Der brantshpigl (The Burning Mirror)

Chapter 14

[ . . . ] And when a woman must go out, she should not push through the men and should keep her distance from large groups of men, since this is a great lewdness, and she should not go out walking in the streets where people are congregating. Moreover, she should not walk together with men. Also, she should not stand in the middle of a group of men. Similarly, she should not buy or sell among men. And if she is not bashful, she lengthens the years of exile. And in particular this is true of the women that hang out their colored clothes where men may see them. Or a woman that makes the bed in which she lies with her husband and leaves her room open so that people can see her marital bed. Or a woman that places her bed facing the window and opens the window so that the bed may be seen. And there are men who know her and remember her and have impure thoughts; this is a great sin and there can be no atonement for it, just like in the case of the snake that tempted Eve, which can never return to its former self. [ . . . ]

This is also true of the women who trade and provide for their households and take their husbands with them to the market or to the trader, or in a shop, and when a matter comes to the attention of the rabbi or judges [dayanim] she gets involved and interferes in her husband’s business. If she disagrees with her husband, she starts to scream and shouts at her husband that she knows better than he does and forces her husband to do as she wishes. If they have children to marry off, she does this according to her will, and says, “I will give so much as a dowry and so much for clothing.” If the husband interferes, she shouts at him, “What business is it of yours? If not for me, the maiden would not be getting married.” This contradicts the Torah and the Talmud and goes against God, blessed be He, [suggesting that] everything comes from her. And she rushes ahead of him and does not listen to him. If he calls her, she lets him cry out and call again and again before answering, and when he studies, she causes him to err. Or if he is praying, she calls him repeatedly, until he must answer. She does the same when he has an important matter or all the wise men of the community are visiting. If someone comes and asks for his advice in a secret matter, she also sticks her nose in. If he does not want to tell her, she badgers him continuously until he must tell her and this is also a sin, as I will write later. There are women who want to act as matchmakers for non-Jews. The sages write that this is forbidden. It is not proper for a man to do this, even more for a woman, and it is extremely shameful. [ . . . ]

Women also mix among men in the streets and at meals, whether they are friends or not, screaming and talking to each other. If someone shouts at them, they do not care. And young married women dress themselves beautifully, and glare at men, straight in their faces. And the older women do not put a stop to this. And when one remarks on this to the older women they say, “That’s how it is with the youth, you cannot put an old head on their shoulders.” And married women dance with strangers and with young bachelors and will not allow the unmarried maidens to do so. And they bring their children along with them and teach them also to behave like this, and the children do not give way to anyone and disturb the adults in their conversation and embarrass them. And the women talk about things that are forbidden and things that are permitted. A woman who is marrying off her daughter says, “I am giving my daughter this much and having these clothes made for her.” She does not think of her husband, as though he were her servant. She engages a rabbi for her son and wants to decide what he will learn. Things like this that we like to do are pure lewdness. It would be better that people would not do this. Yet it is a comfort to us that in tractate Sanhedrin [97a] R. Nehurai teaches that in the generation of the messiah’s arrival the young will shame the old. The old will have to rise before the young and a woman before her maidservant, and a daughter-in-law will scold her mother-in-law. A son will have no shame in front of his father and mother, and people will become as brazen as dogs.