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chapter five 8 Feminine Modesty and Women’s Role in Supporting the Family 1. The Talmudic Tradition T he standards of modesty expected of women, their right to leave their homes freely, and their role in supporting the family, exerted a significant influence upon the image of Jewish women both in their own eyes and in those of the surrounding society. The Talmudic heritage concerning this issue is not unequivocal. While the sages spoke extensively in praise of modesty generally and of feminine modesty in particular, seeing a woman’s remaining in her own home in a positive light, there are no clearcut prohibitions against the free movement of women. Rather, the sages’ remarks concerning this subject usually bear the character of ethical exhortation. The story of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, who went out“to see the daughters of the land”and ended up being raped, served as a paradigm for numerous homilies in praise of modesty and critical of women who behave in immodest ways.“A breach beckons to a thief”: If Dinah had not left her home to“see the daughters of the land,”then Shechem, son of Hamor, would not have abducted her and assaulted her. Numerous homilies represent her as the guilty party, so much so that at the end of the eleventh century R. Toviah son of R. Eliezer wrote in his book Leqah Tov that it would have been better for Jacob had Dinah never been born.1 The midrashic literature contains homilies related to this event denouncing women who go out in public bedecked in finery. The demand that a woman ornament herself only within her home, but not go out thus in public, is also common in ethical tracts written during the Middle Ages. The basic etymological sense of a woman who is modest (zenu’ah) is of one who is to be found in her own home. The halakhah even allowed a husband to divorce his wife because she is immodest and“violates Jewish practice”without requiring him to pay her ketubah money: “And what is Jewish practice? That she goes out in public and her head is uncovered, and she spins in the marketplace and speaks with every person.”2 The sages of the Middle Ages and particularly during the modern period deliberated over the practical application of this halakhah. Notwithstanding these and many similar statements in rabbinic literature in praise of feminine modesty and in condemnation of their “frivolity” or “lightness of mind,” there were also sages that criticized husbands who were excessively strict with their wives and prevented them from going out, portraying this as an exceptional act. In many of the Islamic countries in the Middle Ages, this was the accepted norm; what caused it was not the Talmudic tradition, but the reality of the surrounding Muslim society. Rashi saw fit to comment in his Talmud commentary that not only was the act of Papus ben Yehudah, who locked his wife in the house, exceptional, but that there was also a danger in following such a path: “‘And when he left his house to go to the market place he locked the door behind her, so that she might not speak with any person.’And this is an improper trait, for through this hostility enters between them, and she will be unfaithful to him.”3 Not only is there nothing to be gained from shutting the woman in the house but, on the contrary, it upsets their relations and may lead to unfaithfulness . Trust and fairness in relations between the couple, rather than suspicion and excessive caution, are the best assurances of mutual loyalty. But we seek in vain for general support of this view. Many Jews in Islamic countries were influenced by the Muslims’ strict attitude toward feminine modesty, who saw women leaving their homes and going about in public in a negative light, unless out of dire necessity. 2. Modesty in Muslim Society The Muslims were very strict about feminine modesty and recognized the husband ’s right to restrict the woman’s mobility.According to the Quran, Muhammed himself ordered his wives to remain at home and to be extremely careful about not speaking with strange men, lest the latter desire them. An interesting testimony of the extremes applied by medieval Muslims to feminine modesty is preserved in a hadith that relates of a husband who went on a journey and ordered his wife not to leave the house at all in his absence. The...

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