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I examined what they said and found it right regarding children whom the Creator provides to serve Him as He wills. Where they err is in their requiring that one dedicate himself to this pursuit alone, to the exclusion of everything else.
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I say: what benefit are children when there is no food, clothing, and shelter for them? And what good is raising them if there is no wisdom and knowledge?
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And their tenderness and concern, in the absence of these things, only increases the parents' pain. As for piety and honor from them — nothing of these can be hoped for if the prior conditions are absent.
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And the torment of pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and postpartum — and the ailments accompanying them — come with children, as it says: 'In pain you shall bear children' (Gen. 3:16).
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And she may die at the time of birth, turning joy into grief — as it says: 'As her soul was departing, for she was dying, she named him Ben-oni' (Gen. 35:18).
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And the father's exhaustion, misery, and risk-taking come only to feed his family and young — as it says: 'His young cry out for blood; where the slain are, there it is' (Job 39:30).
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And the difficulty of raising them, managing illness, preparing medications — whether barley or oxymel — come mostly with children.
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And how much more when matters end in death and bereavement — that is wailing and lamentation — as it says: 'Though they raise their children, I will bereave them of every one; woe to them indeed when I depart from them' (Hos. 9:12).
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If they live, fear of what may happen with the sons keeps eyes awake — as it says: 'He who robs his father and drives away his mother is a son who causes shame and dishonor' (Prov. 19:26).
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And dread of what may befall the daughters inflames the eyes — as Ben Sira says: 'A daughter to a father is a hidden anxiety; worry over her keeps him from sleeping at night.'
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And in all cases — if they are barren, that cuts off hope entirely;
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— and how much more if they are wicked, about whom it says: 'A generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother' (Prov. 30:11).
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Children were made dear to a person only that he hold on to what the Lord has provided from them and not grow weary of it — as it says: 'Behold, children are an inheritance of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward' (Ps. 127:3).
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Section X. Chapter Seven: Building Up the World.
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Others held that building up the world is the finest thing a person can occupy himself with. They said: building houses is necessary — without it a person has no place to shelter from heat and cold and gather his household together.
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And building up fields is necessary for food, which is indispensable; and all of this produces joy, breadth of spirit, energy, and happiness for a person — as it says: 'The profit of the land belongs to all; even a king serves the field' (Eccl. 5:8).
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And kings and ministers glory in buildings and construction — as it says: 'Together with kings and counselors of the earth who built ruins for themselves' (Job 3:14); and similarly for the faithful: 'Houses full of every good thing which you did not fill' (Deut. 6:11).
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I went through their view and found them excessive — in requiring the abandonment of everything in favor of this pursuit.
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How can anything of this be built without wisdom, planning, engineering, and calculation? And if there is not extensive knowledge in the midst, none of this goal is achieved.
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If a person burdens himself with this pursuit he falls into toil, misery, grief, and anxiety — spending all his own wealth and others' out of eagerness to complete what he began — as it says: 'Woe to him who builds his house without justice, his upper rooms without righteousness, making his neighbor work for nothing' (Jer. 22:13).
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And if he completes it and finds in it the slightest thing that does not please him, it becomes in his eyes worth nothing — his toil and misery wasted — like what is said: 'And Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, and they did not please him' (1 Kgs. 9:12).
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And perpetual regret and constant narrowness of spirit come only with it; and people's envy, rulers' wrath, and calamities come only with it — as it says: 'You have built houses of hewn stone but shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards but shall not',