Caesarean Section in the Talmud A Renewed Examination of a Historical Enigma

This contribution revisits ancient sources that may indicate the acquaintance of people in (late) antiquity with the surgical practice known in Western (medical) lan-guages as Caesarean section, or C-section. Most of the pre-modern references across various cultures are limited to mythological and other narrative accounts (e. g., folktales); at-testations of surgical interventions by doctors or in medical literature are rare. In rabbinic literature, one finds the label אצויןפוד (yoṣe dofen ‘exiting through the wall’ ) used to des-ignate a child that is not born the natural way – namely, through the vaginal birth channel. Still, even this label remains ambiguous and is enmeshed in a complex religious and legal (halakhic) discourse. Using a comparative approach, the contribution demonstrates that Caesarean section was performed on women who died in childbirth in various ancient cultures and was known to the rabbis from cases of medical emergencies or capital punish-ment. It is argued that Talmudic discussions of Caesarean section involving a living woman were merely a theoretical construct, induced by the legendary stories and then directed to-ward the halakhic debate, focusing in particular on the rights of the firstborn.