Wives, women and witchcraft: part 2

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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Wives, women and witchcraft: part 1

The more the women, the more the witchcraft

The place of women in Pirkei Avot, and therefore within the framework of best practice in daily Jewish life, has featured before in Avot Today, when we discussed the extent to which a man might talk to his own, or another’s, wife. We return to this topic with a review of two statements Hillel makes in the first part of Avot 2:8 regarding women (I’ve put the relevant part of the text 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…

In this, the first of two parts of our review of this Mishnah, we deal with wives and witchcraft. The post that follows it deals with maidservants and sexual immorality.

While witchcraft was a matter of serious concern to the Tannaim (see e.g. Sanhedrin 45b, where Shimon HaTzaddik arranging for the death of 80 witches in Ashkelon), this part of the mishnah may seem irrelevant to the contemporary reader, especially since it is directly related to polygamy, a practice that is very much in abeyance in Jewish society (polygamy is technically permitted by the Torah but was banned via a decree of Rabbenu Gershom c. 1000 CE).

Leaving the issue of polygamy aside, and accepting that the practice of witchcraft is not exclusively the prerogative of the female, we have to recognize that in contemporary society the word “witch” is associated principally with women. It is generally deployed as a derogatory term, often suggesting someone who is ugly or deformed, bad tempered, more than averagely assertive or able to get their own way. Additionally, witchcraft is not a concept that greatly affects people’s lives in the twenty-first century.

Apart from that, there are more serious issues of interpretation to contend with. Taken literally, the proportionality expressed in this part of the mishnah appears to imply that there will always be some witchcraft, irrespective of the number of wives. Further, the assessment of “the more the wives, the more the witchcraft” does not appear to depend on the personal qualities of the women concerned, who may be possessed of the highest degree of integrity, morality and respect for God. Finally the Torah (Shemot 22:18) states categorically that a witch should not be allowed to live, but the mishnah does not appear to endorse this requirement.

Some commentators leave us to form our own opinions since they offer no comment about women and witchcraft at all (e.g. Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (Ruach Chaim), the Chida (Chasdei Avot), the Alshich (Yarim Moshe), Rambam and the commentary ascribed to Rashi. Others consider that Hillel was speaking metaphorically. The most popular commentator on Avot, Rabbi Ovadyah MiBartenura, treats the increased number of wives here as the pivotal point in a sort of Rake’s Progress in which a man, over-indulging in food, drink and the good things in life which affluence makes available to him, secures many wives; each in turn needs a maidservant and they collectively require a retinue of manservants to supply their needs. His explanation of the mishnah, under the heading “one who increases wives increases witchcraft,” makes no mention of witches and their craft at all. It is notable that the Tosafot Yom Tov—who comments extensively and often critically on the Bartenura—lets this parable-based explanation go unchallenged.

Another metaphorical and unflattering approach is to understand “witchcraft” as the simple-mindedness of women who foolishly exceed their domestic budget and fail to see the consequences when they pester their husbands for unnecessary purchases (Be’ur Halachah to Mishnah Berurah 529 at ‘Ve’al yetzamtzem behotza’at Yom Tov’, cited in Rabbis Baruch and Amos Shulem, Avot uVanim al Pirkei Avot). If this was ever the case—which may be doubted outside the realms of popular non-Jewish fiction of bygone times—there is no evidence that the 21^st century Jewish working wife who shoulders her share of domestic responsibility even comes close to resembling this insulting and offensive stereotype.

A further approach is to vest this mishnah with the meaning that, from the point of view of a husband, the experience of amassing wives feels like an accumulation of witches. A man with many wives may absolutely fail to understand the nature of their communications with one another, their shared interests and their rivalries, their adoption of a scale of priorities at odds with his own and their preoccupation with matters in which he had neither interest nor expertise. Out of his depth in the social milieu of his harem and unable to control collectively those over whom he wields dominance one-to-one, he might well consider himself the victim of powers that lay beyond his understanding—this being in effect a sort of witchcraft.

Variations on the theme of this explanation can be found in the notion that wives, competing for the attention and the affection of the same husband, would resort to the services of witches in order to promote their cause (Machzor Vitry; Rabbenu Yonah) or to make themselves more appealing (Rabbi Avraham Azulai), or that the husband, broken in mind and exhausted in body by a surfeit of sex (Tiferet Yisrael (Yachin); Rabbi David Sperber, Michtam leDavid), would in his desperation seek relief by consulting the occult and illicit forces of the Ov or the Yidoni (Devarim 18:11. Rashi explains there that the Ov is a sort of ventriloquist who projects his voice through his armpit, while the Yidoni speaks through a bone that he places in his mouth. Both are sorcerers, whom it is prohibited to consult).

This approach can be adopted prospectively by the man who has yet to take on extra wives. Thus Rabbi Yechezkel Sarno (Daliyot Yechezkel, cited in Mishel Avot) sees this Mishnah as a sort of checklist for a man who is advancing through various stages in his life. At the point at which he considers whether to increase the number of his wives, that is the moment for him to imagine himself increasing not wives but witches, this being a prophylactic against subjecting himself to the force of their irresistibly seductive powers.

On a historical note, the Tanach has not shirked from showing the consequences of taking more than one wife, even where the husband concerned is a man of the highest integrity and commitment to serving God. The domestic relationships that are a consequence of Jacob marrying sororal co-wives Rachel and Leah is clearly strained, and King Solomon’s failure to observe the injunction placed upon a king to limit the number of his wives led ultimately to the royal family practicing idol worship and to national disaster.

Where then does this leave us? Among modern commentators there is some reluctance to get tackle this issue.  R’ Dan Roth (Relevance: Pirkei Avos for the Twenty-First Century), Samson Krupnick and Morris Mandel (Torah Dynamics) and R’ Yisroel Miller (The Wisdom of Avos) omit this mishnah in its entirety. R’ Irving Greenberg (Sage Advice) does mention the Mishnah but says nothing about wives and witches.

Others do discuss it but tread warily. R’ Reuven Bulka (Chapters of the Sages), having mentioned the risk of internecine strife between multiple wives, comments: “The quality of one true love relationship is more meaningful and lasting than ten superficial relationships”. Gila Ross discusses all the situations Hillel cites, using the present tense, while mentioning wives-and-witches in the past tense—a gentle suggestion that the Tanna’s words are of purely historical interest.

R’ Yaakov Hillel (Eternal Ethics from Sinai), seizes the opportunity this mishnah offers him to embark in a lengthy discussion of some key issues. He writes of the need for moderation in all things, the priority of the spiritual over the physical and the dangers of excessive wealth and the need to regard life as more than merely a vehicle for physical pleasure: he also cautions that a man who cannot satisfy his lusts will be buried by them. Ultimately, however, he endorses the 500-year old metaphor of the Bartenura since, taken as a whole, it comes closest to addressing the need of our times.

I’d be curious to know what readers think. Please share your thoughts with us.

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