them your children." In the Hebrew it is (
Hebrew characters) "your
sons;" and the rabbies infer (Hebrew characters), "and
not your daughters."[1] Secondly, they say, as we have
seen above, "that the majority of women have not got
minds fitted for study," and in the Talmud[2] this is attempted
to be proved from Scripture. "A wise woman once asked
R. Eliezer, How it was that after the sin of the golden calf,
those who were alike in transgressions did not all die the
same death? He replied, A woman's wisdom is only for the
distaff, as it is written, 'All the women that were wise-hearted
did spin with their hands.'" (Exod. xxxv. 25.) We hesitate not
to say, that both these reasons are contrary to Scripture. We
do not deny that (Hebrew characters) signifies sons, but we utterly deny the
conclusion of the Rabbies, that because the masculine word is
used, therefore the women are not included in the command.
There is an abundance of instances in which the masculine word
(Hebrew characters) is used for children generally, without any allusion to sex.
Take for example Exod. xxii. 23 (in the English 24), "And my
wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and
your wives shall be widows, and your children (Hebrew characters) (literally
your sons) orphans." Here again the masculine word is used,
so that if the Rabbinical argument be valid in the above case,
it will be valid here, and consequently the daughters are excluded
from this denunciation, so that the sons were to be
orphans, but not the daughters, which is plainly impossible. In
the same way we can prove that the daughters of Israel did not
wander in the wilderness forty years, for in Numbers xiv. 33,
it is said, "And your children (Hebrew characters) (literally your sons, and,
therefore, according to Talmudic logic, not your daughters)
shall wander in the wilderness forty years." The same logic
will also prove that during the three days of miraculous darkness
in Egypt, the women of Israel were left in darkness as well as
the Egyptians, for it is said all the children of Israel ((Hebrew characters),
literally the sons of Israel) had light in their
dwellings. And thus also it might be proved that not one of
the ten commandments is binding upon the women, for the
masculine gender is employed throughout. This logic, therefore,
is evidently false; and we conclude, on the contrary, that as the
women are included in all these passages—as they wandered
through the wilderness, and had light in their dwellings—and
are bound to keep the ten commandments as well as the men, so
also they are included in the command, "Ye shall teach them
your children," and that, therefore, the command of the oral
law not to teach women, is contrary to the Word of God. But
we are not confined to argument, God has plainly commanded
that the women should learn as well as the men. "And Moses
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