New perspectives on parent-child relationships in early Europe: Jewish legal views from the High Middle Ages

This chapter presents aspects of parent-child relationships in the Jewish communities of the High Middle Ages. It focuses on the religious legal system of European Jewry in this period, and especially that of the great codifier of Jewish law, Moses Maimonides, whose enormous impact on rabbinic Judaism is felt down to our day. After a presentation of modern English law, the chapter describes the unique characteristics of Jewish religious law which is called "halakah". The halakah is the normative part of the Jewish religion, and is constructed of layers upon layers of oral traditions that are not to be found in the books of the Bible; most of them are otherwise undocumented. The father's basic duty to provide for his sons and daughters depended upon his objectively implied consent, but the scope of the obligation was also dependent upon his financial possibilities in terms of charity.