“Thou speakest more foolishly than Job’s wife. Now we see whence Yeshua sucked his blasphemies.”
“It is my first-born!” she repeated more frenziedly.
“Thy first-born! But did he keep to-day the Fast of the First-born?”
“Let her go, Yussef,” pleaded Halphaï. “As Rabbi Hillel taught (his memory for a blessing), the Sabbath was handed to man, not man to the Sabbath!”
“And the wife to the husband,” retorted Yussef, “not the husband to the wife. I forbid thee, Miriam, to disturb the Passover peace. Go—and I put thee away publicly!”
She blenched and sank back on the divan. “Peace?” she moaned. “Thou callest this peace!”
“Obey thy lord, Miriam! I will go.” And Halphaï’s wife stooped and kissed her.
Miriam burst into loud sobs. She caught her sister to her breast, and the two women mingled their tears.
The carpenter shrugged his shoulders. “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast not made me a woman,” he said drily.