THE JEWISH MOTHER
JEWISH custom bids the Jewish mother, after her preparations for the Sabbath have been completed on Friday evening, kindle the Sabbath lamp. That is symbolic of the Jewish woman’s influence on her own home, and through it upon larger circles. She is the inspirer of a pure, chaste, family life whose hallowing influences are incalculable; she is the centre of all spiritual endeavours, the confidante and fosterer of every undertaking. To her the Talmudic sentence applies: ‘It is woman alone through whom God’s blessings are vouchsafed to a house’.
HENRIETTA SZOLD, 1893.
YIDDISH CRADLE SONG
O! HUSH thee, my darling, sleep soundly my son,
Sleep soundly and sweetly till day has begun;
For under the bed of good children at night
There lies, till the morning, a kid snowy white.