<b>And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne unto Jacob, went out (Gen. 34:1).</b> May it please our master to teach us whether a woman is permitted to walk about on the Sabbath while adorned with jewelry (gold medallions)? Thus do our masters teach us: A woman is prohibited from walking about on the Sabbath with a gold medallion suspended about her neck, with a signet ring upon her finger, or wearing an eyeless hairpin in her hair. If she wears any of these adornments in the public thoroughfare, she must bring a sin offering. In the courtyard of her home, however, she is permitted to wear them.

Our sages maintain that she is forbidden to wear them in public even on a weekday, for people would stare at her if she did so, and that is discreditable to a woman. Ornaments were given to woman to wear only inside her home. After all, if one must not tempt a righteous person, how much less should one not tempt a thief. R. Samuel the son of Nahmani said: Observe what is written concerning Job: <i>I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then shall I look upon a maid?</i> (Job 31:1). Here indeed is evidence of Job’s righteousness. If (he would not look at) an unmarried woman, whom a man is permitted to look at, as he might marry her himself or match her with his son or his brothers, (then) all the more so would Job not look at a married woman. Hence a woman must remain in her home and not promenade about in the street lest she sin herself and cause men to sin through tempting them to look at the wife of another man. R. Judah the son of Shalum said: You know this to be so, as well, from the scriptural verse: <i>And God blessed them and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue her</i> (Gen. 1:39). The word <i>subdue her</i> is written (without a <i>vav</i>) as a singular imperative, for it is the male that subdues the female, while the female does not subdue the male. Similarly, the male subdues the earth and the female does not. Hence, a woman must not meander about lest tragedy befall her. That is what happened to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. She wandered about alone and was disgraced. Whence do we know this? We know it from what we read in the portion <i>And Dinah went out</i>.