The more the maidservants, the more the sexual immorality
In Wives, Women and Witchcraft: Part 1 we discussed a
difficult and arguably obsolete component of Hillel’s teaching in the first
part of Avot 2:8 regarding wives. We now turn to the second point he makes
about women—that an increase of maidservants means an increase of sexual
immorality. For convenience the relevant part of the text is reproduced here in
bold print):
מַרְבֶּה בָשָׂר מַרְבֶּה רִמָּה, מַרְבֶּה נְכָסִים
מַרְבֶּה דְאָגָה, מַרְבֶּה נָשִׁים מַרְבֶּה כְשָׁפִים, מַרְבֶּה שְׁפָחוֹת מַרְבֶּה
זִמָּה, מַרְבֶּה עֲבָדִים מַרְבֶּה גָזֵל. מַרְבֶּה תוֹרָה מַרְבֶּה חַיִּים,
מַרְבֶּה יְשִׁיבָה מַרְבֶּה חָכְמָה, מַרְבֶּה עֵצָה מַרְבֶּה תְבוּנָה, מַרְבֶּה
צְדָקָה מַרְבֶּה שָׁלוֹם...
One who increases flesh increases
worms; one who increases possessions increases worry; one who increases wives
increases witchcraft; one who increases maidservants increases sexual
immorality; one who increases manservants increases theft; one who
increases Torah increases life; one who increases study increases wisdom; one
who increases counsel increases understanding; one who increases charity
increases peace…
Maidservants were clearly part of normal life in the large
familial households of Tannaic times and, in English society, remained so until
the early years of the twentieth century. Today, however, the maidservant is an
archaic job title for a role that is now rarely met outside the context of the
television costume drama. In order to appreciate this part of the mishnah, one
must either cast oneself back into the days when maidservants flourished or make
it relevant to contemporary students of Avot by drawing on some appropriate modern
analogy. One such analogy might be made with the cinematic industry, where
dominant males have been found to have abused the power and influence that they
were able to exert over a continuous stream of attractive and nubile young
women who were dependent on their favours.
As in the case of wives and witches above, some major commentators on Avot leave this part of the mishnah with little or no comment (Part 1 mentions rabbis who have let this mishnah pass in its entirety without comment). The Rashbatz (R’ Shimon ben Tzemach, Magen Avot) appears to consider that the shefachot (“maidservants,” from the verb shafach, “pour”) are inherently immoral, forming part of an underclass, as it were, that also comprises menservants. R’ Yisrael Meir Lau (Rav Lau on Avos) follows this view which, I must admit, troubles me. The rampant immorality of the leisured classes in most cultures at most times seems to be an inevitable corollary of power and privilege. Rulers, nobles and even the celibate Catholic clergy kept mistresses and had far better opportunities to indulge themselves than did the household staff who cooked their food, cleaned their homes, repaired their clothes and kept their fires lit. That immorality is the prerogative of those with even limited power is a theme which is movingly depicted in two celebrated masterpieces of nineteenth-century French literature: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables and Emile Zola’s Germinal.
So what is the source of the immorality which Hillel
mentions here? Is it inherent in
maidservants as a class, or only among maidservants of loose morals (as per
Gila Ross, Living Beautifully)? Or does it lie in the minds of the men
of the household? While there is no basis in fact for the popular myth that men
think about sex an average of once every seven seconds, a household to which
low-status serving women are tied is inevitably a fertile territory for both
predatory male interest and a less sinister process which, starting with mere speculation,
may result in activity that goes beyond both moral and legally acceptable
boundaries. Complaints by female au
pairs of sexual abuse and harassment are part of the same pattern, as R’
Yaakov Hillel, Eternal Ethics from Sinai, notes.
Let us conclude with a thought-provoking observation by R’ Naftali Herz Wessely, Yayn Levanon. Noting that it is paired with witchcraft not just here but in the Talmud (“sexual immorality and witchcraft consume everything”: Sotah 48a), he contrasts the position of wives with that of maidservants: men are attracted to their wives because the latter are sexually permitted to him, while maidservants are attractive to him precisely because they are not.
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