Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages » (1st Edition)

Israel Jacob Yuval is a professor for Jewish History and the Academic Head of "Scholion-
Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies" at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is author of Scholars in Their Time: The Religious Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle Ages (1988).

Since it was first published in Hebrew in 2000, this provocative book has been garnering acclaim and stirring controversy for its bold reinterpretation of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the Middle Ages, especially in medieval Europe. Looking at a remarkably wide array of source material, Israel Jacob Yuval argues that the inter-religious polemic between Judaism and Christianity served as a substantial component in the mutual formation of each of the two religions. He investigates ancient Jewish Passover rituals; Jewish martyrs in the Rhineland who in 1096 killed their own children; Christian perceptions of those ritual killings; and events of the year 1240, when Jews in northern France and Germany expected the Messiah to arrive. Looking below the surface of these key moments, Yuval finds that, among other things, the impact of Christianity on Talmudic and medieval Judaism was much stronger than previously assumed and that a "rejection of Christianity" became a focal point of early Jewish identity. Two Nations in Your Womb will reshape our understanding of Jewish and Christian life in late antiquity and over the centuries.

List of Illustrations     ix
Preface to the Hebrew Edition     xi
Preface to the English Edition     xvii
Introduction: Et Major Serviet Minori (and the Elder Will Serve the Younger)     1
The Thematic Framework     1
The Early Typology: Esau Id Est Edom     3
The Late Typology: Edom Id Est Roma     10
The Conciliatory Approach of Modern Research     20
The Mother, the Daughter, and the Sister     26
Rome of Jerusalem: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Hostility     31
The Sons of Ephraim and the Son of Joseph     33
Vindicta Salvatoris (The Vengeance of the Savior)     38
Legends of the Destruction-Anti-Christian?     49
The Passover of Egypt and the Passover of Jerusalem     56
Development of the Stories     62
Parallels Between the Jewish Haggadah and the Christian "Haggadahs"     68
The "Midrash" of the Haggadah     77
Conclusions     87
A Note on the Research     90
The Vengeance and the Curse: Hostility to Christianity Among Ashkenazic Jewry     92
Vengeful Redemption     93
Proselytizing Redemption     109
The Curse     115
The Curse on YomKippur     119
Pour Out Thy Wrath     123
The Impression of the Curses on Christians     130
Intersecting Stories: From Martyrdom to Ritual Murder Accusations     135
The Blood     135
Self-Sacrifice     144
The Sacrifice of Children     154
The Libel     159
The Impact of the Blood Sacrifice on Christians     161
The Libel of Blois and the Story of Bristol     190
Inverted Ceremonies: The Host, the Matzah, and the Quarrel     205
The Great Sabbath     209
The Burning of Leaven     229
The Eruv of Courtyards     236
The Afikoman     239
Haroset     248
Summary     255
The End of the Millennium (1240): Jewish Hopes, Christian Fears     257
Calculations of the End at the Turn of the Jewish Millennium     258
Messianism, Immigration to the Land of Israel, and Settling the Land     267
Fulda 1235, Paris 1240: Christian Reactions?     274
The Mongolian Threat: The Ten Tribes? Gog and Magog?     284
A Synchronic Overview     288
A Jewish End and a Christian End     291
Index     297