from sin.174 Although the practice of fasting is rarely critiqued in Sefer Hasidim, the motives for fasts are questioned. For instance, in discussions of parents fasting for the sake of their children: “Witness how many fasts, [expressions of] self-denial,175 cries and pleas a parent performs when his son falls ill, because of concern for his son’s body. Surely he should do at least as much if [his son] sins, for the soul’s well-being is eternal.”176 Here neither fasts nor self-denial are being scrutinized, but rather their underlying motives if these practices were performed for the sake of physical welfare rather than spiritual elevation.
In Sefer Hasidim, rituals for repentance after committing a grave sin involved not only fasting but also harsh corporal punishment, such as sitting in freezing water in the winter or on hornets’ or ants’ nests in the summer, or burning oneself with red-hot irons,177 per the case of an adulterer: “If he inquires about how to repent … in the winter and [the river is frozen], he should break through the ice and sit in the water up to his mouth or nose for the same span of time from when he first addressed the woman until the sin’s completion.”178 The inclusion of self-inflicted suffering in is an inherent element of the philosophy of Judah the Pious that has textual roots in the interpretation of Adam’s repentance in Tractate Eruvin (above).179
Eleazar of Worms details physical repentance rituals for many specific sins, such as murder:
[In the case of] one who struck his companion—man, woman or child—and thus took his life, [the offender] should be exiled for three years. He should be flagellated and declare: “I am a murderer” in every city he visits. He should refrain from eating meat and drinking wine, from shaving his beard and the hair on his head, from laundering his clothes and washing his body. Washing his beard once a month is permitted. He should attach the hand that dealt the lethal blow to a chain looped around his neck.180 He should go barefoot and mourn his victim, fasting daily until his period of exile is complete. He should then fast on Mondays and Thursdays for an additional year, even though he will already have fasted every day for three years. He should not do evil to any man. Should he be called a murderer, he should not argue. Rather, he should remain silent. Throughout those three years, he should not laugh (rejoice). When he leaves synagogue each day, he should lie down before the entryway; [all who exit] should step over him, never stepping on him. He should honor his wife and all persons and confess daily.181
And the case of a Jew who informed on another Jew to Christian authorities:
[In the case of] one who informs (malshin): one who informs against a neighbor, [thus] setting governmental officials against him … (the sinner) should pay (the victim) all (losses incurred as a result of his) action, he should also become his permanent servant, publicly ask forgiveness, be flagellated and confess as though [the informer] had killed all (of his neighbor’s) sons, daughters and (other) dependents.182
Anyone who followed these instructions was inevitably exposed before the entire community. While such severe modes of repentance were related to extreme transgressions, in the communal perception of repentance they shared many features with normative fasts.
As Marcus has shown, Eleazar of Worms often heightened the severity of the penitential requirements set forth by Judah. To name one representative example, whereas Judah prescribed a three-day fast to any Jewish man who had sexual relations with a Christian woman or maidservant, Eleazar required flagellation, refraining from bathing, and fasting for at least forty days.183 These physical forms of repentance became very popular.184
Marcus has argued that in Judah’s generation, these penitential rituals were only intended for a discrete circle of pietists. It appears that the effect of these rituals was substantially greater than has typically been assumed. I would claim that Judah and his disciple Eleazar of Worms were successful precisely because they were promoting fasting and repentance in an environment known for its predisposition toward these rituals.
Ashkenazic liturgy also attests to the crucial place of fasting in medieval culture and the interpretation of fasting as the quintessence of teshuvah. As in other religions, the triad of charity, prayer, and fasting was viewed as the most efficacious path to salvation. In medieval Ashkenaz, this belief was most prominently conveyed in Netaneh Tokef, the piyyut that became a signature of the High Holiday prayers. This liturgical poem from late antiquity was part of a tale about Amnon of Mainz that was popularized in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.185 The apex of the poem, “and repentance and prayer and charity remove the evil decree” (uteshuvah utefillah utzedakah ma’avirin et ro’a hagezerah) offers guidance on becoming worthy of a positive inscription in the Book of Life. As some scholars have noted, this formula can be traced to a section in Midrash Bereshit Rabbah, a late antique midrash that was composed at approximately the same time as the Augustinian sermon (noted above), which asserts that fasting, charity, and prayer lead to salvation.186
Menahem Schmelzer has traced the versions of this most resonant line of Netaneh Tokef that have appeared over time, remarking that compilers of medieval mahzorim debated over the correct sequence of these three terms. Some objected to the conventional order that begins with teshuvah, since “prayer, charity, and repentance” is the sequence found in the midrash and in the Palestinian Talmud. Jacob Moellin (Maharil) defended the prevailing liturgical progression by explaining that true teshuvah, repentance that is integrated with prayer and charity, must necessarily follow fasting.187 Some scribes copied not just these three terms, but their meanings as well: identifying teshuvah as fasting, tefillah as use of the voice, and tzedakah as money. These definitions were further supported by mathematical calculations using Jewish numerology (gematriah).188
Although the association of teshuvah with fasting (rather than with a broader definition of repentance) in commentaries on the High Holiday liturgy seems to have emerged in the late medieval period, it is based on fasting as a simile for teshuvah and as a consistent component of medieval repentance in sources such as the Crusade chronicles, Sefer Hasidim and Sefer Rokeah. Thus, despite the central role of Judah the Pious and Eleazar of Worms in the popularization of fasting for repentance, I would argue that this practice had strong currency outside their circle. Moreover, although the Confessor-Sage uniquely featured in the writings by Judah the Pious on repentance was soon replaced by personal confession, many thirteenth- and fourteenth-century responsa mention transgressors who sought rabbinic counsel on how to repent for their actions. While these sources do not describe formal confessions, in some cases it seems that the authority being asked for advice was expected to treat that discussion of sin confidentially.189
Eleazar’s composition Hilkhot Teshuvah was frequently copied in late medieval and early modern Europe, albeit in different formats, yielding distinct versions of the treatise that were copied and disseminated well into the early modern period.190 Eleazar’s writings on repentance reached northern France through Isaac b. Joseph of Corbeil who, as noted above, was known for his stringent fasting.191 Isaac incorporated ideas from Hilkhot Teshuvah into his popular handbook of customs that have been described as “semi-ritual practices,” Sefer Amudei Golah (known more widely as Sefer Mitzvot Katan). This guide was composed for men and women in a style that aims at the less educated reader and attests to the prominence of these practices during the late thirteenth century.
Isaac’s Sefer Mitzvot Katan features notions from Maimonides’s Hilkhot Teshuvah and quotations from Moses b. Jacob of Coucy’s Sefer Mitzvot Gadol. However, Isaac supplements those teachings with verbatim selections from Eleazar’s Hilkhot Teshuvah, with a recapitulation of his four categories of repentance.192 Isaac explains:
The order of repentance is thus: In the case of a public sin, one should request forgiveness publicly. In the case of a private sin, one should request forgiveness from his Creator (lit., “between himself and his Creator,”
