A Jewish home is a Temple. “If husband and wife are worthy, the Almighty dwells among them” (Sotah, 17a). A couple needs a home; the bond between them is so precious that no one else can be there. A Jewish home is a Temple. The Temple is a place of the Almighty's presence.
The more precious something is, the more carefully it must be hidden.
Our sages say: “Three take part in the creation of a person—the Almighty, the father and the mother. The father… provides the bones, sinews and nails… The mother… provides the skin and flesh… And the Almighty provides the soul” (Niddah, 31a)
A Jewish home is a place of cooperation with the Almighty, and therefore a Jewish home is the most precious thing there can be. It must be carefully hidden from the eyes of others, as Rashi says concerning the verse “How goodly are your tents, Jacob”: “Their entrances do not face one another.”
A person needs clothing because their body is their most important and precious visible possession, and they want to protect it from outside influences.
The most precious thing the Jewish people possess is the Jewish soul. And it is a Jewish woman who brings this treasure into the world.
The father gives the child inner substance. If the father is a kohen or a Levite, his child will be a kohen or a Levite, respectively. The father teaches the child Torah, raises and guides the child. But it is specifically the mother who gives the child a Jewish soul! A child's Jewishness is determined by the mother's Jewishness and does not depend on the father. The Jewish soul comes into being in the mother's body.
And it is no accident that a child learns the entire Torah not just anywhere, but in the mother's womb! For the mother's womb is the holiest place, because it is precisely there that the Jewish soul comes into being!
That is why a woman who can bring children like Rashi, Rambam and the Chafetz Chaim into the world is a jewel of extraordinary importance and extraordinary value, which must be hidden as carefully as possible!
The Holy of Holies—the place where the Almighty's love for the Jewish people is revealed—is closed to everyone. During prayer, a person is alone with the Creator, and therefore one should pray in a house rather than in a field. A Jewish home is hidden from the eyes of others. All the more so must the precious diamond that brings new life into the world be hidden from the eyes of others.
to be continued