Composed of old by worthy sages,
Wherein 'tis said that we must bless
Heaven in woe and happiness;
And humbly then these words I say
(With silent protest and dismay),
“O Lord, I thank thee ('tis not scorn)
That I was not a woman born[[107-1]].”
There are other similar passages in the Eben Bochan, in some of which the author ridicules, for instance, the way in which his fellow religionists were in the habit of celebrating the various feasts in the Jewish calendar. They entirely overlooked, he says, the moral significance attached to these days by their religion, but considered them to have been specially ordained for the sake of feasting and merry-making. Even the New Year's Day and the Day of Atonement were not spent by them in sincere devotion, but rather in quarrelling with each other about petty religious usages, to which they attributed much greater weight than they deserved.
Kalonymos elsewhere directs his attention to the prevailing faults of his neighbours. The objects of his satire are: the wealthy but ignorant Jewish snob; the conceited would-be literary genius; the questionable Talmudical and Hebrew scholar; and, lastly, the Jewish hypocrite, the man who essays to appear outwardly religious, while his heart is full of roguery. The latter is described by our author as follows:—
A hypocrite is strange of race,