«El camino del hombre en la doncella»
Judas«El camino del hombre en la doncella» is an expression Gershom Wald uses to frame the uncertain intimacy between Shmuel and Atalia. In his teasing, the phrase becomes more than a suggestive allusion: it names the limits of a man’s ability to understand desire and the unpredictable course of another person’s affections.
Biblical Source and Meaning
Wald invokes the expression while reflecting on the passage of Proverbs that speaks of “the way of a man with a maid.” He places it alongside a reversed counterpart, the way of a maiden with a man, and calls both paths inconmensurable: beyond measure, and beyond the understanding of a man such as himself. The paired formulation shifts the saying’s emphasis from a man’s pursuit to the woman’s agency and inscrutability as well.
Wald’s Teasing of Shmuel
Wald brings up the expression as he comments on the growing closeness between Shmuel and Atalia. He warns Shmuel not to mistake Atalia’s present kindness for a promise: men who came before him had also been attracted to her; sometimes she allowed one or another a few nights, then sent them away. Wald’s teasing therefore combines a concrete caution with the broader proverb. Shmuel’s place in Atalia’s affections cannot be inferred with certainty from her current warmth.
Narrative Function
The expression lets Wald approach a personal subject while maintaining his characteristic sarcasm. He says he will not speak about what lies between Shmuel and Atalia, then speaks around it through the story of earlier suitors and the saying about the man and the maiden. His mock confession that he cannot understand women’s caprices both sharpens the joke and marks the boundary of what he claims to know. The biblical allusion gives his warning a reflective reach without resolving the relationship: Atalia’s feelings remain her own, and Shmuel cannot treat affection as a predictable path.
