Breastfeeding and Judaism, part I: background and religious roots

Years ago, when I was a new mother, my infant daughter was hungry, so I latched her on. It didn’t occur to me that there was anything wrong with doing this during Friday night Shabbat services in the synagogue. So I was quite shocked and upset when a woman rushed over to say that they weren’t “comfortable with that sort of thing” and asked me to leave the sanctuary and go sit in a cramped room to breastfeed alone.

While cuddling my baby, I fumed. I am an atheist Jew – which means I’m not religious, but my culture and ethnicity matter to me – and I had only agreed to attend services with my relatives in Chicago as a favour to them. The synagogue was Conservative, and I realised that it was conservative with a lower-case c too.

When I talked to other Jewish people about my experience, I found that they often had quite different ones. They felt supported by Judaism to breastfeed. Some felt it was a religious requirement to breastfeed, others felt it was a key part of their spirituality, and many breastfed in synagogue without an issue. 

So I decided to do more research to find out what Judaism really says about breastfeeding. It’s important to note that Jews – like any religious or ethnic group – vary hugely, both in terms of religiosity and also culture and background. So what a Haredi parent feels, believes, and does will not necessarily be the same as a Reform Jew, or a Reconstructionist Jew, or a Conservative, or an Orthodox, or a…you get the point. Similarly, there are three main Jewish ethnicities – Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi, depending on where your ancestors came from – and they too have different beliefs and traditions. And, of course, where you live will influence your understanding of breastfeeding, which means that Jews in America will be impacted by the pump-centric culture in the US, while Jews in Israel won’t necessarily be.

Plus, if there’s anything Jews like more than studying and discussing, I’m not sure what it is. Don’t forget the old joke about how you can get 20 Jews in a room and end up with at least 25 distinct views on a single subject. So there are certainly differences of opinion about what Jewish law and culture says about breastfeeding.

With all this in mind, here are some useful bits of information about breastfeeding and Judaism, starting with background, and including fasting, pumping, menstruation, and more. Please note that as I am talking about breastfeeding people who primarily identify as women, I will generally use she/her pronouns, but I do recognise that these words and pronouns don’t apply to all Jewish parents.

Religious roots to breastfeeding

Rabbi David Kimhi, a medieval biblical commentor usually known as RaDaK, wrote, referencing Psalm 8: “The first of the distinguishing marks in man after his coming into the (light and) air of the world is the power to suck.” In other words, breastfeeding is one of the key characteristics for humans, and some would believe that it was designed this way by a god. Viewing sucking like this in turn impacts how Jews understand breastfeeding.

Hannah Katsman, an IBCLC in Israel, notes that for Jews, caring for your children is a religious obligation (and a pleasure), and that such care includes breastfeeding. She told me, “To me and to many women, breastfeeding is an important part of our religious practice. The Torah goes to great pains to emphasize how important it was for Moshe, the greatest prophet in the Torah, to nurse directly from his mother and not from an Egyptian woman. Rulings that minimize women’s role in caring for their babies, or that interfere with the connection with their babies, make me feel like my role as a Jewish mother isn’t being valued.”

On her website, where she writes about breastfeeding, among other topics, Hannah goes into more detail, “Two biblical stories shed light on a Jewish approach to breastfeeding. Baby Moses, hidden so he wouldn’t be killed by Pharaoh’s evil decree, was placed in a basket on the Nile. His sister stood by to make sure he would be safe. When Pharaoh’s daughter rescued Moses, she sent for a wet nurse from the Hebrew slaves. According to the Midrash, an early compilation of rabbinic interpretations of Exodus, Moses refused to nurse from an Egyptian wet nurse. The leader of the Jewish people was nursed only by his own mother. In Judaism nursing is more than food—it plays a key role in transmitting religion, values and culture. Hannah also nursed her son, Samuel, for several years before sending him to study under Eil and fulfill his life’s mission as a prophet (I Samuel, Ch. 2). Rabbinic texts define the nursing period from between two to four or five years old.”

Rachel Neve Midbar, a Jewish mother of six and also a PhD student, reminded me that in the bible, Sarah was 99 years old when her son Yitzhak (Isaac) was born. She breastfed him so people would know that she was the one birthed him. She nursed him for two years, which is possibly where some people get the idea that Jewish women should breastfeed for at least two years.

And by the way, there’s one story in Judaism (among other places, it comes up in the Genesis Rabbah midrash, which is a collection of analyses of the story of Genesis) about a man breastfeeding. His wife died and God then gave the man the ability to breastfeed and sustain the baby. I’d imagine there are some people who wish that it was possible for a spouse to help out in this way.

In sum, then, there are clear religious roots to breastfeeding for some Jews, as well as a number of references in religious texts to the act. It is also part of cultural tradition (although obviously the formula industry has impacted Jewish people as well as everyone else). Breastfeeding can thus be considered an obligation (and a joy) for the mother but there is also an obligation for her community to support her with it. So what should we as breastfeeding counsellors or IBCLCs know about Jews and breastfeeding?

For the other installments of this series, see:
Part II: fasting and menstruation
Part III: modesty and breastfeeding in shul
Part IV: pumping and wearning