their co-religionists for knowledge of the Talmud, piety, and
broad, secular culture.

In a rapid review like this of woman's achievements on the field of
Jewish scholarship, the results recorded must appear meagre, owing
partly to the paucity of available data, partly to the nature of the
inquiry. Abstruse learning, pure science, original research, are by no
means woman's portion. Such occupations demand complete surrender on the
part of the student, uninterrupted attention to the subject pursued, and
delicately organized woman is not capable of such absorption. Woman's
perceptions are subtle, and she rests satisfied with her intuitions;
while man strives to transmute his feelings, deeper than hers, into
action. The external appeals to woman who comprehends easily and
quickly, and, therefore, does not penetrate beneath the surface. Man, on
the other hand, strives to pierce to the essence of things, apprehends
more slowly, but thinks more profoundly, and tests carefully before he
accepts. Hence we so rarely meet woman in the field of science, while
her work in the domain of poetry and the humanities is abundant and
attractive. Jewish women form no exception to the rule: a survey of
Jewish poetry will show woman's share in its productions to have been
considerable and of high quality. While there was little or no
possibility to prosecute historic or scientific inquiry during the
harrowing days of persecution, the well-spring of Jewish poetry never
ran dry. Poetry followed the race into exile, and clave to it through
all vicissitudes, its solacement in suffering, the holy mediatrix
between its past and future. "The Orient dwells an exile in the
Occident, and its tears of longing for home are the fountain-head of
Jewish poetry," says a Christian scholar. And at the altar of this
poetry, whose sweetness and purity sanctified home life, and spread a
sense of morality in a time when brutality and corruptness were general,
the women singers of Israel offered the gifts of their muse. While the
culture of that time culminated in the service of love (_Minnedienst_),
in woman worship, so offensive to modern taste, Jewish poetry was
pervaded by a pure, ideal conception of love and womanhood, testifying
to the high ethical principles of its devotees.

Judaism and Jewish poetry know naught of the sensual love so assiduously
fostered by the cult of the Virgin. "Love," says a celebrated historian
of literature, "was glorified in all