And
although what it says tends rather to discountenance than to promote
their development, it is not insensible to what they might become under
refinement of culture, and occasionally enforces the duty of attending
to their higher education. In proof of both positions we appeal to the
following quotations:--
In the Mishna, from which the above quotation is taken, we are told that
Ben Azai (the son of impudence) says, a man is bound to instruct his
daughter in the law, although Rabbi Eliezer, who always assumes an
oracular air, and boasts that the Halachah is always according to his
decision (_Bava Metzia_, fol. 59, col. 2), insists, on the other hand,
that he who instructs his daughter in the law must be considered as
training her into habits of frivolity; and the saying above ascribes to
the sex such a power of frivolity as connects itself evidently with the
foregone conclusion that they are by nature incapable of being developed
into any solidity of worth or character. The Gemara, Tosephoth, and
Rashi as well all support Rabbi Eliezer in laying a veto on female
education, for fear lest, with the acquisition of knowledge, women might
become cunning, and do things on the sly which ought not to be done by
them. Literally the saying is:--For from it (i.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193