Leyes de pureza ritual en judeoespañol: Entre la normativa rabínica y las prácticas de las mujeres

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine some laws, customs and moral teachings related to ritual purity of Jewish women, based on the recopilation of texts from two halakhic works written in Judeo-Spanish by the Sephardic author Eliezer Shem Tov Papo (Sarajevo,? - Jerusalem, 1898), in particular, Sefer Damesek Eliezer: Yoreh deah (Belgrade, 1865), and Sefer Damesek Eliezer: Yoreh deah (Jerusalem, 1884). The halakhic texts commented in the article interpret the phenomenon of menstruation from a rabbinic point of view. At the same time the texts reveal some practices carried out by Sephardic women in the Ottoman Empire, in reference to the separation of men and women during the period of impurity, the counting of the seven clean days, corporal examination, and preparations for ritual immersion.