(WOMEN).

(Germany)

1774

Sha’ar ha-Chen, nichtav li-chevod ha-bethulah yafah ha-mehuleleth ke-achath mi-benoth ha-chashuvoth ha-kethuvah ba-Torah Machlah na-ah ve-tirtzeh li-heyoth eisheth chayil batach bah lev ba’alah gemalath-hu tov ve-lo ra kol yemei chayehah [“Gate of Charm, written in honor of the beautiful maiden, praiseworthy as one of the important woman in the Bible, Machlah, who agrees to be the woman of valor of her husband.”]

FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOSEPH GRADENWITZ. As the introduction informs us, the letters of the second word of the title “ha-Chen” are the initials of the three words “hadlakah, chalah, nidah” (lighting Sabbath candles, separating tithe from dough, and laws of the menstruant women). It was customary for a bridegroom to commission a scribe to pen a manual for his fianceé. We have the name of the bride - Machlah, a Biblical name of one of the daughters of Tzelaphchad (see Numbers xxxvi, 11) - but not that of the shy groom. For some reason, sandwiched as it were between the laws of kindling the sabbath candles and tithing the dough on the one hand, and the laws of menstruation, on the other, we have abridged texts of the Book of Proverbs (Kitzur Mishlei) and Ecclesiastes (Pesukei Koheleth)