062 <>JHIBRARY0/; %JHAiNa3Vft RY0A Ofifc \\\[ l' 3. ^lOS-ANGfl cp a? -^^- T 1 O *"> ^ =2 =s - O u_ ^ C? %WAJNfl] =n g 3 Stack "7 Annex 5D19062 FOR THE LOVE OF WOMAN/ AN ADDRESS IN THE RODEF SHALOM TEMPLE PITTSBURGH, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1912. Scripture Reading: Proverbs xxxi. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and her own works will praise her in the gates. (Proverbs xxxi., 31.) The world moves. It travels through space without jar or creak. So rapid is its motion that we are not con- scious of it. It moves through space unsuspended by cord or bar, and unsustained by platform or scaffold. Imagine the great chandelier yonder, suddenly deprived of the chain which binds it to the roof, yet continuing to remain unmoved. Thus stands the earth ; yet it falls not through space, but moves harmonious with law. It is, however, always well to remember, as a scientific fact and as a moral ideal, that the earth moves. *By the Rev. J. Leonard Levy, Rabbi of the Congregation. Stenographically reported by Caroline Loewenthal. Opposing Forces Harmonized. Modern scientists tells us that this state of stable equilibrium is maintained by two forces, the one, centri- fugal, and the other centripetal. The centrifugal force pulls the earth downward, tending at all times toward dispersion and disruption. The centripetal force draws the earth toward the sun, tending to unification and symmetry. The nice balancing of the dispersing and unifying forces causes our earth to move in its orbit with perfect regularity and with ceaseless harmony. These two forces, centrifugal and centripetal, find their reproduction in human society. Man may be called the centrifugal force; his tendency is to roam, to wander, to disperse. Woman may be regarded as the centripetal force; her tendency is to remain at home, to conserve, to unify, to unite. Wherever these two human forces meet and harmonize symmetrically one with the other, we find that nice balancing of power which we call civilized society. Social Forces Harmonized. Rut for woman, man would still be found roaming hither and thither. A nomad, he would never have changed his shiftless habits. But for woman man would still be wandering in the equatorial regions where the human race, probably, had its origin. The union of the centrifugal and centripetal forces of human society has resulted in checking the tendency of man to roam and of woman to remain permanently settled in one place. The fine play of both these forces has effected what we call civilization. Civilization is not what man might have designed it to be, but what woman has made it. The treatment accorded to woman by man is the barometer of civilization. Wherever woman is respected, treated with honor, -accorded her rights, we have a high grade of civilization. Wherever she is treated with brutality, regarded as the inferior, forced to remain at all times within the home, we have a low type of civiliza- tion. Israel's Ideal of Womanhood. Among the savages in the interior of Africa today, woman still represents the simple centripetal force. She is compelled to stay at home while the warrior goes out to conquer. Modern conditions among the African negroes are practically the same as those prevailing al- most everywhere in the days of the ancient Hebrews. The African negro has changed very, very little, except where he has come in contact with such noble men as Livingstone and Stanley ; thus we have a living witness of conditions prevailing among human beings in primi- tive society. The Hebrew people were, in progressive social institutions, the most advanced of all the people of antiquity. If it is true that the respect accorded wo- man is the barometer of civilization, Israel must have already attained a very high grade of civilization, far excelling that of any other ancient people and,. in many respects, far surpassing that of many nations of modern times. Woman's Position in Israel. For in ancient Israel woman had rights in law, could own property in her own name, and could occupy the most exalted public positions. Miriam was a prophet- ess ; so, too, was Huldah. A woman was selected to be a judge in Israel, and the name Deborah still suggests that of "the mother in Israel." At a most important >tage of the history of the early Hebrews, a woman, Jochebed, defied the law of the tyrant and saved the in- valuable life of her Hebrew child, the coming deliverer of his enslaved people; and it was a woman, Miriam, si-ter of this child, Moses, who protected the babe thus saved from death. At the most crucial period of the history of the Jew- i>h nation it was a woman who declared that the book found in the house of God, in the year 621 B. C. E., was a genuine copy of the ancient law of Israel. Not until King Josiah had received from the lips of Huldah the prophetess the assurance that the book found by Hilkiah the priest, and read to him by Shaphan the scribe, was genuine, would he accept their statement. And this book found in the house of God, in the year 621 B. C. E., which is no\\ identified with the Book of Deuteronomy, and which sanctified the great prophetic reformation in Palestine, owed its early recognition to woman's learning and influence. I need scarcely remind you of the honor accorded the name of Ruth in Jewish Scripture, nor need I tell you that the pious in Israel still bless their daughters in the name of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. In the Talmud we find recorded the names of women who have come down to us as rabbinically learned, and I need not tell you, who know it so well, that the respect which the Jewish home engenders for parent, for hearth and for God, has been, in the last analysis, the product of the Jewish woman's reverence for self and God. Man's Mean Attitude Toward Woman. That woman has played the most important part in civilization has not been generally recognized, nor has her treatment at the hands of man always been the most gentle, the most kindly, or the most respectful. In a recent book, "Woman and Social Progress," Dr. Scott Nearing, of the University of Pennsylvania, says in the opening pages that had one, a century ago, consulted an encyclopedia with a view of gaining some information on the subject of woman, he would have, found, under the word "woman," this definition, "Woman, the female of man; see Man!" This is so true to life that the fact is stranger than fiction. Woman has rarely been con- sidered as an individual unit, and still more rarely has she been regarded as self-owning. She was held to have been made from man's rib and as still belonging to him in every sense. In the New Testament. When, in due time, reaction set in against the liberal attitude of Israel's leaders, a marked change took place. The backward swing of the pendulum brought with it a narrowing conception of woman's place in society. It is surprising, though thoroughly comprehensible upon careful thought, that Paul of Tarsus should have de- livered himself, in the New Testament, of such unamia- ble utterances as: "Let the woman learn in all silence, with all subjection. I suffer not woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the husband, but to be silent." (1 Timothy ii., 11, 12.) "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law; and if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church," (1 Corinthians xiv., 34, 35.) In the Church Fathers. Less complimentary still is Tertullian, the eminent Church father, when he says of woman, "Thou art the one who first tasted of the forbidden fruit and trans- gressed the laws of God; thou hast caused to err the man, whom even the devil did not dare to approach. For thy sake. O woman, Jesus had to die." But worse re- mains to be said ; for this same church authority says. (De Resurrectione, Ivii.), In the resurrection "all shall lose their blemishes, the lame shall walk and the blind shall see, and women shall arise from the dead, as men." St. John Chrysostom is no more polite for he says, "What is woman but an enemy of friendship, an un- avoidable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural tempta- tion, a desirable affliction, a constantly flowing source of tears, a wicked work of nature covered with shining varnish." In a work called "The Witch Hammer," which appeared in the fifteenth century with the sanction of Pope Innocent VIII, the author says, "Formed from a crooked rib, woman's entire spiritual nature has been distorted and inclined more toward sin than virtue." (For these quotations Cf. loc. cit. pp. 1-7.) We need not be surprised, therefore, to find the marriage service in the Episcopal Church pledging the wife "to love, honor and obey" her husband, though I am delighted to think that the woman has a conception of obedience somewhat synonymous with, and analogous to, rebel- lion. Nietzsche's Estimate of Woman. Misogynists have been found in all ages and all are not yet dead. Some quite agree even with the late Fried- rich Wilhelm Nietzsche who, in his "Also Sprach Zara- thustra," says : "Let woman be a toy, pure and delicate like a jewel. Man's happiness is 'I will.' Woman's hap- piness is 'He will.' Thou goest to woman? Remember thy whip ! Women are still always cats and birds, or in the best case, cows." I ought to remind you that Nietzsche died a raving maniac, and it is not unlikely that he should have been placed under restraint long before he was confined in the lunatic asylum. Brutality Toward Women. If you read the works written by the master sociolo- gists you will find that there has rarely been anything more brutal in all history than man's treatment of wo- man. If you could compress into one single word all the horrors of the Roman arena, all the brutalities of the In- quisition, all the barbarities of Smithfield, and all the shame of St. Barthlomew's Night; if you could, in a word, unite into one single expression everything that means bestiality, animalism, savagery and barbarism, you would find a term which might feebly describe the manner in which man has treated woman in the history of the human race. Herbert Spencer sadly tells us: "In the history of humanity as written, the saddest part concerns the treat- ment of women; and had we before us its unwritten his- tory we should find this part still sadder. I say the saddest part because, though there have been many things more conspicuously dreadful, cannibalism, the torturings of prisoners, the sacrificings of victims to ghosts and gods, these have been but occasional ; whereas the brutal treatment of woman has been uni- versal and constant and almost beyond imagination." The Male Animal and Man. As we read Natural History, as we consider the liv- ing specimens in zoological gardens, or as we hear the stories of the men who hunt great game, we learn, in almost every case, that the male of the animal is ex- ceedingly careful of the female, that he surrounds her with every attention, except it may be among the most degraded forms of animal life and which we may call, as a class, curs. The pure blooded male is almost as gentle to his female as a modern, civilized mother is to her little babe. It has been the peculiar virtue and at- tribute of man to be the only male who, throughout all eras, has oppressed and brutalized his companion, the female. (Cf. "Pure Sociology," by L. F. Ward.) Primitive Woman. Now, for the love of woman, the time has surely come when we should set a different estimate upon her to whom mankind owe practically every phase of civili- zation. When we consider primitive society, we find that there was no occupation, except killing, which did not come within woman's sphere. To murder, to shoot, to kill, to go out to war, to overcome the enemy and the ravages of wild beasts, or to slaughter these wild beasts, these were man's occupation ; but every occupation that has saved man for this world has been the product of woman's self-sacrifice and devotion. For example, in the very beginnings of tribal existence, when the man did kill the beast, it was woman who would cut it, and prepare it for meat for the family. Man would march out to conquer, but the woman would stay at home and weave clothing for the man who had to venture into climates that might adversely affect his health. Thus it comes that the word "wife" is identified with "weaving." "Weib" wife, and "weben," to weave, are unquestion- ably derived one from the other. Her Occupation. Woman not only wove the wool of the animals 9 killed by her husband, but she also skinned them, made the skins ready for wear, and likewise prepared them to receive those marks and impressions which have given us a clue to primitive culture. It was woman who used the clays of the earth and first made the pottery which has since developed into objects priceless in value. She was the bearer of every burden ; but the beast which was introduced as a helpmate was treated by the man with infinitely more consideration than he ever showed the wife of his bosom. She put up and took down the tent, she provided and protected the utensils of the hut and she, from her body, nourished the children as they came year after year, often nursing at the same time two, and sometimes three children, born one year after another, from the supply of her own physical nourishment, until often child and mother succumbed. You have heard of many great benefits endowed upon man by his fellowman. You have read of many discoveries and inventions which lie has made. But, if you will but think for a moment, you will probably agree with me that no discovery which man has made for society's welfare compares with that made by primitive woman when she showed that the milk of the animal might sustain human life. No greater discovery than this was ever made in the world's history, and this was made by woman. Her Services. Not only has she been the bearer of all these bur- dens and the discoverer of this great gift, but she has 10 been occupied in all trades. She was the agriculturist; she was the butcher and cook; she was the dressmaker; she was the physician. The earliest pharmacopoeia con- sisted of medicines she brewed from herbs. She was the great artist. Hers was the soul which impressed itself upon the wood and stone which gave man his totems and his idols, and the child its dolls. She not only invented language, but she was its conserver and preserver. As the little child clung to its mother she taught it to speak the words she used, and these, handed down from generation to generation, have given us our modern tongues. She was, moreover, society's founder. She insisted that man should provide a fixed habitation and abode for their child which would have perished but for her foresight and tender solicitude in its behalf. And religion, man's highest blessing, true religion, man's most helpful civilizing force, has ever been the gift of woman to man. So true is this that, even in civilized society today, "one half of Christendom worships a Jew and the other half worship his Jewish mother." Woman as Mother. Such is a very brief summary of some of the dis- tinguished services man received at the hand of wo- man in primitive society. But what shall I say of her in her closest relations to the members of the household in civilized lands and ages? What shall I say of woman in her function and capacity as mother? You may go where you will and you will never find another quite like a mother. When a mother has understood her true 11 office, when she has realized that she represents the centripetal force, when she fittingly exercises the powers God has given her, when she impresses her soul upon the soul of her child, there never enters our life, save God, one quite so close to us as our mother. Truly may we say with the poet, "I feel that, in the heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find among their burning words of love, None so devotional as that of 'mother.' " We are told by a rabbinical writer that "God would not consent to dwell upon earth and, therefore, he sent mothers to take His place." Discussing home-life one day with a mother, a friend said to her, "I would give my life if I had two such children as you have;" and the mother answered very truly, "that's just what it costs ; a life." Our mothers have been our inspiration, our guide, our salvation. Wherever you find a good man, look to his mother. Whenever you would marry, young man or young woman, consider the mother of the individual you would wed. Wherever you find a man who offers his life for the progressive cause among men, he is what he is, in the last analysis, because his mother made him so. There is no occasion in life, whether the mother be living or dead, when her beautiful spirit does not urge us to walk the straight and narrow path of virtue, if she has been a mother, and not a mere parent. 12 Woman as Sister. What shall I say of woman as sister? Not without good reason does God send into the home children of both sexes. The influence of the one upon the other is, beyond all question of doubt, refining and strengthening; and no greater wrong is, probably, ever done to a child than deliberately to limit the household to one only child. God made man for companionship, and no one needs a companion of its own blood and age more than the little child. As brother and sister grow side by side ; as they manifest, on the one hand, strength, and on the other, grace ; as the one displays the tendency to go away from home, while the other develops the domestic instincts; as the one represents the centrifugal, while the other embodies the centripetal force; and as these forces, though opposite in tendency, mingle and balance one another; we find a beautiful blending of character which always augurs well for self and society. Thus it hap- pens that many a man owes more to his sister than he _> readily realizes. The helpfulness of sisters to brothers is historic. We have already heard this morning of Miriam and Moses, and the relation of these is typical. In recent times we know that we cannot read the life of Felix Mendelssohn without realizing that his sister Fanny was his guiding influence. We cannot yield ourselves to the sway of Ernest Renan without readily learning that his sister Henrietta was the inspiration of his life. It is still difficult to decide, when we read the works of Charles Lamb, how much is the contribution of this poor, unfortunate man, or how much is due to his sister Mary. William Hershel without his sister Caroline would have been as a right hand without a left. William Words- worth pays loving tribute to his sister Dorothy with whom he was bound in life and unseparated in death. Beneath the yew trees, hard by the mountain stream, the poet's body reposes in the Grasmere cemetery, his sister reposing in eternal rest at his side. Truly said of her one who understood all that she had been to her brother: "Only a sister's part, yes, that was all; And yet her life was full and bright and free. She did not feel, 'I give up all for him'; She only knew, 'Tis mine his friend to be.' So what she saw and felt the poet sang She did not seek the world should know her share, Her one great hunger was for William's fame, To give his thoughts a voice her life-long prayer." Woman as Wife. What shall I say of woman as wife? Devoted, self- sacrificing, true, loyal companion of man! Rarely has a man risen in this world but his wife has been the in- spiration aiding him upward. Rarely do you find a man giving his life to God, to humanity, to society; rarely do you find him consecrate all his powers for the good of others; but you find that he has had a companion passing through life with him who has inspired it, 14 quietly, invisibly, but most surely. The names of the men are legion who may truly say with Bismarck, who in his last work paid such high tribute to his life com- panion, "What I am, I owe to my wife." What, too, shall I say of woman as daughter? I think that, gen- erally speaking, where fathers and mothers have been wise, the attitude of pious Antigone, leading her father Oedipus from country to country, patiently bearing his sorrows and nobly seeking to sustain and nourish him, represents the typical service of the true daughter of the true father and mother. Woman as Friend. But braver yet, because the more unselfish, has she been, and as sweet service has she rendered to humanity, in the capacity as friend. Oh, I know that woman's friendship is frequently doubted. There are men who are as cynical concerning it as they are unclean in their lives ; but it is the testimony of mankind's noblest sons that the friendship of woman has inspirited them, as it is the witness of history that woman's sweet friendship for man has earned for humanity much of his best and noblest effort. If every man who has achieved fame; if every man who is today toiling for human good ; if every man who still has faith in his fellowman ; might name some of the potent influences moving him to labor and to serve, he would place in a prominent position the in- spiration that has come into his life from the friendship of good women. As it was a princess who befriended Moses, the emancipator of mankind ; as it was the humble Mary and Martha who stood by their revered 15 leader, supporting and adoring; so has it ever been friendly women, of noble or humble birth, who have helped to drive out the brute from man and to evoke the godlike from within him. Of woman as friend we may justly sing: "This sad old earth's a brighter place ' All for the sunshine of her face; Her very smile a blessing throws, And hearts are happier where she goes; A gentle, clear-eyed messenger, To whisper love, thank God for her." Woman's Loving Devotion. Xever forget that about Moses was the devotion of Jochebed ; behind Goethe was Katharina, his mother; behind Washington stood the charming Mary Ball; above and around Lincoln was the sainted spirit of Nancy llanks. Samuel was the spiritual, as well as physical, product of Hannah, while in David was the blood of Ruth. Remember that Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, when asked where were her jewels, pointed to her sons. You \\ill find that for every Praxiteles, there has been an Aspasia; for every Phidias there was a Sappho; for everv Apelles there has been some inspiring woman. Y<>u cannot turn the pages of history but you will find inscribed athwart them a tribute of loving devotion in the form of a divine service, rendered by this noble char- acter, woman, who has ever guided at the same time two generations of man. In our own day, when woman is coming into the possession of her own, women's names 16 shine like stars in a clear sky. In the Pantheon of man- kind's immortals Florence Nightingale and Frances Wil- lard, Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Augusta Stanley and Mary Lyon, are aureoled and crowned. In the humbler positions which woman has occupied, where she has ministered in the lowlier ranks of life, she has proved herself a ministering angel to man, realizing in herself the truth that "they also serve who only stand and wait." Animality vs. Spirituality. Have I made it clear that we who are men are under great tribute to woman? Have I sufficiently indicated this morning that there is scarce a benefit which man has derived from society but, in the ultimate, he owes it to woman? Is it, therefore, surprising that, when man is civilized and is in his best moods, he thanks woman who has been mother, sister, wife, daughter, friend. Two characteristics there are in us all which, in the last analy- sis, determine what the man is to be, what the woman shall become.^ The one force is that which man has in common with the brute beast, or animality ; the other is the divine power with which God has endowed us, and is called spirituality. Animality leads to destruction, war, brutality ; spirituality, to all the refining influences and graces. Not without good reason has man repre- sented all the virtues under the guise of woman. The greatest temple reared in Greece was the Parthenon, erected to Minerva, and in the Pantheons of the world we ever find genius bowing to some goddess. 17 In our day one of our most pressing duties is our decision whether we shall permit animality or spiritual- ity to be in control; whether we are to treat woman as though she were a mere beast, a toy, a plaything; or whether, out of the love we have for her, we shall recog- nize the unspeakably great service she has rendered mankind and give expression to our appreciation of them as the writer of the Rook of Proverbs would have us do. Is it not true that if we but give her the fruit of her hands, her own works will praise her in the gates? The Need of Homes. Tt is a joy to me, the son of a woman, the husband of a woman, the brother of a woman, the father of a woman, and the friend of a woman, it is a joy to me to see that woman has determined to throw off the yoke of animality with which man would keep her as a slave. For the love of woman I do plead with you that you aid in every way to give her the opportunity to assert her- self according to the gifts and endowments with which Cod has graced her. I urge you, as earnestly and serious- ly as T can, to provide homes for our women. Now by homes T do not mean the magnificent houses I constantly see being built in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, for many such a house is but a magnificent sty for the hogs that live therein. One Standard of Morality. T would have every man, who realizes that he has within him the divine power of a creator, build for his 18 family a sweet home, and upon its doorpost and upon its gates there should be inscribed the assertion that the same standard of morality is demanded of every man in that home as of every woman. In that home let it be clearly understood that each man shall keep himself as clean and as pure as he expects each woman to be. Some day, perhaps, the son and daughter will leave that home to be united in holy matrimony. Let the man then go to his wife with body and mind and soul as clean and as pure as he demands that his wife shall come to him ! Let the young woman take in her embrace no man who is a brute, no man whom she must, when she understands life, hate and look upon with disgust and scorn. For when the prose of life succeeds the days of honeymoon poetry, woman will find happiness with none except the man whom she can, in her heart of hearts, respect and love as her equal in chastity as in other fine elements of character. The Modern Conscious Sin. Our forebears may be pardoned for many mistakes committed through their limited knowledge or ignor- ance of nature's laws. We have not their excuse. Cer- tain medical facts are as patent to us as daylight. In the matter of matrimonial alliances, therefore, we must exercise more care than did our progenitors, since we know what is involved more clearly than they did. Let us not cry out against God, let us not blaspheme His holy name, if, knowing what we do, we exercise no vigilance in this most important step our children are to take, and if, within a brief period of marriage, the in- 19 nocent maid is crippled and diseased because she was sold to some man who bought and paid for her. I know of nothing which hurts me more than the easy-going transference of human responsibility, lightly made by man, from his shoulders to God. Sickness, disease, death enter the household, and the mourners or sufferers blame God and speak of ''the awful providence," while we know that, all too often, what is attributed to God is our own fault. Many a poor, suffering woman, blighted by disease, has no one to thank for it but her own husband who polluted her body in marriage. Learn in time that such social crimes must not be tolerated and make proper provision to have them pre- vented. For the love of woman keep her body clean. It is the Temple of life. From it must come the future generations. Through it must pass the spirit of God finding expression in human forms. See to it, for the love <>f woman, that the origin of life be not foul at its very source. Economic Independence. Moreover, if we love woman as we say we do, we shall aid her to become independent. No greater econo- mic crime was ever committed against her than to keep her dependent on the man who doled out to her the means of her economic life. I thank God that I live in the twentieth century when woman is asserting herself as never before, when the cold-hearted and unjust criticism of the self-helping woman is no longer valid, and when to be an "old maid" no longer brings opprobrium. In 20 America, at least, as it is honorable for a man to work for a livelihood, so is it no less honorable for a woman. Fathers are foolish when they fail to develop this sense of independence in their daughters, so that unable to sup- port themselves, they feel they must accept the first man who proposes to take them and provide for them. Why this is the sin of the red-light district that women there sell their bodies that they may be supported! Is it not true that, in many a house elsewhere, a similar contract is signed between man and woman, and in what is called marriage, there is little else than sale and barter? .''.' : i -J Political Independence. Not only should we exercise care that such mons- trous influences be not permitted to continue, but we must place the weapon in woman's own hands to limit the period during which such powers of evil may dom- inate her life. \Yoman is man's equal and is expected, in this age, to do for society, in her way, as much, yea more than man. Unaided by the influence which comes ^ j from the means of expressing her will through political machinery, she will always toil at a disadvantage. The ballot is hers by the right of service and humanity. Her economic independence is impossible without it, and we should do all we can to speed the day when she may add the weight of her ideas and ideals to political life. I have no fear of the contaminating influence of "the dirty pool of politics" on women. If that pool is ever going to be cleansed thoroughly, woman will be the most powerful agent in the cause. 21 Religion's Help. Finally, for the love of woman, I beg you to add your influence to the liberal cause in the world of re- ligion. The church holds that it alone has given woman an exalted place in society. I am not disposed to quarrel today with such a statement. The facts of the case are so transparently opposed to the boastful utterances of many church dignitaries that I shall merely register my protest. I know, as some of you do also, that woman has gained much from religion, but not quite so much from its administrators. Liberal religion, however, would restore to woman her prestige as a religious force. She first turned man's mind and soul to religion; let us so direct the religious sentiment that it serve her best ends, and thus society's highest aims. In a word, out of the love we have for woman, let us place ourselves in the position of supporters of every cause that may gain for her a rightful expression of her ability, her character and her virtues. I am sure that, if we but give her of the fruit of her hands, we shall find that the writer of the Book of Proverbs was right when he said, "her own works will praise her in the gates." 22 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES vVlOS ANGELA ~ .^. , -v - ^^^^k * y o UL. X =C CP m^ t_3 ^ 5 -t-; oo =-J O ^ >i V ~