Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/65

Rh heard of Jose's piety and charity, and asked his wife why she passed that good man's house. She frequently put him off with frivolous excuses; but the question being continually repeated, she at last told him the truth: and that a sense of shame prevented her from begging at the house of which she was formerly the mistress.—The husband, being of a brutish disposition, thought this reason insufficient; insisted on being led thither; and when his wife obstinately refused it, he beat her most cruelly. She shrieked:—her lamentable cries brought a great crowd about them. The wretched woman showed her wounds. The man justified himself by stating, that his wife injured him in his calling, and recited the great losses he experienced through her obstinacy. Amidst this uproar and confusion, Jose happened accidentally to pass. He inquired for the cause; and no sooner was he informed of the real state of the affair, than he ordered the wants of those poor people to be immediately relieved, provided a house for them, and maintained them out of his own scanty income, for the rest of their lives.—"Rabbi," said his disciples to him, "is not this the same woman that formerly made thy life so miserable?" "Yea," answered their pious instructor; "and for that very reason I am bound to relieve her; for thus it is written: 'Do not shut thine eyes against thine own flesh.'"—Thus