Group None

“For this let everyone that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found” (Ps. 32:6). Our scholars expounded,1Berakoth 8a. “In a time when Thou mayest be found” refers to a woman. He prays that the Holy One, blessed be He, should ordain for him a good wife, “But a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Prov. 19:14). The custom of the world is that a man follows after a woman, as it is said about Ahab, “Whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up” (I Kings 21:25). It happened with a certain pious man who married a completely righteous woman but in time he gave her a divorce. He then went and married a wicked woman, a daughter of iniquity, and his former wife married a completely evil man. As a result, the pious man left his virtues and became transformed through the advice of his evil wife; the wicked man, through his wife, repented of his wickedness and became a completely pious man. Therefore every God-fearing man will not take advice from his wife involving the performance of commandments 2Baba Metzia 59a.because her eye is grudging, even if she is God-fearing. Pray tell, who is greater in fear of God than Sarah, our mother, yet in spite of it all when Abraham said to her, “Make quickly three measures of fine meal” (Gen. 18:6) she prepared to use coarse meal, until he told her fine meal. And from this the scholars explained we learn that a woman’s eye is grudging when involving guests, more so than a man.3Ibid., 87a. But in matters of the world, if your wife is small, bend down and whisper in her ear.4Ibid., 59a.