A mystery on the tombstones: "Women's Commandments" in early-modern Ashkenazi culture.

Abstract

In a cemetery in Alsace, many of the women's tombstones bear the inscription that the deceased kept the so-called "Women's Commandments." The article argues that two reasons may, among other reasons, account for this custom: one is for the sake of the deceased, proclaiming that she has atoned for the sin of Eve, and the other is for the sake of her descendants, arming that they are not "Bnei ha-Niddah," descendants of a woman who ignored the Jewish laws regarding menstruation. Please note: this article includes links to high quality large pictures (LP.). If you would like to see them, you must be connected to the internet.

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1. The Jewish Cemetery at Rosenwiller

One of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Alsace (presently in the department of Bas-Rhin in eastern France), lies between beautiful agricultural lands and forests near Rosenwiller, a small village (2) about a twenty-minute drive west of Strasbourg. In its heyday the cemetery served dozens of communities, and is estimated to be the last resting place for about six thousand Jews. Except for the one or two Jewish families who ran the cemetery, there was never a Jewish community in the village of Rosenwiller itself. On the other hand, the adjacent village, less than two kilometers from Rosenwiller, is Rosheim, famous in Jewish history because of one of its former inhabitants, Josel (Joseph) ben Gershon (ca. 1478-1554), the most well known communal representative of medieval German Jewry.

Josel moved to Rosheim ca. 1515, and lived there for the remaining forty years of his life. Was he buried at Rosenwiller? A registry reference to a Jewish cemetery established near Rosheim between 1349 and 1366 does exist, but it is unknown if the reference is to the current burial ground near Rosenwiller. Josel's resting place remains unknown as well.

It is clear that the Rosenwiller cemetery was in use at least from the middle of the seventeenth century, although no tombstones from its first decades have been found thus far. It is possible that the first "gravestones" were actually made of wood, and therefore did not survive. The burial registry of the cemetery, beginning on 1753, contains records of some five thousand tombs. (3) This registry is currently being translated into French by Avraham Malthete and will hopefully be available to the public in the near future.