How did Jewish women in sixteenth-century Poland learn all the rules,
rituals, and customs pertaining to the sexual life of couples within the
context of marriage? As in other areas of ritual life that concerned the
household, it would seem that the primary source for the education of
Jewish women was other women. But rabbinic law dictates that Jewish
women who experience uterine bleeding are prohibited from having
physical contact of any kind with their husbands, and the intricate laws
of niddah (enforced separation) spell out exactly when and under what
circumstances physical marital relations, even simple touching, can be
resumed. Particularly difficult issues could be addressed only by rabbis
or other learned men, since women rarely, if ever, attained the level of
rabbinic scholarship necessary to pare the details of these complicated
laws. To educate both men and women, but particularly women, in a more
systematic and impersonal manner, the young rabbi Benjamin Slonik (ca.
1550-after 1620), who later became one of the leading rabbinic
authorities in eastern Europe, harnessed the relatively new technology
of printing and published a how-to book for women in the Yiddish
vernacular. Seder mitzvot hanashim (The Order of Women's Commandments)
illuminates the history of Yiddish printing and public education. But it
is also a rare remnant of a direct interface between a member of the
rabbinic elite and the laity, especially women. Slonik's text also sheds
light on the history of Jewish law, particularly the reception of the
Shulhan Arukh, an important legal code that had just been published.
This volume makes available the 1585 edition of the Seder mitzvot
hanashim in Yiddish and English. Fram sets Slonik's work in its
bibliographical and historical contexts, demonstrating its relationship
with the Shulhan Arukh, exploring how rabbis opposed formal education
for women, considering how upheavals accompanying geographic shifts in
the Ashkenazic community help explain how the women's commandments texts
came to be used in Poland, and offering a treasure trove of information
on the place and roles of women in Polish-Jewish society. Fram thus
creates a composite picture of how Slonik, along with other men of his
time, perceived the main audience for his work and sought to connect it
to contemporary texts.