KINSHIP AFFECTED BY BREAST-FEEDING
QUESTION:
The Hanafi school of Islam holds that a child under two years of age who sucks a single drop of milk from a strange woman is the milk-brother or milk-sister of that woman’s child and must not marry her or him. The Shafi’is school holds that the criterion is five satisfying suckings at different times. Do we have anything remotely similar to this in traditional Judaism? (Question raised by Dr. Isaac Jerusalmi, Cincinnati, Ohio.)
ALTHOUGH IT WAS considered the regular duty of a mother to nurse her child (M. Ketuvot 5:5) there was a frequent use of wet nurses (see the full discussion of various laws involved in Recent Reform Responsa, p. 226 ff.) In fact, the use of wet nurses goes back to Biblical times. These wet nurses were greatly beloved and honored. Thus we read that when Rebecca left home to be married to Isaac, her wet nurse (meneket) went with her (Genesis 24:59). When this wet nurse died (Genesis 35:8) the place of her burial was affectionately called “the oak of tears.”
Now the question is whether there is in Jewish law or lore something akin to the Arabic belief that the milk which a child takes in breastfeeding affects either its status or its nature. Basically it can be stated that there is no such principle in Judaism. The proof of that is that Gentile wet nurses were constantly used and legally permitted. Thus it is clear from the Mishnah, Avodah Zarah 2:1. The Talmud, Avodah Zarah 26a, discusses this Mishnaic law and gives some cautionary guidelines as, for example, that somebody Jewish should be present at this breastfeeding by a Gentile wet nurse, or that it be permitted only in the Jewish household, and the nurse should not be permitted to take the child away to her house. All these cautions are analogous to the cautions with regard to being healed by a Gentile doctor (see the next Mishnah) or a Jew-ish child being circumcised by him. They were afraid that sometimes these pagans might kill the Jewish child. The cautionary restrictions and most of the laws and debates involved are conveniently gathered in the large note by Rabbenu Nissim to the Rif at the beginning of Avodah Zarah. So with regard to breast feeding and medical service and circumcision, the only proviso is a cautionary proviso, namely, to have Jews present, but beyond that, it is absolutely permitted.
This law permitting Gentile wet nurses becomes a fixed law (see Maimonides in Yad Hil., Avodah Zarah IX, 16, and Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 154:2). For completeness’ sake we might add that in the Middle Ages there were references in the Sefer Chasidim which take for granted the use of Gentile wet nurses (see the Margolis edition of the Sefer Chasidim, Nos. 189, 480, and 672). So it was both law and popular practice. It stands to reason, therefore, that if they had had a belief analogous to the Moslem one cited, they would not have made it a fixed law through the entire literature that it is quite permissible for the Jewish infant to feed at the breast of non-Jewish nurses.
Nevertheless there was some popular feeling that the nature of the milk did in some way affect the child. Therefore the nurse, Jewish or Gentile, was expected to avoid trefah foods (Yoreh Deah 81:7, note of Isserles, and summary of the discussion by Margolis to Sefer Chasidim, No. 480). Evidently they felt that the food affected the child somehow. Perhaps more interesting and closer to the idea held by the Moslems mentioned are two Midrashic stories. One concerns Moses and the other Yehudah Hanasi. With regard to Moses, the Talmud (Sotah 12b) and the Midrash (Exodus Raba 1:25) discuss the conversation between Miriam and the Egyptian princess who found Moses. Miriam told the princess, “I will get you a Jewish nurse for the child.” The midrash immediately asks, “Why did Miriam offer to bring a Jewish wet nurse when it is obvious that a non-Jewish wet nurse would not be forbidden?” (And, in fact, the Midrash quotes the Mishnah which permits it.) The answer is that he who would receive the Torah on Mount Sinai and speak with the Shekinah should not suck from an Egyptian nurse. In fact we are told in the Talmud (Sotah 12b) that Moses, the infant himself, refused the breast of hundreds of Egyptian nurses. So it is clear that in folklore, what the child takes in at the breast would affect his nature, if not exactly his status.
An analogous story, but with a reverse turn, is told about the infancy of Yehudah Hanasi. It is quoted by the Tosfot to Avodah Zarah 10b, s.v. Amar lei. It merely states that it is in the Midrash (I have been unable to trace which Midrash). But the story told is that when Yehudah Hanasi was born, the Roman Emperor forbade the practice of circumcision, but Yehudah’s parents circumcised him secretly at home. A Roman officer discovered the fact and reported them. Their life would have been forfeited, but Yehudah’s mother substituted a Roman child, Antoninus (meaning, very likely, the later Emperor Antoninus Pius) and breastfed this little Roman child. When the family was summoned to the presence of the cruel emperor, she took this child Antoninus from the breast and showed him to the emperor and, of course, this child was uncircumcised. Then the Midrash concludes that later Antoninus studied the Torah and converted to Judaism. Thus the Midrash implies that the “Jewish” milk which the Roman child absorbed from the breast of Yehudah’s mother had an ennobling effect upon him, even though the effect delayed its appearance until his later life.
So to sum up: Jewish law absolutely permits the use of Gentile wet nurses and Jewish practice without hesi-tation follows this law, but there was some folklore (Midrashim) indicating that the source of the milk did affect the child’s nature. So the wet nurse was not to eat trefah food, the infant Moses rejected the breast of Egyptian nurses, and the Roman Emperor Antoninus converted to Judaism because in infancy he was nursed by the mother of Yehudah Hanasi. We might add to these the statement of the Ran to the note mentioned above, that a Jewish child should be merciful and modest; and he implies that these qualities come best from the milk of a Jewish nurse. That is about all that I could find on the interesting subject that you have raised.