Mother's Milk
Essays on Child-Rearing, the Household, and the Making of Jewish Culture

Deena Aranoff (Author)

9780253073709

Hardback, published 2 September 2025

172 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg

This book engages with an age-old question: What accounts for the persistence of Jewish culture through the ages? Despite significant variations, how were Jewish cultural elements sustained over the millennia?
Mother's Milk: Essays on Child-Rearing, the Household, and the Making of Jewish Culture proposes that we include the earliest phases of child-rearing in the history of Jewish cultural production. Author Deena Aranoff argues that some of the most enduring aspects of Jewish culture are produced in the context of household and family relations.
Mother's Milk examines how Jewish practices, including rabbinic halakhah, are derived from household custom and unfold within the context of family life. Aranoff proposes a revised genealogy of Jewish culture that emphasizes the interplay between everyday life and formal Jewish practice.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Trifold Cord
1. Mother as Cultural Matrix
2. Household and Halakhah: A Genealogy of Jewish Practice
3. Conversas and Culture
4. Constant Matters
Conclusion: The Path of Hillel
Notes
Bibliography
Index