’ concern for the insane wife divorced by her husband. While according to the letter of Talmudic law a mad wife is considered competent to be divorced, the Sages promulgated certain protections for her. Maimonides’s concern that a madwoman would have trouble finding an appropriate and protective social framework led him to rule: He may therefore set her aside and marry another but [must] provide her with food and drink from her own funds. We do not [however] require him to provide her with clothing and to have sexual relations with her, because a sane person does not have the strength to share a home with the insane. [Furthermore,] he is not obligated to bear the costs of her medical treatment or to ransom her [if she falls captive], and if he divorces her she is divorced and he may send her out of his house and is not required to care for her again.2 107 Social Attitudes toward the Insane Maimonides’s explanation for his ruling regarding a mad wife is that “she will be left open to licentious...