h of sentiment,
she was held in subjection by Oriental laws in both marital and social
relations,(1514) and her natural vocation as religious teacher of the
children in the home failed to receive full recognition also.

The first attempt to liberate the Jewish woman from the yoke of
Orientalism was made in the eleventh century by Rabbi Gershon ben Jehudah
of Mayence, at that time the leading rabbi of Germany. Under the influence
of Occidental ideas he secured equal rights for men and women in
marriage.(1515) But only in our own time were full rights accorded her in
the Synagogue, owing to the reform movement in Germany and Austria. As a
matter of fact, the confirmation of children of both sexes, which was
gradually introduced in many conservative congregations also, was the
virtual recognition of woman as the equal of man in Synagogue and
school.(1516) Finally, upon the initiative of Isaac M. Wise, then Rabbi in
Albany, N. Y., family pews were introduced in the American Synagogue and
woman was seated beside her husband, son, father, and brother as their
equal. With her greater emotional powers she is able to lend a new
solemnity and dignity to the religious and educational efforts of the
Synagogue, wherever she is admitted as a full participant in the service.

18. Another shortcoming of the Synagogue and of Rabbinical Judaism in
general was its formalism. Too much stress was laid upon the perfunctory
"discharge of duty," the outward performance of the letter of the law, and
not enough upon the spiritual basis of the Jewish religion. The form
obscured the spirit, even though it never quite succeeded in throttling
it. This formalism of the ignorant, but observant multitude was censured
as early as the eleventh century by Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakudah in his
"Duties of the Heart," a philosophical work in which he emphatically urges
the need of inwardness for the Jewish faith.(1517) Later the mystics of
Germany and Palestine, while strong supporters of the law, opposed the
one-sidedness of legalism and intellectualism, and endeavored to instill
elements of deeper devotion into the Jewish soul through the introduction
of their secret lore, _Cabbalah_, or "esoteric tradition."(1518) Their
offering, however, was anything but beneficial to the soul of Judaism. A
mysticism which attempts to fathom the unfathomable depth of the divine
accords but ill with the teaching of Judaism, which says: "The secret
things belong unto the Lor