We live in a time when people feel that it's necessary to "#normalizebreastfeeding," where some consider publicly nursing your baby as scandalous or inappropriate. The same goes for breastfeeding toddlers and children. But in the Bible and the Midrash, nursing was already "normal," and it was broadly accepted that children would be nursed until age three. Public nursing is actually glorified in the Midrash, for example, as our mother Sara's way of proving that she could, in fact bear children. We will explore various early texts regarding the role and presence of nursing in the Bible and Midrash, to get a sense of how nursing was treated in biblical times. We can discuss how that might illuminate our views on breastfeeding today.
