morning, noon
`` Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob , for in the hour when you thus named him you were honestly yourself , you felt thankful that it had been vouchsafed to you to add another link to the chain of your race -- you were a Jew -- you were confident in our God -- in your own God . The birth of your second son touched your soul less deeply and you gave him the name of Theophilus , and when your third male child was born you had altogether ceased to remember the God of your fathers , for he is named after one of the heathen gods , Hephaestion . To put it shortly : You are Jews when the Lord is most gracious to you , or threatens to try you most severely but you are heathen whenever your way does not lead you over the high hills or through the dark abysses of life . I can not change your hearts -- but the wife of my brother 's son , the daughter of Ben Akiba , must be a daughter of our people , morning , noon , and night . I seek a Rebecca for my daughter and not an Ismene . '' `` I did not ask you here , '' retorted Apollodorus . `` But if you quit us to-morrow , you as will be followed by our reverent regard .