Abstract
The purpose of this study is to assess the significance of changes in the attitudes of halakhic authorities in Poland to medical diagnosis during the transition from the early modern to the modern period, as reflected in the case of “Attribution of a sighting of blood to a lesion”. In the eighteenth century the halakhic discussion migrated westward to the German states, where a variety of approaches developed, most of them tending to rely on medical diagnosis. The differences between the attitudes of authorities in different geographic spheres can be explained by the differing status of the physicians: whereas in the German states physicians enjoyed an important status in Jewish society, in early modern Poland the quality of medical training was poor and they did not enjoy the prestige of their German counterparts. In the first half of the nineteenth century, we find a discussion of this matter among the authorities in Posen, a region that passed into the hands of Prussia and experienced an accelerated modernization process. Their approach lending legitimacy to medical diagnosis can be explained on the background of the shift among the authorities in the German states in combination with the increasing connection between Posen and Prussia and the improvement in the professional level of the physicians. The findings can facilitate a clearer understanding of the central processes in the development of Jewish Law and medicine in Jewish society in Poland.
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Notes
- 1.
This variant is attested both in the Vienna manuscript as well as the first print edition.
- 2.
Rabbi Asher Ben Yechiel, known as the “Rosh”(1250–1327), cites an explanation that immersing the substance in water was a requirement of the physicians, because they were not convinced that the substance in face was produced by the lesion (Tosaphot Rosh on Tractate Niddah, Rabbenu Asher., 2006. “It was stated that this woman has a lesion in her bowels”).
- 3.
Ms. Vatican 113 has a Babylonian variant in the first case, where the woman saw “something like red shells”, similar to the variant in the Tosefta, and the requirement to immerse it in water does not appear there, whereas in the second instance, at the sighting of “something like red hairs”, the requirement to immerse in water arises (the understanding of the words “to put into the water” is unclear). The Babylonian variant which Rabbi Yosef Karo had before him was consistent with the variant in the Tosefta (Bet Yosef YD 191).
- 4.
The Maharam addressed his correspondent as “a holy and awesome personage on a par with the angels, the venerable and wondrous master of Torah and piety my teacher and rabbi Shlomo Rofe may his Rock preserve him in life (Responsa Maharam Lublin, 111).
- 5.
In Rabbi Epstein’s view, the requirement in the case of Rabbi Tzadok to immerse substance in water came from the physicians. As noted above (note 2) this explanation appears already in Tosaphot Rosh, but Rabbi Epstein was not familiar with that source. In the second part of the responsum Rabbi Epstein follows the Rama and holds that the woman can attribute the sighting to a lesion on the basis of the halakhic category of “sfek sfeka”.
- 6.
The Maharsha became involved in this issue while in Lvov, i.e. the question and the responsum were composed between 1614 and 1625.
- 7.
Not to be confused with Rabbi Joshua son of Rabbi Yosef, author of Responsa Pnei Yehoshua, rabbi of Karkov some years previously, until his passing in 1648. Among his outstanding disciples were Rabbi Shabtai Cohen, author of the Shach, Rabbi Gershon Ashkenizi, author of Responsa “Avodat HaGershuni”, and Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Kaidanover, author of “Emunat Shmuel”.
- 8.
Both of these responsa were written when Rabbi Yitzhak served as rabbi of Posen, 1667–1685.
- 9.
Rabbi Mordechai Kahana explains that the requirement to immerse it in water is a function of the laws of purity and impurity, whereas from the point of view of the laws of menstruation, it is agreed by all that the woman is not considered impure.
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Sariel, E. (2019). ‘When the Rabbi Meets the Doctor’: Differing Attitudes to Medical Diagnosis Among Halakhic Authorities in Eastern and Central Europe in the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Century. In: Moskalewicz, M., Caumanns, U., Dross, F. (eds) Jewish Medicine and Healthcare in Central Eastern Europe. Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92480-9_3
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