The sages taught that when a person stands at the judgment seat of the Holy One after death, six questions are put to the soul. They are not trick questions. They are the exam the person has been taking all their life.
"Have you been honest in your business dealings?" comes first, because the court of Heaven judges ledgers before it judges liturgy. "Have you set aside a fixed portion of your time for the study of Torah?" comes second, because a Jew who never opens a book has no defense when the Book asks about him. "Have you observed the first commandment, to be fruitful and multiply?" follows. "Did you, in trouble, still hope and believe in God?" "Did you speak wisely?" And last, "Did you seek the deeper meaning of things?" (Shabbat 31a).
The anthology then turns to a second set of teachings, about women in the household. All blessings, the sages say, enter a house through the wife. A man must honor her or the blessings leave. He must take care never to make her weep, because God counts every tear that falls from a wife's eyes, and the husband who caused them will one day pay for each one.
When charity is distributed and both men and women need help, the women are helped first. If there is not enough for both, the men should gladly give up their claim. A widow is honored before a widower, because a woman's grief is harder to bear and easier to miss.
One final line sits at the bottom of this collection, sharp as a knife. "Tears are shed on God's altar for the one who forsakes his first love." The altar is the altar of the Temple, and the weeping is God's own.