commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in
the solemnity of the year of release in the Feast of Tabernacles,
when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in
the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before
all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and
women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates,
that they may hear, and that they may learn (Hebrew characters), and
fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this
law." (Deut. xxxi. 10-12.) Here a most beautiful order is
observed, and required of women as well as men; hearing—learning—fearing—keeping
the words of the law—God wills
that that women should fear him and keep his commandments
as well as the men; and therefore he wills that they should
make use of the same means, that they should hear, and learn
all the words of the law. The traditionists have, therefore, in
this case plainly made void the law of God. God commands
women as well as men to learn the law; the Rabbies say they
are exempt from this duty. God commands that the woman
should be taught. It is plain, therefore, that the oral law,
which contradicts the written law, cannot be from God. The
command of God is so plain that it is unnecessary to enter deeply
into the second Rabbinical reason for the prohibition to teach
women the law. It is evident that God did not think that the
poverty of their understanding was any obstacle to their
learning his will. Indeed it has pleased Him to show that He
is no respecter of persons with regard to male or female, more
than with regard to rich or poor. He has not only given them
his law, but conferred on women as well as men the gift of
prophecy, so that the names of Deborah, Hannah, and Huldah,
must ever be remembered amongst the inspired messengers of
God. The Rabbies seem to have forgotten that "the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and that this fear may be
implanted by God just as easily in the heart of a woman as of
a Rabbi. But without inquiring further into their reasons or
their motives, suffice it to say, that the oral law in thus robbing
women of their right and inheritance in the law of God, and in
degrading them to the same category with children and slaves,
is opposed to the plain commands of the written law. But not
so the New Testament. It exactly agrees with the Old in
considering woman as a rational and responsible being, and a
candidate for everlasting life. It, therefore, gives one general
rule for the education of children, male and female. "Ye fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Ephes. vi. 4.) It does
indeed prescribe modesty and subjection to the women in the
mode or learning, but in so doing it plainly points out their
duty to become acquainted with the will of God. "Let the
woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a
Page:The old paths, or The Talmud tested by Scripture.djvu/36
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