22 Chapter 1
divorce and no provision was made for a dowry, which
usually meant that a man could divorce his wife without
financial loss. Divorces were nevertheless uncommon
because Mosaic Law and Jewish custom placed a pre-
mium on the family. Polygyny and concubinage,
though permitted, were rare for economic reasons, and
adultery was punishable by death.
Within the home, women were more respected
than their legal position might indicate. They had the
right to name the children and were responsible for
their early instruction in moral and practical matters.
Theory aside, they often controlled the everyday life of
the household. Furthermore, Jewish literature reveals
none of the contempt for women and their capacities
sometimes found in the writings of ancient Greece. The
Bible abounds in heroic women such as Esther, Rachel,
and Deborah, and the Book of Proverbs holds the value
of a good woman as “beyond rubies.” But the patriar-
chal nature of Jewish society coupled with the divine
origin of the Mosaic Law would have a profound im-
pact on subsequent history. Christianity, Islam, and
modern Judaism absorbed from the Bible the idea that
women’s exclusion from many aspects of public and re-
ligious life was ordained by God.
The Mosaic emphasis on family placed a high value
on children. Infanticide, a practice common in other
ancient cultures, was forbidden, and child-raising prac-
tices, like every other aspect of life, were prescribed by
law. On the eighth day after birth, male children were
circumcised as a sign of their covenant with God. They
received religious instruction from their fathers and at
age thirteen assumed the full religious responsibilities of
an adult. Eldest sons, who were especially honored, had
extra responsibilities. Both boys and girls were ex-
pected to help in the fields and in the home, but gender
roles were carefully preserved. Boys learned their fa-
ther’s trade or cared for the livestock. Girls were re-
sponsible for gleaning the fields after harvest and for
keeping the house supplied with water from wells that,
in town at least, were usually communal. What re-
mained in the fields after gleaning was left for the poor.
The obligation to assist the poor and helpless—
symbolized by this minor, yet divinely established,
injunction—was central to the Jewish conception of
righteousness. A comprehensive ideal of charity and
communal responsibility gradually evolved from such
precepts and, like monotheism itself, spread to Western
society as a whole long after Israel as a political entity
had ceased to exist.
The central features of the Jewish faith were well
established at the time of the Babylonian exile. The
subsequent history of the Jewish people and the trans-
mission of their religious and ethical concepts to other
cultures are important to consider, for the interaction of
the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths continues to
this day.