ABSTRACT
PRESENT-DA Y observers are commonly struck by the domesticity of Jewish men. Even the working man among the Jews spends his leisure at home. This feature of Jewish life dates from the early middle ages, and is easily explained. Judaism demanded devout attention to aU the details of life, and the man rather than the woman possessed the knowledge necessary for obeying the minutiae of the home ritual. A large section of these details concerned the preparation of food, the family regulations for the Sabbath, and the more occasional household arrangements, such as the Easter cleansing of the home and the removal of leaven. Rabbi Solomon ben Adret had a lock made to his stove and kept the key over the Sabbath to prevent his too considerate housemaid from lighting a fire on Saturdays 1. Thus the Jewish husband played a personal role in the kitchen as well as in the market-place. He was especially busy on Thursdays and Fridays. Eagerly would he bargain for Sabbath dainties in the crowded market, though, in order to circumvent the trick of non-Jewish fishmongers
who raised the prices on Fridays, he would sometimes reluctantly abst;:tin from purchasing that most beloved article of Sabbath food-fish 1. Mostly, however, he would not be deprived of this dainty, and would hurry home with his bargains, breathless and eager for his wife's admiring approval. He knew the prices, he understood qualities, and was an adept in examining fruits and vegetables. He would not be cheated like the ordinary man of to-day. On Friday the husband would help in the cleansing of the crockery and saucepans, and would lovingly join his wife in spreading the table for the adequate reception of the Sabbath Bride. All this anxiety on the part of the husband must have made him something of a nuisance: he must have been rather too much of a" critic and too little of an admirer to please thriftless housewives. But I fancy the gain far outweighed the loss. The wife had a homeloving lord, who perhaps derived sorpe of his devotion to his family from his intimate participation in all the pleasures and anxieties of home management. When we add the reflections that the Jewish home was the scene of some of the most touching· and inspiring religious rites, that the sanctity of the home was an affectionate tradition linking the Jew with a golden chain to his fathers before him, that amidst the degradations heaped upon him throughout the middle ages he was emancipated at least in one spot on earth, that he learned from his domestic peace to look with pitiful rather than vindictive eyes on his persecutors-we shall realize something of the powerful influence which the home wielded in forming and softening the Jewish character.
