Woman.
The exalted place given to woman in Jewish teaching is in pleasing and remarkable contrast with her inferior position in the orient and throughout antiquity generally. In some respects she is made subordinate in the Jewish law, and is given a comparatively passive place in religious life; but on the whole the sages of the Talmudic era nobly resisted the example of their environment, in the reverence they paid to womanhood.
"God gave more understanding to woman than to man."
"All blessing in the household comes through the wife; therefore should her husband honor her."
"Man should consult his wife, treating her as a companion not a plaything; making her what God intended, a help-meet for him."
"Be careful not to cause woman to cry, for God counts her tears."
"He who loves his wife as himself and honors her more than himself, will train his children rightly."
Rab Jose: "I never call my wife wife, but home."
"He who dependeth on his wife's earnings will be deprived of blessing."
"Who is rich? Who has a good wife."
"Culture in woman is better than gold."
"Woman's sense of shame is deeper than man's."
"He who has no wife is not a complete man."
"Israel was redeemed from Egypt on account of the virtue of its women."
CHAPTER XXXVII.
SAYINGS AND STORIES OF THE SAGES.
(CONTINUED)
Work.
"Work dignifies the worker."
"He enjoys life who lives by the work of his hands."
"Work is more pleasing in God's sight than ancestral merit."
"Strip a carcass in the street and take pay for it, and say not: 'I am a priest or a great man and this work is beneath me.'"
The Fourth Commandment makes rest conditional on work.
"God did not dwell in the midst of Israel till they had built a sanctuary."
"Work must not be neglected for study."
"He who says 'I have toiled and not found,' believe him not; he who says 'I have not toiled yet have I found,' believe him not."
"Who does not bring his son up to a trade teaches him to be a robber."
"It is well to add a trade to your studies to be free from sin."
"Position cannot honor the man; the man must honor the position."
"Famine passes by the workman's door."
"Artisans need not interrupt their labors to rise before the passing scholars."
"Rather be a menial than a dependent."