Recommended listening: Yiddish folk songs
Story
In the yeshiva of Mainz, a woman stands sewing. Passover has come and gone, and spring flowers still decorate the room. A schul katze, or synagogue cat, guards the rabbi's books from mice which would nibble at the parchment and leather. While the rabbi expounds on scripture for his students in the next room, his wife quietly sews a Sefer Torah, the sacred scrolls of Jewish scripture. Her name is Bonna, and she is the wife of Gershom ben Judah, known as Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah, "our teacher Gershom, the light of the exile". His epithet refers to the fact that he is the great scholar who leads the fledgling Ashkenazi Jewish community, putting Mainz on the map as a centre of scholarship among the disaspora.
Bonna and Gershom had both been married before, and it's not clear whether his son who would later famously convert to Christianity was also Bonna's son. Widowhood was exceptionally common among Jewish women in medieval Europe because so many Jewish men who worked as merchants went missing or died abroad while travelling for business. It's possible that Bonna had lost her first husband to circumstances such as these. Whatever the reason, Bonna found love again with Gershom, and together they made a new home for themselves in Mainz where he led one of the greatest yeshiva, or Talmudic schools, of the day. The wives of rabbis played a key role in these institutions. Among Bonna's many duties, she would have made books, sewed Torah scrolls, hired tutors, and made clothing and food for her husband's students.
Bonna lived at a time of unprecedented levels of independence and rights for Jewish women. The increased economic status of urbanised Jews in Ashkenaz meant that women steadily demanded a greater participation in religious life. By the end of the eleventh century, Ashkenazi women were playing roles in religious rituals that had been previously denied them; while Bonna's life is not so well recorded as the lives of these women, who were often the wives and daughters of students from her husband's school, she was likely one of the pioneers of these changes, laying the groundwork for the women who would follow. Everything from the development of Yiddish, known as mame-loshn or "the mother tongue", to the rise in women being allowed to study the Torah when they had previously been forbidden, began with women like Bonna.
One legislative development that she may have exerted a direct influence on was her husband's synod in the year 1000, where he decreed that a man cannot divorce a woman without her consent and outlawed polygamy. Polygamy was a serious problem for Jewish women all throughout the diaspora, whose husbands often married women abroad when they travelled on business, leaving their wives and families back home in a state of economic, legal and emotional insecurity. Gershom's synod ensured more security for women in a society where a woman's status depended on a man's financial support, and it seems unlikely he made a law like this without a nudge in the right direction from Bonna. The bans that Gershom enacted at the turn of the first millennium are still binding among Ashkenazi Jews today, and so generations of Jewish women owe her special thanks for the laws upholding better treatment by their husbands.
Sadly, Bonna's family was temporarily expelled from Mainz in 1012 as part of an anti-Semitic scare. Gershom's son, Bonna's son or step-son, converted to Christianity, as did many others who sought emergency baptism in the face of persecution. Bonna's feelings on the matter are unknown, but her husband refused to renounce his son. When he died an apostate, Gershom mourned him in the traditional Jewish fashion, and he advocated for the merciful treatment of Jews who returned to the synagogue after taking Christian baptism. However, the scholarly community of Mainz did not experience a long-term setback because of this expulsion. The students whom Bonna and Gershom nurtured went on to become intellectual leaders of the Ashkenzi world - and their wives felt more empowered than ever to assert their right to play an active role in religion, inspired by the example of women like Bonna.
Bonna and Gershom had both been married before, and it's not clear whether his son who would later famously convert to Christianity was also Bonna's son. Widowhood was exceptionally common among Jewish women in medieval Europe because so many Jewish men who worked as merchants went missing or died abroad while travelling for business. It's possible that Bonna had lost her first husband to circumstances such as these. Whatever the reason, Bonna found love again with Gershom, and together they made a new home for themselves in Mainz where he led one of the greatest yeshiva, or Talmudic schools, of the day. The wives of rabbis played a key role in these institutions. Among Bonna's many duties, she would have made books, sewed Torah scrolls, hired tutors, and made clothing and food for her husband's students.
Bonna lived at a time of unprecedented levels of independence and rights for Jewish women. The increased economic status of urbanised Jews in Ashkenaz meant that women steadily demanded a greater participation in religious life. By the end of the eleventh century, Ashkenazi women were playing roles in religious rituals that had been previously denied them; while Bonna's life is not so well recorded as the lives of these women, who were often the wives and daughters of students from her husband's school, she was likely one of the pioneers of these changes, laying the groundwork for the women who would follow. Everything from the development of Yiddish, known as mame-loshn or "the mother tongue", to the rise in women being allowed to study the Torah when they had previously been forbidden, began with women like Bonna.
One legislative development that she may have exerted a direct influence on was her husband's synod in the year 1000, where he decreed that a man cannot divorce a woman without her consent and outlawed polygamy. Polygamy was a serious problem for Jewish women all throughout the diaspora, whose husbands often married women abroad when they travelled on business, leaving their wives and families back home in a state of economic, legal and emotional insecurity. Gershom's synod ensured more security for women in a society where a woman's status depended on a man's financial support, and it seems unlikely he made a law like this without a nudge in the right direction from Bonna. The bans that Gershom enacted at the turn of the first millennium are still binding among Ashkenazi Jews today, and so generations of Jewish women owe her special thanks for the laws upholding better treatment by their husbands.
Sadly, Bonna's family was temporarily expelled from Mainz in 1012 as part of an anti-Semitic scare. Gershom's son, Bonna's son or step-son, converted to Christianity, as did many others who sought emergency baptism in the face of persecution. Bonna's feelings on the matter are unknown, but her husband refused to renounce his son. When he died an apostate, Gershom mourned him in the traditional Jewish fashion, and he advocated for the merciful treatment of Jews who returned to the synagogue after taking Christian baptism. However, the scholarly community of Mainz did not experience a long-term setback because of this expulsion. The students whom Bonna and Gershom nurtured went on to become intellectual leaders of the Ashkenzi world - and their wives felt more empowered than ever to assert their right to play an active role in religion, inspired by the example of women like Bonna.
Artist's Comments
I have been drawing this for over a week now, so it's great to have it done! For a long time I struggled to find any named Jewish women for my project, so when I finally found Bonna, I was delighted. I want to thank my friend Madhavi for encouraging me to keep looking, and my friend and former teacher Ana for giving me some ideas about rabbis' wives. I'm grateful to my dad for the discussions we had about the Dom in Mainz (and to my parents for taking me there when I was a kid!) and for suggesting I look to medieval paintings of St Jerome for inspiration on how to do the bookshelf. Thanks are also due to Sacha for her help figuring out the lighting for this illustration. Interiors are hard for me, and lighting is hardest of all! I took some inspiration from the Danish interior paintings my mom loves, and northern Renaissance art. I wasn't able to find any examples of Ottonian ceramics so I used English ones as models, but I owe a thank you to my friend Cameron for helping me look, and for finding me some good articles on Ottonian architecture and art. As you can see, the research I do for these pictures is often collaborative!
Bonna is wearing a Frankish dress; at this time, Jewish women didn't dress any differently from their Christian neighbours. As a married woman, she would have had her head covered outside, but when alone indoors there was no need. Her rings show the importance of jewellery to Jewish women at the time, although their rabbis advised them to beautify themselves in private only. The flowers in the vases are roses and lillies, both flowers mentioned in the Jewish Bible. I'm not entirely sure that they would have had flower boxes in the windows, or flowers propped up in vases, but there wasn't any evidence against it, either! ~ August 19, 2018
Bonna is wearing a Frankish dress; at this time, Jewish women didn't dress any differently from their Christian neighbours. As a married woman, she would have had her head covered outside, but when alone indoors there was no need. Her rings show the importance of jewellery to Jewish women at the time, although their rabbis advised them to beautify themselves in private only. The flowers in the vases are roses and lillies, both flowers mentioned in the Jewish Bible. I'm not entirely sure that they would have had flower boxes in the windows, or flowers propped up in vases, but there wasn't any evidence against it, either! ~ August 19, 2018
Resources
Want to learn more about Ashkenazi women and the medieval Jewish diaspora? Here are some recommended resources.
Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe by Avraham Grossman
This book was the main source of my information about the changing status of Jewish women in medieval Ashkenaz. The description of a rabbi's wife's duties directly informed the setting of this illustration. It's an excellent and absorbing read, comparing and contrasting the varying statuses of women throughout the Jewish diaspora between 1000 and 1300. It also offers useful analysis which traces how scholars adjusted their theoretical understandings of the role of women in their religion in response to the changes they were experiencing in real time.
"Gershom ben Judah" in The New World Encyclopedia
A biography of Bonna's husband Gershom, including some fanciful but entertaining legends about him.
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
An archive of articles about medieval Judaism on the popular history website Medievalists.net. These cover a wide range of topics all over the medieval world, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages.
"The Jewish view of cats" by Yonassan Gershom
A slightly tongue-in-cheek overview of the appearances of cats in Jewish scripture and biblical commentaries, and of attitudes towards the animals in Jewish culture more broadly. Rashi, the nephew of one of Gershom's students in Mainz, once said that if God had not given us the Torah, we would have learned modesty from the cat! There's some interesting speculative material in here about possible links between the Jewish affection for cats and the association of cats with witchcraft in medieval Europe.
"Sewing a Torah Scroll to the Woods"
Youtube videos really helped me get to grips with what sewing a Torah actually looks like. You can also watch videos about finishing and repairing Torah scrolls.
Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe by Avraham Grossman
This book was the main source of my information about the changing status of Jewish women in medieval Ashkenaz. The description of a rabbi's wife's duties directly informed the setting of this illustration. It's an excellent and absorbing read, comparing and contrasting the varying statuses of women throughout the Jewish diaspora between 1000 and 1300. It also offers useful analysis which traces how scholars adjusted their theoretical understandings of the role of women in their religion in response to the changes they were experiencing in real time.
"Gershom ben Judah" in The New World Encyclopedia
A biography of Bonna's husband Gershom, including some fanciful but entertaining legends about him.
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
An archive of articles about medieval Judaism on the popular history website Medievalists.net. These cover a wide range of topics all over the medieval world, from Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages.
"The Jewish view of cats" by Yonassan Gershom
A slightly tongue-in-cheek overview of the appearances of cats in Jewish scripture and biblical commentaries, and of attitudes towards the animals in Jewish culture more broadly. Rashi, the nephew of one of Gershom's students in Mainz, once said that if God had not given us the Torah, we would have learned modesty from the cat! There's some interesting speculative material in here about possible links between the Jewish affection for cats and the association of cats with witchcraft in medieval Europe.
"Sewing a Torah Scroll to the Woods"
Youtube videos really helped me get to grips with what sewing a Torah actually looks like. You can also watch videos about finishing and repairing Torah scrolls.