In making a start on a new project, an article for RAC on widows, I immediately stumbled across this gem:
Our Rabbis have taught: A maiden who gives herself up to prayer, a wandering (שׁוֹבָבִית) widow, and a minor whose months are not completed– these bring destruction upon the world.
TB Sotah 22a
Inevitably this brought to mind:
Thus the widow should know that she is the altar of God, and she should sit constantly at home, not wandering or going to the houses of the faithful to receive, for the altar of God does not wander or go anywhere, but is fixed in a single place. A widow, therefore, should not wander or go from house to house. Those who roam and who have no shame cannot be still even within their own houses.
DA 3.6.3-4
I am not suggesting a literary parallel, but perhaps some common cultural ground.
ancientchurchorders 