The Menstruant as “Other” in Medieval Judaism and Christianity
Sharon Faye Koren
Both Jews and Christians in the High Middle Ages wrote descriptions of physical dangers posed by menstruants menstrual blood. Such fears were augmented their readings translated warnings Greek medical writers. During this period, both Jewish Christian circles, those literal became abstracted different ways that reflected distinct theologies. mystics saw menstruants, at onset flow, as possessed sitra aḥra, demonic “other side,” while exegetes metaphorized menstruation almost entirely, reading biblical texts allegorical references to sinfulness. Each group applied these negative symbols other, but profoundly ways. Thirteenth-century kabbalists, who retained Judaism’s ritual purity laws, developed a rhetoric demonized emphasizing permanent impurity, they used attack assimilation ward off contact between members two faiths. Christians, contrast, first emphasized metaphorical moral impurity later came believe men “menstruated,” belief would have dire historical consequences for communities northern Europe.
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues