1. Scott's lecture was published as “Women in History II: The Modern Period, ” Past and Present 101 (1983): 141–157. Other important articles on the doing of women's history include: Kelly-Gadol, Joan, “The Social Relations of the Sexes: Methodological Implications of Women's History, ” Signs 1 (1975–76): 809–824;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLerner, Gerda, “Placing Women in History, ” in her The Majority Finds Its Past (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 145–159,Google Scholar and “The Challenge of Women's History, ” Ibid pp. 169–180.

2. Ozick, Cynthia, in her article “Notes toward Finding the Right Question” (in On Being a Jewish Feminist, ed. Heschel, Susannah [New York:Schocken, 1983], pp. 120–151),Google Scholar does her readers a disservice by creating the impression that virtually all tkhines were forged by indigent male yeshiva students (pp. 132–133). This practice did not begin before the mid-nineteenth century, and thus there is no a priori reason to doubt attributions of tkhines (or other Yiddish literature) to female authors whose works were published before that period. This includes authors such as Rebecca Tiktiner, mentioned by Ozick, who can be documented to have existed. It is unfortunate that the misinformation Ozick conveys has gained such wide currency. See also note 3 below. For further discussion of the tkhine literature, seeWeissler, Chava, “The Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Women,” in A History of Jewish Spirituality, ed. Green, Arthur (New York:Crossroad, forthcoming), vol. 2.Google Scholar

3. SeeNiger, Shmuel, “Di yidishe literatur un di lezerin, ” in his Bleter geshikhte fun der yiddisher literatur (New York: Sh. Niger Bukh-komitet baym alveltlekhn yidishn kultur kongres, 1959), esp. pp. 82–83;Google Scholar andZinberg, Israel, History of Jewish Literature, trans. Martin, Bernard (New York: Ktav, and Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1972–78), vol. 7, Old Yiddish Literature from Its Origins to the Haskalah Period, pp. 252–253. According to both Niger and Zinberg, maskilim began to write tkhines to which they attached women's names beginning in the 1860s. Niger gives a list of female authors of tkhines and other Yiddish works on pp. 88–94.Google Scholar

4. On the Brantshpigl, seeZinberg, , History, 12: 157–159; also Max Erik, “Bletlekh tsu der geshikhte fun der elterer yidisher literatur un kultur: I. Der Brantshpigl—Di entsiklopedye fun der yidisher froy in XVII yorhundert, ” Tsaytshrift(Minsk: Institut far vaysruslendishe kultur) 1 (1926): 171–177.Google Scholar

5. For a discussion of women's fate in the afterlife, see Weissler, Chava, “Women in Paradise” Tikkun, vol. 2, no. 2, April-May 1987, pp. 43–46, 117–120.Google Scholar

6. Another fascinating genre which raises such questions is the guide to the observance of women's commandments, known in several related versions. The earliest extant manuscript dates from 1504, and the first published editions of each version date from 1535, 1552, and 1577. These works deal with the three women's commandments: lighting Sabbath candles (10 chapters in the Basle, 1602, ed.); separating dough for ḥallah (15 chapters); and, especially, the observance of menstrual avoidances and purification (105 chapters). For a definitive study of these works, seeSegal, Agnes Romer, “Sifrey mişvot ha-nashim be-yidish ba-me'ah ha-16” (Masters' thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1979).Google Scholar

7. The Mayse bukh is available in an annotated English translation: The “Ma'aseh Book”: Book of Jewish Tales and Legends, translated from the Judeo-German by Moses Gaster (1934; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1981). For the literary history and sources of the Mayse Bukh, seeZinberg, , History, 12: 185–198;Google ScholarMeitlis, Jacob, Das “Ma'assebuch, ” seine Enstehung und Quellengeschichte (Berlin: Mass, 1933);Google Scholar andZfatman, Sara, “Mayse Bukh qavim li-demuto shel zhaner be-sifrut yidish ha-yeshanah, ” Ha-Sifrut 28 (1979): 126–152.Google Scholar

8. Response 7, no. 22 (Summer 1973): 77–82. Reprinted in OnBeing a Jewish Feminist: A Reader, ed. Heschel, Susannah (New York:Schocken, 1983), pp. 12–18.Google Scholar

9. Conversations with Natalie Davis and Virginia Reinburg about French devotional literature were very helpful to me. SeeReinburgs, doctoral dissertation, “Popular Prayers in Late Medieval and Reformation France” (Princeton University, 1985).Google Scholar

10. On the structure of the traditional Ashkenazic community, see Katz, Jacob, Tradition and Crisis (1961; New York: Schocken, 1971). For social stratification, see especially pp. 199–209.Google Scholar

11. On the Tsenerene, seeSchmeruk, Khone, “Di Mizrekh-eyropeishe nuskhoes fun der Tsenerene (1786–1850), ” in For Max Weinreich on His Seventieth Birthday (The Hague: Mouton, 1964), pp. 320–336.Google Scholar

12. For example, Yosef Svirski, in his article on Jewish life in Vilna, “Zikhronot shel yerushalyim de-lita” (Yeda 'am 33–34 [1967–68]: 108–116), writes: –The book Tsenerene, the Torah in Yiddish for women, played an important role in our culture in past generations. Our mothers used to sit on every Sabbath after the afternoon nap, and read it aloud, chanting, with emphasis. And we children would listen sometimes, to hear the beautiful parables and the words of explanation, which the author would quote in the names of the commentators on the Torah” (p. 109).

13. On these guides, see Segal, “Sifrey mişvot ha-nashim be-yidish.”

14. Translation from Zinberg, History, 7:160.

15. Ibidp. 161. “Householders (balebatim) are, of course, hardly the bottom of the social scale.

16. Peretz, I. L., in his short story, “A Farshterter shabes, ” in his Ale verk,vol. 2, Dertseylungen, mayselekh, bilder (New York: Cyco Bikher-Farlag, 1947), pp. 211–219, lists the devotional works read by a traditional Jewish woman: “Seril is an accomplished woman; she reads ivre-taytsh [the special variety of Yiddish in which this literature was written] fluently: She knows the Taytsh-khumesh[i.e., the Tsenerene] and the Qav ha-yashar and the Reyshis khokmeand other such books…” (p. 214).Google Scholar

17. It is unclear whether Sore bas Tovim was a historical or a legendary personage. Despite the fact that, in the 1860s, her name was attached to newly written tkhines, both Niger (“Di yidishe literatur, ” pp. 82–85) and Zinberg (History, 7:253–256) reach the conclusion that she actually existed and was the author of the Shloyshe she'orim. Basing himself primarily on autobiographical information contained in this text and another work which he considers genuine, Zinberg concludes that she lived in the first few decades of the eighteenth century. The earliest extant editions of the Shloyshe she'orim were published without notation of date or place of publication. The earliest dated edition I have seen is in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem; it was published in Vilna: Romm, 1838. Because the text of the Shloyshe she'orim as we have it contains material from S. Ḥemdat yamim (see n. 26 below), it is probably no earlier than 1742, or perhaps 1731. There is extensive ethnographic documentation, from a somewhat later period, of the practice of making memorial candles for the dead; see the references in Weissler, “Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Women.” Ashkenazic women engaged in candle making at a much earlier period as well. Dulcia (d. 1197) is described by her husband, R. Eleazar b. Judah of Worms, as making wicks for the synagogue and school, and preparing candles for Yom Kippur. R. Eleazar's moving poem in memory of Dulcia is translated and analyzed in Ivan G. Marcus, “Mothers, Martyrs, and Moneymakers: Some Jewish Women in Medieval Europe, ” Conservative Judaism, Spring 1986.

18. Tsenerene (Amsterdam, 1702–3), p. 4b (parashat bereshit); Seyder tkhines u-vakoshes (Fuerth, 1762), no. 89.

19. Sefer ha-ḥayyim, by Simeon ben Israel Judah Frankfort, was first published in Amsterdam, 1703; 2d ed., slightly enlarged, Amsterdam, 1716. I have used the Koetten, 1717, ed. From its first edition, and in all of its many subsequent editions, Sefer ha-ḥayyim was a bilingual work; its first half in Hebrew, the second in Yiddish

20. Ma'aneh lashon, by Jacob ben Abraham Solomon, appeared in Prague (in Hebrew) in 1615. Steinschneider regards this as the second edition. It was enlarged, according to Steinschneider, by Eliezer Liebermann Sofer ben Loeb. This enlarged edition was first published in Prague, ca. 1658. Beginning with the Frankfurt, ca. 1688, edition, it was frequently published in Yiddish translation. One bilingual edition was published (Amsterdam, 1723); I have chiefly relied on this bilingual edition.

21. On the sources of the Mayse bukh, see Zfatman, “Mayse-Bukh, ” pp. 131–136, and the notes to Gaster's translation.

22. Translation from Zinberg, History, 7:185–186.

23. Making halakhic materials available in Yiddish could be controversial; see Zinberg, History, 7:216–218, for a discussion of rabbinic reaction to publication of extracts from the Shulhan 'Arukh as an appendix to Elhanan Kirchhan's Yiddish ethical work, Simkhas ha-nefesh. On rabbinic opposition to the publication in Yiddish of laws concerning the women's commandments, see Segal, “Sifrey mişvot ha-nashim be-yidish, ” pp. 2–3.

24. Chava Turniansky, personal communication. My thanks to Prof. Turniansky for drawing this to my attention

25. Freehof, Solomon, “Devotional Literature in the Vernacular, ” CCAR Yearbook 33 (1923): 375–424.Google Scholar

26. I discuss the transformations of one of the passages from the Zohar in the Shloyshi she'orim and other Yiddish popularizations in “Women in Paradise.” As far as I know, no one has previously noted that the description of the women's Paradise found in the Shloyshi she'orim originates in the Zohar. Nor has anyone noted that the passage in the prayer for the New Moon which implores the patriarchs, Moses, and the Messiah to beseech God to bring the Redemption originates in S. Ḥemdal Yamim, 4 vols. (Jerusalem: Maqor, 1969/70; photo-offse of Constantinople, 1734/35 ed.), vol. 2 (Rosh Ḥodesh), pp. 12b–13b (Enqat Asir).

27. S.Ma'asey Ha-shem, pt. 1, 1st ed. (Frankfurt a.M., 1691); pt. 2, 1st ed. (Fuerth, 1694) edition which combines pts. 1 and 2 (Amsterdam, 1708). Avir Ya'aqov,1st ed. (Sulzbach, 1700) Qav ha-yashar, Hebrew text first published 1705; Yiddish translation, 1724. Later editions were bilingual.On the Safed revival, see Scholem, Gershom, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York Schocken, 1961), pp. 244–286;Google ScholarSchechter, Solomon, “Safed in the 16th Century, ” in his Studie.in Judaism,2d ser. (1908), pp. 203–306;Google ScholarWerblowsky, R. J.Zwi, Joseph Kara, Lawyer ant Mystic(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1977), esp. pp. 38–83;Google ScholarFine, Lawrence, Safet Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1984).Google Scholar On the popularization of Jewish mysticism following in the wake of the Safed revival, see Scholem, Gershom, “Ha-Tenu'ah ha-shabta'i be-folin, ” in Bet Yisrael be-folin(Jerusalem: Ha-maḥlaqah le-'inyane ha-no'ar she ha-histadrut ha-şiyyonit, 1953–54), vol. 2, pp. 36–76,Google Scholar esp. pp. 36–40; andScholem, GershomSabbatai Şevi (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1973), pp. 66–92.Google Scholar But see alsoWeinryb, Bernard, The Jews of Poland (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1976), pp. 225–228 Weinryb describes “Polish Jewry's lack of great interest in cabala.” My thanks to Prof. Ivai Marcus for drawing this to my attention.Google Scholar

28. Works concerning the sick, dying, and dead, such as the Sefer ha-ḥayyim and the Ma'aneh lashon(noted above), are a particularly fruitful field for investigating these questions. Another work which would repay study is the Ma'avar Yabboq,a Hebrew book containing prayers for the dying, a very interesting kabbalistic commentary on the care of the dying and the dead, and mourning practices.

29. On Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah, seeLieberman, Hayim, Ohel Ratiel (New York, 1979–80), pp. 432–435; and S. Oşar Siḥot (lakhamim)(Bene Beraq, 1971/72; photo-offset of Sonik, 1911/12), pp. 42–43. In his memoirs, Ber of Bolechow (1723–1805) recalls meeting her when he was a boy of twelve, and notes her prowess at talmudic scholarship (Zikhronot[Berlin: Klal Verlag, 1922], p. 44).Google Scholar

30. The issue of the relationship of oral tradition to the written tkhines is addressed in an interchange between the folkloristsAnsky, S. and Prylucki, N.. Prylucki's article, “Polemik: A tshuve eynem a retsenzent, ” in Noyekh Prilutskis zamelbikher far yidishen folklor, filologye, un kulturgeshikhte, vol. 1 (Warsaw: Nayer Ferlag, 1912), pp. 154–166, is a response to Ansky's review of Prylucki's book Yidishe folkslider. Ansky criticized Prylucki for including as “folksongs” material he regarded as stereotypical printed women's prayers. Prylucki quotes a portion of Ansky's review, which is of interest here: “Some of these [Yiddish women's] prayers are included in the women's prayerbooks and [books of] tkhines, but the majority of them circulate in oral tradition, possessing a multitude of variants.” Ansky lists the following topics as particularly common for women's oral prayer: candle-lighting, separating dough for ḥallah, ritual immersion, “laying the wicks” for memorial candles for the dead, pregnancy, and entering the synagogue. Ansky's review appeared in Evreiskaya Starina, 1911, p. 591.1 translate from Prylucki's Yiddish translation of portions of the review.Google Scholar

31. Historians are calling into question the usefulness of the category “popular religion.” See, for example, Brown's, Peter critique of the “two-tiered system” (elite vs. popular religion) in The Cult of the Saints (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), esp. pp. 12–22,Google Scholar in which he traces our concept of popular religion to David Hume's essay, “The Natural History of Religion.” For a critique of the concept of “popular religion” as used by historians of early modern Europe, seeDavis's, Natalie Zemon chapter, “From ‘Popular Religion’ to Religious Cultures, ” in Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research, ed. Ozment, Steven (St. Louis:Center for Reformation Research, 1982).Google Scholar Also see her earlier essay, “Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion, ” in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, ed. Trinkaus, Charles (Leiden: Brill, 1974), pp. 306–336.Google Scholar

32. One might argue, of course, that the additive is ultimately transformative, that adding something to an account inevitably changes that account in some fundamental way.

33. Scott, “Women in History, II, ” p. 152.

34. Seyder tkhines (Amsterdam, 1752), p. 8b; Seyder tkhines u-vakoshes (Fuerth, 1762), nos. 95, 6.

35. As mentioned above, cemeteries were also important arenas for men's piety, and it is often unclear whether particular collections of cemetery prayers were meant for the use of women or of men

36. 1st ed. Prague, 1662. I have used the Józefow, 1867, ed.

37. Perhaps to the point of muted protest? The text reads in part: “God and my king, you are merciful. Who can tell or know your justice or your judgment? They are as deep as brooks of water and the depths of springs. You punished Eve, our old Mother, because she persuaded her husband Adam to trespass against your commandment…. You spoke with anger that in sadness she would give birth. So we women must suffer each time, and have our regular periods, with heavy hearts. Thus, I have had my period, with a heavy heart and with sadness, and 1 thank your Holy Name and your judgment…” (Seyder tkhines u-vakoshes,no. 91).

38. Seyder tkhines u-vakoshes, no. 93.

39. The one such problem they do address is the possibility that the woman, as well as the man, may be thinking of someone other than the spouse during intercourse. Proper sexual behavior is discussed in the Seyder mitsvas ha-noshim(Basle, 1602) pp. 21a–22a (chaps. 72–73); and in the Brantshpigl(Hanau,1626), chap. 38. See also the Sheney luḥot ha-berit, sha'ar ha-oliyot,s.v. qedushah.

40. For discussions of the erotic element in kabbalistic symbolism, seeScholem, Gershom, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (New York: Schocken, 1965), esp. chaps. 3 and 4; idem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism,esp. chap. 6; and Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment, translation and introduction by Daniel Chanan Matt (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), passim.Google Scholar

41. S. Ma'aneh lashon (Amsterdam, 1723) pp. 63b–66b (nos. 19–20). There were prayers to be recited at the graves of a whole spectrum of relatives, from maternal or paternal grandparents down to little children. These can help us to understand how all of these different family roles were conceptualized

42. For a fuller discussion of this text, as well as of a literary description of its recitation, see Weissler, “Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Women.”

43. Seyder tkhines u-vakoshes, no. 47.

44. The original description occurs in the Zohar III, p. 167b (parashat shelah lekha). The extant Yiddish versions include: Nakhlas Tsvi, by Tsvi Hirsch Chotsch (Lublin, 1893), pp. 180–181 (first published in 1711); S. Ma'asey Ha-shem, by Simon Akiva Ber ben Joseph (Amsterdam: Proops, 1723), pp. 15a–b (pt. 2, which contains this passage, was first published in 1694); a “story” appearing as a separate section in several books (including “Ma'aseh gadol me-Rabi Shimon bar Yoḥai, ” appended to S.'Olam ha-ba [Hanau, 1620], pp. 7a–8b; “Ayn vunder sheyn mayse oyz den Zohar parshas Lekh Lekha [sic]”which is followed by another brief tale [Prague, ca. 1665]; and “Ayn sheyn mayse oyz den Zohar parshas Lekh Lekha [sic]”printed as an addendum to Ayn sheyn gellikh lid Oraḥ Ḥayyim[Fuerth, 1692–98]); and part of the prayer for the Blessing of the New Moon in the tkhinecollection attributed to Sore bas Tovim, the Shloyshe she'orim.

45. Seraḥ, daughter of Asher, is mentioned in the Bible only in genealogical lists (Gen. 46:17, Num. 26:46, 1 Chron. 7:3). However, the midrash portrays her as gently breaking the news that Joseph was alive by playing the harp and singing about it so that Jacob could hear (Sefer ha-Yashar, Va-yiggash). For a discussion of the figure of Serah in the midrash, seeHeinemann, Joseph, Aggadot ve-toldotehen (Jerusalem: Keter, 1974), pp. 56–63.Google Scholar

46. However, nineteenth-century versions of these texts tend to change or omit the assertion that women studied Torah, or otherwise dilute the expressions of women's power found in some of the earlier versions.

47. These issues are discussed more fully in Weissler, “Women in Paradise.”