This is one of the privileges possessed by women. According to the principle of division of labour, woman rules supreme in the house: “The King’s daughter is all glorious within” (Ps. xlv. 14); whilst man is more in contact with the outer world, devotes himself to labour, trade, or profession in order to provide the necessities of life for those who are dependent upon him. There are, however, many exceptions to the rule, and there is scarcely any trade or profession in which women have not been engaged. Women were not excluded even from the highest honours. The Jews had their prophetesses, and women were entrusted with judgeship and even with sovereignty. There are instances of women distinguished by learning, experience, wit, and especially by piety. Women of piety (‏נשים צדקניות‎) were never wanting in Israel; and many a scholar owes the success he has attained in the field of learning to the piety of his wife, who willingly undertook her husband’s burdens and cares in trade and business in order to facilitate his devotion to study. No sacrifice is too great for a true Jewish mother to have her children instructed in the Word of God, and nothing adds more to the happiness and pride of the mother than the progress her son has made in the knowledge of the Torah. “What is the great merit of women? They have the merit of making their children attend the school, and of encouraging their husbands to study the Talmud” (Babyl. Talm., Berachoth 17a). The moral and the intellectual as well as the physical training of the children is in its earliest stages almost exclusively in the hands of the mother. If we add to this the responsibility for having the food prepared according to the requirements of the Dietary Laws, we easily understand the reason why Jewish women are exempt from various religious duties incumbent on the other sex. The rule is this: “Women are exempt from the fulfilment of all precepts which are restricted to a certain time” (Mishnah, Kiddushin i. 7), in order to prevent any collision between these and her principal and most important duties in the house. Thus it happens that there are Jewish women who faithfully cling to the inherited religion, and yet are rare visitors of the Synagogue. On week-days the Synagogue is only in exceptional cases attended by women.