The letter Kaf pushes the father's worry even further into the future:
"When you marry the daughter, you worry about her the most—lest she not have children. And when you are older—lest she perform magic."
So the anxiety doesn't stop at the wedding. According to this proverb from the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a satirical wisdom text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, marrying off your daughter actually increases the worry. First comes the fear of infertility—a devastating concern in a culture where bearing children was considered both a divine blessing and a social necessity. A childless daughter wasn't just personally heartbroken; she was vulnerable to divorce, to shame, to being treated as though God had turned away from her.
Then comes the stranger fear: lest she perform magic. This isn't as bizarre as it sounds in context. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 67a) discusses women and sorcery, and there was a widespread folk belief in the ancient and medieval Jewish world that older women, particularly those who were isolated or desperate, might turn to magical practices. The Mishnah (Avot 2:7) says bluntly: "The more women, the more sorcery." Ben Sira is channeling a deep cultural anxiety here—the fear that a daughter's suffering might drive her to forbidden arts.
The teacher, who just acknowledged in the previous exchange that Ben Sira was speaking truth, says nothing this time. He simply asks for the next letter. The pattern is telling: when the proverbs hit close to home, the educator goes quiet.