JOSEPH B. JOḤANAN OF JERUSALEM SAID: LET YOUR HOUSE BE OPENED WIDE, AND LET THE POOR BE MEMBERS OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD; AND TALK NOT MUCH WITH A WOMAN.LET YOUR HOUSE BE OPENED WIDE. What does this mean? It teaches that a man’s house should be opened wide to the south, to the east, to the west and to the north, like Job who made four doors to his house. And why did Job make four doors to his house? So that the poor should not have the trouble of going round the entire house. He who came from the north entered straight ahead, and he who came from the south entered straight ahead, and so on all sides. For this reason Job made four doors to his house.AND LET THE POOR BE MEMBERS OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD. This does not mean literally that they should be members of your household, but that the poor should be able to talk freely about what they ate and drank in your house, just as the poor talked freely about what they had eaten and drunk in Job’s house. When the poor met, one would ask the other, ‘Whence do you come?’ and he would reply, ‘From Job’s house’. Or one would ask the other, ‘Where are you going?’ and he would reply, ‘To Job’s house’. When the great calamity befell him, he addressed the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, ‘Lord of the universe! Did I not feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty, as it is stated, If I have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof?1Job 31, 17. And did I not clothe the naked, as it is stated, And warmed with the fleece of my sheep?’2ibid. 20. The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, ‘For all that, Job, you have not attained to one half the standard [of hospitality] displayed by Abraham. You remained in your house waiting for guests to come to you. To him who was accustomed to eat wheaten bread you gave wheaten bread, to him who was accustomed to eat meat you gave meat, and to him who was accustomed to drink wine you gave wine. Abraham, however, did not act so. He went abroad,3lit. ‘in the world’. and when he met wayfarers he brought them to his home. Even to him who was unaccustomed to eat wheaten bread he gave wheaten bread, to him who was unaccustomed to eat meat he gave meat, and to him who was unaccustomed to drink wine he gave wine. Not only that; but he went and built large mansions along the roadways and placed in them a supply of food and drink, so that whoever entered ate and drank and blessed Heaven. Therefore was he granted happiness;4And was blessed with a child in his old age. The Hebrew phrase is frequently used in connection with the Deity and the text could be rendered, ‘Therefore it afforded Him much satisfaction’. and whatever the heart desired5lit. ‘the mouth asked for’. was to be found in Abraham’s home, as it is stated, And Abraham planted a tamarisk-tree in Beer-sheba’.6Gen. 21, 33. The Heb. for tamarisk-tree is ’eshel, which by transposition of letters can produce the verb sha’al, ‘to ask for’. [Cf. Midrash Rabbah to Genesis ad loc., LIV, 6 (Sonc. ed., p. 480): ‘R. Judah said: ’Eshel means an orchard, the word meaning ask for whatever you wish, figs, grapes or pomegranates’.] See also Rashi on Keth. 8b where the word is regarded as made of the initial letters of ’akilah (eating), shethiyah (drinking) and lewiyyah (escorting a guest on his way), descriptive of Abraham’s hospitality.

Teach the members of your household humility; for when a man is humble and the members of his household are also humble, if a poor man comes to the door and asks, ‘Is your father at home?’ they will reply, ‘Yes, come in’. Before he even enters the house the table is already laid for him, and when he comes in he eats and drinks and blesses the name of Heaven. On this account that man is granted much happiness.7Or, ‘and it affords Him much satisfaction’. But when a man is not8So GRA. V omits ‘not’. humble and the members of his household are ill-tempered, if a poor man comes to the door and asks, ‘Is your father at home?’ they will reply, ‘No’, rebuke him and drive him away with harsh words.Another interpretation of ‘Teach the members of your household humility’. What does it mean? It teaches that when a man is humble and the members of his household are also humble, if he sets out to a land beyond the sea, he will say [with confidence], ‘I thank Thee, O Lord my God, that my wife is not engaged in strife with her neighbours’. His heart is not anxious, but his mind is at ease until the time of his return. But when a man is not humble and the members of his household are ill-tempered, if he sets out for a distant land, he will say [with apprehension], ‘May it be Thy will, O Lord my God, that my wife be not engaged in strife with her neighbours nor my children in conflict’. His heart is anxious and his mind ill at ease until the time of his return.AND TALK NOT MUCH WITH A WOMAN. This is so even though she be his wife, and needless to say if she be his fellow’s wife. For when a man talks much with a woman he brings evil upon himself, neglects the study of the Torah, and in the end will inherit Gehinnom.

Another interpretation of AND TALK NOT MUCH WITH A WOMAN. What does it mean? When a man has come into the House of Study and has not there received the respect due to him, or he has had an argument with his fellow, let him not go and report it to his wife, saying, ‘I had an argument with my neighbour; this is what he said to me and this is what I replied’. Thereby he disgraces himself, disgraces his wife and disgraces his neighbour; and his wife who previously held him in esteem [now inwardly] laughs at him. Moreover, when the neighbour hears of it, he exclaims, ‘Alas! words which concerned only me and him he has gone and gossiped to his wife’. The outcome is that this man disgraces himself, his wife and his neighbour.