ritual have shifted significantly over the past decade. Recent scholarship has challenged Alexander Murray’s widely accepted assertion that confession was rare among the laity before the thirteenth century; instead, scholars have identified the ninth century as a pivotal period in the emergence of confession and the rites of penance for laity and members of monastic orders.145 This new research claims that “private confession” is more anachronistic than accurate as a description of the penitential ritual performed by individuals regarding their own sins, and that confession rarely occurred in private: detailed scholarly descriptions of confession in medieval Europe reveal that penitents were neither alone with their confessors nor concealed from view.146 In his study of penance in the early Middle Ages, Rob Meens explains that the so-called “private” penance (paenitentia occulta or secreta) is best characterized by way of negation. “It is not public penance, in the sense of a highly ritualized form of penance imposed by the bishop,” but it did incorporate various elements adapted from public penance (such as wearing special garments, almsgiving, and fasting) that rendered the penitent visible to the community.147 “These differences should not be overdrawn,” writes Karen Wagner; “the actual confession of one’s sin was rarely public, and given the communal nature of early medieval society, no penitential satisfaction could remain entirely private.”148 As Sarah Hamilton remarks, scholars have viewed penance and confession from the perspective of clergy more than from that of the laity; changing that focus has revealed the widespread and public nature of this process.149 These scholars, along with Mayke de Jong and Mary Mansfield, have each demonstrated that “private” penance was far from private in ninth-to thirteenth-century Christian practice.150
As private penance developed over the course of the Middle Ages, it came to include the confession of sins to a priest, an assignment of rituals required to achieve absolution—fasting, praying, or almsgiving (with some acts being interchangeable)—and a granting of absolution. While confession was a prerequisite for participation in Mass and receiving the Eucharist, it was also a key component of penance. Fasting was not the province of ascetics alone any more than penance was exclusive to the clergy prior to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).151 Throughout the Middle Ages, penance could include fasting for periods ranging from weeks to months or even years to be forgiven for theft, sexual transgressions, or other sins.152
Jewish Fasting and Confession in the High Middle Ages
In this atmosphere, amid the growing importance of penance and confession for Christians, the concept and act of repentance were dramatically transformed by the Jews of medieval Ashkenaz. This revolution is exceptionally documented in the writings of Samuel b. Judah, his son Judah, and Judah’s star pupil, Eleazar b. Judah of Worms. These innovators developed their teachings building on ideas from ancient sources and integrating them with current practices.153 The literature that they produced consistently encourages fasting: Sefer Hasidim and Sefer Rokeah; other compositions by Judah the Pious, such as Sefer haGematriyot; and the extensive oeuvre by Eleazar of Worms, known for its focus on mysticism. These works emphasize fasting as a means for achieving atonement, along with prayer and charity. Relating fasting to these other two components—for example, to refrain from eating before praying—was a long-accepted practice.154 Similarly, Judah the Pious instructed his followers not to eat until they had both prayed and given charity as they had pledged.155 This medieval pietist’s prescription for repentance stands out for the rigor with which it was embraced and its demand that atonement be actively sought in daily practice.
As numerous scholars have demonstrated during the past century—from the work of Yitzhak (Fritz) Baer and the tremendous expansion of this scholarship by Haym Soloveitchik, Ivan Marcus, and others—Hasidei Ashkenaz have been characterized by their belief in the need for repentance, which was founded on long-held customs while also representing significant degrees of innovation.156 Hasidei Ashkenaz exemplified extreme piety in their relentless search for rituals that would elevate the level of religious devotion in daily Jewish life. Their writings express fresh notions of how to satisfy “the will of the Creator” (ratzon haboreh) and express love for God that balanced fear and awe (yir’ah).157 Liturgically, Hasidei Ashkenaz were known for their prolonged prayer services and their meticulous attention to each word therein.158 A defining feature of their worldview is the conviction that every human is incessantly lured by temptations which must be resisted and that, consequently, everyone is rewarded in proportion to the suffering involved in that struggle.159 As part of their quest to worship God wholeheartedly, Hasidei Ashkenaz crafted a distinctive system of repentance that Ivan Marcus outlined two decades ago in his book Piety and Society. As Marcus and other scholars have noted, certain dimensions of this framework for repentance are drawn from earlier Jewish texts, particularly Hekhalot literature.160
Samuel b. Judah, Judah, and Eleazar of Worms constructed a system where atonement was accomplished through penitent actions that corresponded to the sin committed. Samuel b. Judah expanded the talmudic definition of repentance to include the ability to refrain from repeating sinful behavior161 by prescribing acts of repentance derived from the biblical punishment for a given sin and the pleasure experienced from that behavior.162 In the course of their writings, Samuel and Judah developed a four-part conceptualization of sin (and, therefore, repentance) that was articulated more fully by Eleazar of Worms. The four categories are known as teshuvat hagader—preventative repentance; teshuvat hamishkal—weighted repentance; teshuvat hekatuv—scriptural repentance; and teshuvat haba’ah—anticipatory repentance.163 Fasting was an intrinsic component of repentance, as sinners sought atonement through fasts that extended over lengthy periods—even weeks, months, or years. Anyone who had committed a grave sin was also expected to wear black clothing and to give charity. In some cases, transgressors were directed to submit themselves to lashings, to shave their heads, and to exhibit other signs of remorse.164 Sins that involved men having inappropriate sexual contact with women (e.g., adultery and intercourse with a menstruant) are featured prominently among the misdeeds that required harsher forms of repentance. Transgressions such as desecrating the Sabbath, gossip, and murder also demanded more severe expressions of contrition.165
In his analysis, Marcus highlights substantive differences between the systems set forth by Judah and Eleazar of Worms.166 One distinguishing feature of Judah’s system is what Marcus describes as its sectarian nature, which required initiation for membership in his circle of Ashkenazic pietists.167 In contrast, Marcus stresses the personal nature of Eleazar’s mode of instruction for pious atonement, channeled through self-perfection rather than a group experience.168 One of the most explicit modifications is the apparent elimination of the Sage (hakham) in the role of confessor, which was introduced in Judah’s system but absent from the writings of Eleazar. Instead, admission of sin was transferred to the realm of private prayer and the determination of appropriate punishment was similarly assigned to the individual. Rather than mentioning a sage or guide, Eleazar produced a manual on repentance for individuals to consult.169 Despite these distinctions, Eleazar maintains the primacy of fasting as an act of atonement.
Let us now survey the circumstances in which these rabbis advised that fasts be undertaken. In Sefer Hasidim, Judah recommends fasting in numerous contexts: fasts associated with communal observances and in memory of beloved family members on the anniversaries of their deaths are mentioned alongside fasts by parents of sick children and single individuals in search of a marriage partner.170 He advises fasting regularly to safeguard an appropriate posture of piety and humility toward God.171 He further explains that fasting is effective precisely because it “breaks the body.”172
Judah also mentions other situations that merit fasting. Not all are directly related to repentance, although most probably included a penitential aspect. For instance, “One who witnesses an eclipse—of the moon, for example—must fast. After all, he would fast after a bad dream and this is for the sake of the whole world.”173 Here, fasting
