Wichita eagle., 1890-01-08
WOMEN AMONG THE JEWS
THE POSITION OF WOMEN UNDER
THE TALMUDlC DOCTRINE.

THE TALMUDlc DOCTRINE.
The Rabbis the Cham pions Of the Weaker
Sex-The Talmud Makes Celibacy Sim
full AID the Family the Corner Stone of
a Religious Life.
Principal Donaldson contributes an article
to Contemporary Review on the Position of
Women Among the Early Christians" The
results Of his investigation go to show that
women occupied an inferior position among
the early Christian communities and that it
by no means lies in the mouths Of Christian
opponents Of the TalInud to charge it with
depreciation of the female sex. DR.. Donald
son tells us that, in common with most peo-
pie, be used to believe that woman owes her
present high position to Christianity" But
now he is of opinion that in the first centu-
ries, at any rate, Christianity tended to lower
her character and to contract the range OF
her activity. 1t is true that the sex plays an
important part in the gospel story, but with
the advent of St Paul @ change comes over
the scene The apostles bitterness toward
women has been accounted for by the alleged
rejection of his suit by the daughter OF the
high priest at Jerusalem, slight for which
he avenged himself by denouncing both cere-
monial Judaism and women Be that as it
may, st. Paul's attitude toward the sex Was
the signal fer a policy which the church
faithfully pursued during the first thres
centuries
WOMAN A DRUDGE.
This policy was all the more remarkable
because it was SO diametrically opposed to
the tendency of contemporaneous thought
and manners in the Roman empire. In Rome
the fetters of ancient tradition were being
broken and women admitted to a position of
greater equality. The church was far less
hberal-nay, far less just. Religiously, wo-
man was almost nonenity, despite the fact
that Jesus had revealed some OF his higher
teachings to women in preference to men
The highest post in the church to which a
woman could aspire was that of doorkeep-
er. The sex was no better off in the social
sense. A woman was household drudge,
who was to find in domestic duties her proper
occupation and her sole amusement. She
was never to go abroad except to visit the
sick or to attend church, and then she was
to be closely yelled. Man was human being
made for the highest and noblest purposes;
She was on the earth to inhame the heart of
man with every evil passion. 1t is easy to
understand how there came to be joined with
this low estimate OF the sex depreciation of
marriage If marriage was not absolutely
condemned, it was considered morally in
ferior state to cehbacy. The higher life was
necessarily the single life. Hence celibacy
was especially recommended to the clergy.
o rI
children. Children were ''burdens;;" there
were already too many Of them in the world.
In the patristic literature of the Second and
Third centuries but little is said of the train
ing Of children, nothing of efforts to instruct
them.
When it is remembered that the first three
centuries of Christianity fall within the Tai |
mudic period, the significance Of DR.. Donald
sons article becomes evident. 1t is impossi-
bic to deny that the invectives of the church
fathers against women are occasionally echo
ed by some of the rabbis But every such |
echo can be matched by an utterance Of a
totally opposite character. Unlike the early !
Christian teachers, the Talmudlc doctors !
made 8 determined and often successful ef- |
fort to rise to the level of the best tendencies
Of their age, and to give to woman that social
and religious position which belonged to her |
by right. Indeed, they could hardly have
done otherwise, seeing how greatly they were
influenced by the spirit of the Bible II is |
safe to affirm that every attempt to disparage |
the character and to injure the position of
woman is a violation OF the implied teaching |
of the Hebrew Scriptures. The wonder is.
not that the rabbis are so often the cham
pions of the sex, but that they could have
been its antagonists even for single moment
JEWISH IDEA OF HOME.
On the other points dealt with by DR.. Don
aldson tho Talnud is stin more directly at
variance with the church fathers. Marriage, |
according to Judaism, both early and late, is |
not merely not inferior to celibacy, but the
only state compatible with a religious life |
Ceibacy is positively declared by the Tai |
mud to be a sinful state, the unmarried man
TO be virtually guilty of homicide. The cell
bate, it afiirns further, lives without bless
ing, without JOY, without peace. He is not |
truly man, the rabbis say again; in other
words, his life lacks that completeness and |
dignity which marriage alone can give. On
this subject there is no difference Of opinion
among the Taimudic doctors. The superior
ity of the marriage state as the necessary
not only of the social well being
but of the truly religious life, is G principle
which has lain at the very root Of Jewish
doctrine in every age. Never for single
moment did the Jewish sage initiate the
church father in regarding offspring as
burdens which it would be expedieut no,
10 multiply. The anxiety attending the
training OF children" was not overlooked,
but never was it made an excuse for the
evasion of the most solemn OF earthly duties
The Israelite could contemplate no higher
task than that of training children Ia the
fear of God
e,his characteristic of Jewish teaching has
had its practical effects which survive at the
present day. It is because Judaism has al
ways made the family tho corner stone of re-
ligiOus life that the jews retain those religious
and moral features which have ALWAYS dis
tinguished him The conservation OF domestic
life is the secret of the vitality of Judaism,
md il is the explanation OF the jews superb
OF vitality. If the Jew is still the pattern of
domestic virtue, if he preserves his faith in
the old adage that there is no place like
home if he is a devoted husband and an al
fectionate, self sacrificing father, If intem-
perance and violence and cruelty are his spe
,Ial denominations 1t is because in his ewes
home is a sacred spot and married life holy
,tate.-Jewish Chronicle
Red Tame in Railroa6fnr