Some remodeling was being done at my friends’ place. The workers, as usual, were Arabs. During a break, the host struck up a conversation with one of them — the usual stuff, how’s life, how’s the family. It turned out the man had three wives and ten children.
“Isn’t that hard?” the host asked.
“Many children — that’s a wonderful thing,” the worker replied.
“But why?”
“Think about it. You walk through the village alone — you’re afraid of everyone, anyone can push you around. But if you have ten children? Then everyone’s afraid of you. Ten children is a very good thing.”
Remarkable, really: the final conclusion — that one should have many children — is identical in both the Jewish and the Arab worldview. But the reasoning behind it…