Mothers and Children in Ottoman Jewish Society as Reflected in Hebrew Sources of the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

This chapter investigates an array of Ottoman Hebrew sources written following the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and focuses on the interplay between rabbinic sages and mothers in the arena of family law and relationships. It explains how the Ottoman Hebrew sources offer a more nuanced view of family life in Ottoman Jewish culture. It also examines how mothers are associated with childbirth and childrearing, as well as how they are portrayed as women who took the initiative in their role as mothers with respect to marriage, divorce, levirate marriage, and the financial stability of their family and children. The chapter considers Hebrew that honours mothers and acknowledges the active role that mothers assumed in maintaining family stability at times of crisis. It recounts families who were torn apart and forced to abandon their homes and join Jewish communities outside Spain in the period after the expulsion.