Toward a Historical and Spiritual Understanding of Child Development: The Medieval Commentaries of Rabbi Moshe Yehuda ibn Mahiri

This article examines questions of the intergenerational transmission of religious, cultural, and ethical values through the analysis of a 16th‐century religious text that discusses the ages and stages of the human life span from birth until age 100. This article examines ibn Mahiri's text in an attempt to understand his perspectives on the psychological and spiritual characteristics of children at different stages of development. The article draws on the contributions of cultural anthropology, theology, and psychology in order to gain a better understanding of ibn Mahiri's beliefs about the construction of self and identity within a specific cultural and religious milieu.