perceived in the way in which the exploits of David appealed to the
imaginations of the women when Saul's star was setting and David's
appearing above the horizon; for young women went out to meet the coming
hero and king with musical instruments, singing a song whose refrain
was:
"Saul hath slain his thousands,
David his tens of thousands."
The power of the feminine idea may be forcefully seen in the very common
conception of the nation itself as a young woman. Both prophet and
poet--and the prophets were usually poets--refer many times to the
"daughter of Zion," meaning the people of Israel.
The prophet Jeremiah, foreseeing the coming destruction of the army of
Babylon, says: "I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and
delicate woman" who is about to be ravaged by the invader. And Isaiah,
seeing the time at hand for the people to return from Babylonish exile,
cries out: "Loose thyself, O captive daughter of Zion."
Affection for the native land was strong among the women as well as
among the men. Lot's wife did not turn because of curiosity, but by
reason of the strong attachment to locality; she looked back longingly
toward her forsaken and burning home. The little Hebrew maid, torn by an
invading army of Syrians from her native land, was quick to tell Naaman,
the leper,--her new master,--of the virtues of her country and impelled
him to seek out Elisha, the prophet of Israel.
The social position of Hebrew women was exceptionally free and
independent. While a daughter's matrimonial plans were largely in the
hands of father and brother, and wives were expected to look up to their
husbands with all reverence, yet the recorded examples of independent
action and influence among the women reveal a place of social equality
and power, a lack of masculine restraint and domination that would do
credit to more modern times.
Deborah accompanied, if she did not lead, the soldiers into battle and
cheered them on to victory. The daughters of Shiloh, unaccompanied, were
accustomed annually to attend festal dances in the vineyards of
Benjamin. Women often went without escorts upon difficult and dangerous
missions. Prophetesses frequently exerted not only a powerful but at
times a decisive influence.
Marriage customs among the Hebrews in the days of the kings were not
greatly different from those of other Oriental people of the same era.
They differed but slightly from those of an earlier period. As a rule,
marriage was not born out of impulse of the heart; though there were
many marriages that surely ripened into love. If, as Jean Paul Richter
says, "Nature sent woman into the world with a bridal dower of love," we
have an explanation of the fact that there are many happy marriages in
Israel, notwithstanding the fact that the arrangements continued to be
largely in the hands of the parents. A daughter belonged to her father
till of age: after this she could not be betrothed except by her own
consent. Among the Hebrews betrothal was of the nature of an inviolable
contract, and could be annulled only by divorce. If not in early days,
yet in the later periods of Hebrew history there were writings of
betrothal which set forth the mutual agreements between the parties.
Later, there followed the marriage contract, also in writing. The amount
paid for a maiden came to be at least two hundred denars, and just
one-half as much for a widow. The father was to provide dowry according
to his ability, and an orphan girl's dowry was bestowed by the
community.
The marriage ceremony consisted of leading the bride from her father's
house to that of the bridegroom. At which time there was a season of
festivity and rejoicing. The marriage of a maiden usually occurred on
Wednesday evening, that of a widow on Thursday. The "children of the
bride chamber," the name by which the invited guests were called, made
merry at the "marriage feast," which was always provided and lasted
several days. As the procession passed along, going from the bride's to
the bridegroom's house, people along the route might join in the
festivities.
Grains of corn, nuts, and other edibles were the confetti tossed
good-humoredly at the bridal pair. It became the custom, which still
exists among Jews to-day, to break a glass bottle at Hymen's altar to
indicate that the former life is no more, and that the bride has entered
upon a new estate. Among the Hebrews the married woman was better
protected in her rights than among most people of ancient times. While
her property was usually under control of her husband, yet the dowry
came to be considered her own, whether it be money, property, or jewels.
A husband could not compel his wife to remove from the land of her
fathers; and in many ways her individual rights were protected. Woman's
inferior position in Greece was one element in the decline of that
remarkable country; the defilement of the womanhood of Rome hastened the
downfall of that city's power; but the protection given to Hebrew
wifehood and widowhood became an element of great strength in the life
of Israel.
The Greek attitude toward woman could probably be reflected in the old
saying: "A woman who is never spoken of is praised most." In the period
of Rome's decay women became immodestly conspicuous in the social and
public functions of the day. As opposed to both these conditions the
Hebrew, the wise man in the Proverbs, calls her a virtuous woman whom
her husband can praise in the very gates.
Edersheim calls attention to a suggestive custom which sprung up from
the slight difference of sound in the words for "find" in two passages
of Scripture concerning women, both of which occur in the wisdom
writings. The first of these reads: "Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a
good thing." (Proverbs 18: 22.) The other, "I find more bitter than
death the woman whose heart is snares and nets." Hence arose the habit
of saying to a newly married man, "_Maza_ or _Moze?_" "Have you found a
'good thing' or a 'bitter'?"
The tendency in Israel continued to restrict marriage to one's own
tribe. The law of inheritance gave force to this custom. Those very near
of kin were thus regarded as most eligible for wedlock. Jacob married
two of his first cousins. A similar situation is seen in the marriage of
Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebecca. Each husband, under specially
trying circumstances, had claimed that his wife was his "sister," and so
she was,--for in the patriarchal form of society all who belonged to the
same family or clan were brother and sister,--but not in the strict
sense which the word was intended to convey. While brothers and sisters
of the whole blood might not marry, yet it would not have been regarded
as altogether out of place for half-brothers and sisters to marry,
especially if they had a different mother.
The story of Amnon and Tamar not only throws light upon this point, but
illustrates how brother and sister by the same father as well as the
same mother stood in a greatly different relation, the one to the other,
in the matter of brotherly protection from that of half-brother and
half-sister.
Amnon, son of David, fell desperately in love with his half-sister,
David's daughter, Tamar. By a cunningly devised plot Amnon succeeded in
bringing the beautiful damsel into his chamber. When Absalom, Tamar's
brother and half-brother to Amnon, heard that his sister had thus been
dealt with, he felt himself under obligation to defend her honor, by
slaying his half-brother, which he did at a feast given during the
season of sheep shearing, when the king's sons were all making merry.
The remark of Frances Power Cobbe is as true in Israel as elsewhere. "A
man may build a castle or a palace, but poor creature! be he as wise as
Solomon or as rich as Croesus, he cannot turn it into a home. No
masculine mortal can do that. It is a woman, and only a woman,--a woman
all by herself if she must, or prefers, without any man to help
her,--who can turn a house into a home." It was the Hebrew wife and
mother who largely gave to the homes of the Israelites their peculiar
quality. But it may be said it was seldom her necessity or her
preference to set up a home without the presence of some son of Israel.
The birth of children was always considered an occasion for rejoicing.
Hebrew women were, as a rule, active and strong, and natural in their
mode of life. There are but two cases in all the Hebrew Scriptures of
death at the time of childbirth. One is that of Rachel, who, when upon a
fatiguing journey with her husband and family, gave birth to Benjamin
and died; the other is the wife of Phineas, who, when she heard the sad
news of the victory of the Philistines over Israel, the capture of the
Ark of Jehovah, of her father Eli's and her husband's death in the
battle, gave birth to a child whom the nurse called Ichabod, for said
she: "The glory is departed from Israel." In the naming of her children
the Hebrew mother thus often revealed a poetic imagination that is of a
high order. In this the Hebrew language was helpful, for, as one has
remarked of it: "Every word is a picture."
The bright eyes and graceful form of the gazelle suggested the name for
a daughter of Tabitha, of which Dorcas is the Greek. Zipporah was a
little bird; Deborah, the busy bee; Esther, a star; Tamar, a palm tree;
Zillah, a shadow; Sarah, the princess; Keturah, fragrance; Hadassah, the
myrtle. Thus, some resemblance or poetic association suggested to the
mother, either at the birth of the child, or because of some fact or
incident of later experience, the name the little one was to bear. Often
there is a tragedy or a mother's sorrowful life history crystallized in
a name. When Rachel, Jacob's favored wife, brought forth her second son
amidst the suffering which was to take away her life, the woman standing
by tried to comfort her in the fact that another son had been born to
bless her. The mother, with her last faint breath, replied: "Call his
name Benoni (son of my sorrow)." But the father, unwilling thus to
perpetuate his wife's anguish, called him Benjamin (son of my right
hand). When Naomi, the widow, bereft of her husband and sons, returns to
her native Bethlehem after many years of absence and of sorrow, the
women came out to meet her, saying: "Is this Naomi?" She answered them:
"Call me not Naomi (pleasant or winsome), call me Mara (bitter), for the
Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me." So, among the Hebrews, names
not only were given to both men and women at birth, but were frequently
changed at some critical moment or because of some extraordinary
experience in their life. Ordinarily, however, the favorite method of
naming sons connected the boy in some way with his God; as when Hannah
named her baby boy Samuel (God hath heard), and the name of Jacob (the
supplanter), was changed to Israel (the prince of God). The girls seldom
if ever bore names ending in _el_ (God), _ajah_ (Jehovah), but were
called by some name of poetic association or natal experience. In no
respect do the Hebrew mothers deserve greater praise than for their
share in the upbringing of children. While the Jewish law placed the
responsibility for the training of the Hebrew youth upon the father, a
very large share of the responsibility fell upon the mother. With the
Hebrew child, as with the children of all nations, it is impossible to
say exactly where its education begins. The famous dictum: "If you would
bring up a child in the way it should go, you must begin with its
great-grandmother," finds special force among the Israelites. The women
held an honored place in the education of the Jewish youth. Before the
child could walk or could lisp a syllable, while still in its mother's
arms, it would see her, as she passed from one room to another in the
house, stop and touch the _mesusah_ on the doorpost, and then kiss the
finger that had thus come in contact with the sacred words of the law
encased there. The little one would easily learn to put out its own tiny
finger and touch the aperture of the sacred box on the doorpost, and
then press it to the baby lips.
Here was the first lesson in the law of its fathers. Very early the
mother took her babe to the temple, and offered a sacrifice for it.
Especially was the birth of the firstborn significant, for the firstborn
son belonged to Jehovah, just as the firstborn of the herd and the flock
and the first-fruits of the ground. These must be sacrificed on the
altar of the Lord. But, happily for the mother heart, the firstborn son
might be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb, or, if the mother were
poor, by a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. So the young
mother brought her boy to the altar, made her offering, and took her
babe back to her bosom.
From the time of offering onward, the mother greatly aided in shaping
the life of the young Israelite. In this training the sacred Scriptures
played an important part. The rabbis, however, never regarded women as
becoming masters of the intricacies of the law. It was a saying among
them that "Women are of a light mind." This was doubtless an appropriate
remark, for it is certainly true that much of the rabbinic lore is
heavy, almost beyond expression. There were not a few women, though, who
were well versed in the Scriptures and also in rabbinical teaching. The
synagogues were open to the women, where they occupied seats partitioned
from those of the men. The attendance of women upon the great feasts,
where much could be learned of custom, tradition, and teaching, also
gave them opportunity to be instructed in the religion of their fathers.
The Christian apostle Paul congratulated his young friend Timothy, that
from a babe he had known the Hebrew Scriptures, which he had learned
from his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. These are typical
mothers of the higher order; and while probably only the richer homes
owned a copy of the entire Bible, most families possessed at least one
or more scrolls containing parts of the sacred writings.
The strength of motherly devotion was nowhere stronger than among the
mothers of Israel. The spirit of Rizpah was the spirit of most of them.
For when seven of her sons, the sons of Saul, had been slain and their
bodies exposed, in the revolution which brought David to the throne,
Rizpah took a piece of sackcloth, and, spreading it upon a rock near by,
guarded the bodies of her offspring from the beginning of barley harvest
till the early rains: that neither birds might molest them by day nor
beasts of the field by night.
Home life among the Hebrews of Palestine to-day is marked by much that
characterized that life ten or even twenty centuries ago; therefore a
few facts concerning the home life in the Jerusalem of to-day will teach
us much concerning that of the past. Probably nine-tenths of the native
homes of Jerusalem are unpretentious, unattractive, uncomfortable, and
show signs of poverty. The people have learned the fine art of economy
in house room. Father, mother, and the multitude of little ones with
which the Jewish home is usually blessed do not find it difficult to be
tucked snugly away in two or three rooms. These give ample space for
cooking, dining, sleeping, and performing the necessary labor of
domestic life; besides furnishing opportunity for the hospitality for
which the East is still justly noted. Call any time you will, on any
business bent, and your hostess, if there be no servant, will, before
you are permitted to mention the matter of your call, bring to you a
glass of wine or perhaps a cup of coffee to refresh you. This, too,
though the family be poor and it be deprivation for even this repast to
be served to the guest. And though you know of the sacrifice the hostess
makes, you must not refuse, lest you offend and wound the spirit of
hospitality at its very heart.
The brunt of the work of the house falls, of course, upon the wife and
mother. And it is doubtful if the place of the woman of the Palestine of
to-day, even among the Jewish families, is as high as in the days of
Israel's independence and power. While great respect is shown the father
as head of the family, the mother is often scarcely more than the
servant of her children. The sons especially do not give her the respect
that was once her unquestioned due. The girl is from her birth looked
upon and treated as inferior to her brothers. Patiently, all women of
the Orient seem to bear this inferiority--a sort of penalty they must
pay because Heaven made them women and not men. The young girl's
matrimonial prospects are never in her own hands. She tamely submits to
arrangements made for her, and, without test or questioning, assumes
that her husband is her superior in all things.
Education among the girls of modern Palestine has been almost hopelessly
neglected--except as teachers from England and America have been able to
supply the deficiency or overcome the indifference. There is little
wonder that home life is unattractive and the housekeeping miserable
with so little possibility for the women to catch even a glimpse of the
higher things that elevate and refine. Sometimes the Jewish girl is a
wife as early as ten or twelve, and frequently at the age of fourteen.
Thus home life is often rendered unhappy and divorce frequent. Physical,
mental, and moral anguish follow in the wake of many of these early
marriages. The young Jewish maiden's life is cheerless before her
wedlock, as she is shut out from the joys of social gatherings; and,
after marriage, cheerlessness gives way to impenetrable gloom. To say
that there are no happy marriages would be wide of the mark. But
divorces are sadly common among the Jews of Palestine to-day; the
husband having almost unlimited power to break, under very slight
provocation, the bond that binds him to his wife. The rabbi must of
course confirm the dissolution of the bond, and thirty piasters is the
price. The effect of this custom upon modern Jewish womanhood in the
venerated land of Rebekah and Rachel is most unhappy.
Home life in ancient Israel was singularly sweet, pure, and industrious.
The family was both the social and the religious unit. Idleness was
considered a curse; and every child was taught to train his hands as
well as to cultivate his heart.
The occupations of women were numerous and varied. Everywhere in the
East needlework was and is highly prized. Mothers set their children at
it at a very early age and great skill is often attained. The poorer
women frequently earn with their own fingers the amount of their
marriage portion; and in the hours of seclusion wives of the harem have
always found embroidery and other forms of rich needlework a common
pastime for the empty hours.
While working in skins, clay, and in metals was reserved for the men,
the Hebrew women were very largely the producers of the food and the
wearing apparel. They assisted in the cultivation of the fields, were
the millers, grinding with their primitive stone mortar and pestle, the
bakers, the weavers and spinners, making use of the hand spindle which
may be seen in Syria and in Egypt to-day, though in the latter country
the men shared with the women the skill in this handicraft. Among the
Hebrews, as with the Greeks, Clotho is a woman.
We find the virtuous woman, as ideally drawn in the Book of Proverbs, to
be one who finds good wool and flax and works willingly with her hands;
distaff and spindle fly at her finger's bidding, so that her whole
household sits doubly clothed in scarlet, and even fine linen is wrought
in her house, and rich girdles go out to the merchantmen. She makes the
field and vineyard turn out profitably and imports her food from afar.
Whether as shepherdess, gleaner, or the maker of food stuffs or
textiles, the Hebrew woman may justly hold a place of respect among her
sex.
Among the amusements in which women specially engaged, those of music
and dancing should be given first place. These often had a religious or
semi-religious character. Women did not usually sit down, or rather
recline, at banquets with the opposite sex. Their songs and dances were
generally among themselves; dancing with the opposite sex was unknown.
Instrumental music frequently accompanied their singing, a sort of
tambourine or hand drum being a favorite instrument. Women played an
important part also in mourning customs. Professional female mourners
were hired to go up and down the highways, wailing piteously as part of
the funeral rites. The prophet Nahum in predicting the overthrow of
Nineveh uses a figure suggested by frequent observation of mourning:
"Her maids shall lead her, as with the voice of doves, tabering upon
their breasts."
The religious status of woman is one of the most significant facts in
Israel's history. Passing out of the patriarchal stage of life, when the
father was high priest in his home, into a more complex existence, it is
not surprising that woman's place should become subordinated. Besides
this, the Hebrew worshipped no goddesses, except in times of religious
lapses. The women of Israel, however, are often found engaged in
sacrifices, prayers, and active service to their God Jehovah.
While only the men were required to attend the annual feasts, the
attendance of women in large numbers is often recorded. Their presence
seems to be presupposed in the accounts of Hebrew worship; though for
them the annual religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem were not obligatory.
In the temple worship they had a separate court, further removed from
the inner precincts of the holy altar than the court of the men. And
while they might join in the eating of some sacrificial meals, the sin
offering was only to be partaken of by males. The official duties of the
sanctuary were performed by men, but there were "serving women" who
performed certain menial tasks about the sacred enclosure. When the
temple ritual became elaborated, women were among the singers in the
temple choirs, and they often aided in the music and by singing and
dancing in times of great national rejoicing. And it is not without its
suggestiveness that the Hebrews spoke of a divine revelation as _Bath
Kol_, or "daughter voice."
In the days when religious secretism became popular in Israel, and the
people began to divide the exclusive adoration they had hitherto given
to Jehovah and to worship other gods and even goddesses, women became
prominent in idolatrous rites. Jezebel, who was a worshipper of the
Phoenician goddess Ashtoreth, not only became the patron of the priests
and puppets of the Baal cult, but endeavored to break down Jehovah
worship by the destruction of his prophets. Maachah, the mother of King
Asa of the southern kingdom of Judah, introduced the worship of the
Assyrian goddess Astarte. Devotion to Ishtar, the chief goddess of
Babylon became the fashion in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah the
prophet, who tells of Hebrew women kneading dough and baking cakes in
shape of the silvery moon in honor of the "queen of heaven," Ishtar, the
moon goddess; or perhaps, as some hold, this was the worship of the
planet Venus, for similar offerings were made in Arabia to the goddess
Al-Uzza, who was represented by the star Venus; and the Athenians too,
we are told, offered cakes of the shape of the full moon in honor of
Artemis.
During the period of the Babylonish captivity, before the final fall of
Jerusalem, Ezekiel rebukes the women of Jerusalem for worshipping
Tammuz, the Babylonian Adonis, who had been taken to the under world;
for, says the prophet, "There sat the women weeping for Tammuz," the
departed husband of Ishtar.