Apologies...

Dear friends,

I am terribly sorry to have missed two weeks of lessons. We have been dealing with critical illness, and now death, in the family. Please understand.

I will resume lessons this coming weekend.

Shalom,

Erica

Vayeitzei… “and he went out”…Genesis 28:10-32:3

The narratives contained in this weeks’ portion include Jacob’s vision of a ladder reaching into the heavens, his marriages to Leah and Rachel, his Midas Touch with animal husbandry, and Rachel’s theft of her father’s “gods” as Jacob’s family parts from that of greedy Laban.

The tale of Jacob’s ladder-vision is well known:
Genesis 28:10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. 11He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ 16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ 17And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ 18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’

The New Testament Gospel of John picks up on the stirring imagery of Jacob’s ladder:

Jesus answered,
"Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than these."
And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." John 1:50-51

When I taught a recent class on this topic, my students noticed Jacob’s cunning. This is no obedient Abraham, but a man willing to bargain with God. Even though the divine voice has already promised land and offspring, Jacob still couches vow as conditional.. IF God will do thus and thus, I will…”

Luckily for both parties, the arrangement seems to have worked out! Everything that Jacob touches turns to… more. More wives (a two-for-one special!). More babies…and more babies…and more babies. And then there is his talent with breeding livestock. This guy has a talent for reproduction.

We have discussed the betrothal type-scene in previous lessons, and it is easy to see how the current story of Jacob and Rachel’s meeting and betrothal fit the mold. One pertinent detail that might have escaped notice comes in the form of this hint:

Genesis 29:1-11 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, "My brothers, where do you come from?" They said, "We are from Haran." He said to them, "Do you know Laban son of Nahor?" They said, "We do." He said to them, "Is it well with him?" "Yes," they replied, "and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep." He said, "Look, it is still broad daylight; it is not time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them." But they said, "We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep." While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them. Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother's brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother's brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of his mother's brother Laban. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud.

The stone covering the mouth of the well is our first hint that there is an impediment – a barrier if you will – which will inflict this union. Rachel’s womb, as we shall find, is similarly “stopped up” – barren. While Jacob can uncover the well by himself, however, it will take God’s help to free Rachel’s womb for the bearing of Joseph and Benjamin.

Jacob is presented in Genesis as heroic, larger than life, a fitting father of the 12 tribes which will become Israel. It is worth noting, however, that the Hebrew Bible prophet Hosea had a very different assessment of Jacob’s character and importance! Hosea uses the name “Jacob” both to refer to the patriarch AND to the nation of his descendants.

He says (in Hosea 12: 2-4, 9-10; and 13-14)
2 The LORD has an indictment against Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways, and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God.
4 He strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and sought his favor; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him…

So far, all this sounds fairly familiar, except that paired with the comment that Jacob will be punished, his actions in supplanting his brother and striving with God take on a more negative valence, making Jacob sound more like a boor who needs to be thrown out of a bar than a good guy.

9 I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of the appointed festival.
10 I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets I will bring destruction…
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram, there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep.

Notice here that Jacob is being compared – unfavorably!- with “prophets”… whereas prophets have visions and wield power, Jacob spends all his time just mucking about with sheep and trying to get a wife.

13 By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded.
14 Ephraim [a grandson of Jacob] has given bitter offense, so his Lord will bring his crimes down on him and pay him back for his insults.

Aha! And now Jacob is contrasted with THE Prophet of Prophets, Moses. Hosea seems to want us to choose… which story is important to us? The Patriarchs, or the Exodus? Which hero do we choose? Which theology? Which promises?

Tol’dot…"Generations"…Genesis 25:19-28:9

I'll be out of town at the annual meting of the Society of Biblical Literature this weekend, so I am posting a little early.

Parashat Toldot recounts Rebecca’s conception and delivery of Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Rebecca’s “visit” to King Abimelech, Esau’s marriage to Canaanite women, and Jacob’s purchase of Esau’s birthright and theft of Esau’s blessing.

As we saw last week through the variations on the betrothal type-scene, Rebecca is the ultimate powerful mother, the planner, the plotter, the one getting things done. Just as he has been from the start, Isaac is a much more passive character. He has been toyed with (by Ishmael), tied up (by Abraham) – he does not even get to go and get his own wife, but this task is delegated to another (Abraham’s servant)! Again in these chapters we see that Isaac is a rather flimsy personality a person acted upon rather than an actor. Rebecca is the powerhouse – it is through Rebecca’s machinations that the promise to Abraham is carried out. Isaac’s “seed” may be the vessel, but Rebecca is the instrument of the covenant.

Rebecca is also given to bouts of hyperbolic speech, which is something I love about the way she is portrayed. When the twins struggle in her womb, she says: “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” (Genesis 25:22) When she decides to send Jacob away from home for his own protection, she tells her husband: “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Genesis 27:46) All this over-the-top complaining makes me like her even more.

When Isaac and Rebecca travel to Gerar, Isaac passes off his wife as his sister, just as Abraham has done twice before. To view the three wife-sister narratives in parallel columns, click this link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddbxqpcb_5c6g9xfdh&hl=en

This is a strange repetition. But notice that each time the story is told – or retold – we learn something different. There are three glaring problems with the first story, wherein Abraham lets Pharaoh take Sarah as a wife.
1. Abraham lies – he says that Sarah is his sister, when this has never been the explanation of their relationship before.
2. Worse…does Pharaoh have sex with Sarah?? The horror! Especially because in the next chapter she’ll give birth to Isaac, and we want to be sure about paternity!
3. Abraham seems to make a good deal of money off this little transaction…giving the reader the uncomfortable feeling that he successfully pimped out his wife.

The second wife-sister narrative solves each of these problems.
1. We are told that Sarah is in fact Abraham’s half-sister… so his statement is a half-truth.
2. We learn that God prevented Abimelech from having sexual intercourse with Sarah… from this the reader is supposed to logically infer that if God prevented a violation of Sarah in the second case, he surely must have done the same in the first scenario, we just are not told there that it happened. We can breathe a sigh of relief; Sarah’s virtue remains intact.
3. The money problem is also solved – Abimelech gives the silver to Sarah and not Abraham, saying “it is your exoneration before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.”

So what is the point of the third wife-sister story? What do we learn? Maybe a little more about Isaac’s character.

Unlike Sarah, taken by both Pharaoh and Abimelech, Rebecca is taken by no one in Gerar… and Isaac isn’t very careful, they are caught in a compromising situation! So why the lie? It certainly IS and outright lie in this instance. Why expose Rebecca to such danger? Yes, he became wealthy in that land, but at what possible cost? How does this scenario influence your understanding of this patriarch?

As for Jacob and Esau, once again the younger usurps the elder. Notice that while Genesis 25:28 reads: “Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebecca loved Jacob.” Yet Malachi 1:2-3 says: “…the LORD says ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’” Isn’t that a huge difference? In Genesis Rebecca loved Jacob more than Esau. In Malachi, Esau is not only hated, but it is GOD and not Rebecca doing the hating!

This not only seems a little hard on Esau, but has spawned some nasty rhetoric when communities identify themselves as Jacob (or his descendants) and their opponents as “Esau.” Rabbinic Judaism identified Esau as Rome:

[Isaac’s words in Genesis 27:22] “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” [really refer to the people of Rome,] for Jacob rules only through his voice, but Esau [Rome} rules only through his hands.” Genesis Rabbah 65:19

Early (Pauline) Christianity decided that the Christ-as-messiah believing community was Jacob, and, ironically, that non-Christ-as-messiah believing Jews were “Esau.”

Romans 9:6-13 "It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, 7and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’ 10Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. 11Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ 13As it is written,‘I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.’"

Such pain has been wrought by those asserting their connection to one of these twins! So few seemed to remember, that like Ishamel and Isaac, who came together to bury their father, Esau welcomed Jacob back to his homeland, and the two brothers made peace.

“Chayei Sarah”… the life of Sarah...Genesis 23:1-25:18

Although titled “the life of Sarah,” this parasha opens with her death. “Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years; this was the length of Sarah's life. And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” Genesis 23:1

It has often been speculated that Sarah died of a broken heart. While Abraham set off with her beloved son Isaac, to fufill God’s command, interpreters wondered if Sarah knew what he was up to. Did he tell her of the terrible chore to come? Did she guess? And remember that – ram as substitute sacrifice or not - Abraham descended from Mount Moriah without his son. “So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba…” Genesis 22:19.

In her book of poetry A Cry Like A Bell (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1987), Madeline L’Engle speaks up on Sarah’s behalf:

Sarah: before Mount Moriah
Genesis 11-12, 16-22

Like a small mouse
I am being played with.
Pushed around, sent from home,
passed off as a sister,
free to be the sport of others
(nobody asked me).
Nobody asked if I wanted
to leave home and all my friends
(the cat never asks the mouse).
Would my womb have filled
if we had stayed where we were
instead of following strange promises?
My maid, giving my husband a child for me,
then made mock of me.
So when the angel came
announcing—promising—
a child in my womb long dry
what could I do but laugh?
And then warmth came again, and fullness,
and my child was born,
my laughter, my joy.
But do not play with me any more!

What kind of logic lurks in your promise
that the sky full of stars
is like the number of our descendents
and then demand the son's life who makes
that promise possible?
Can I trust a breaker of promises?
What kind of game is this?

Are you laughing at my pain
as I watch the child and his father
climb the mountain?
Am I no more than a mouse
to be played with?

I am a woman.
You—father-God—
have yet to learn
what it is to be a mother,

and so, perhaps, have I.
And if you give me back my laughter again,
then, together we can learn
and I will say—oh, I will sing!—
that you have regarded the lowliness
of your handmaiden.

I have always find that this parasha adds insult to injury by reporting Abraham’s marriage to Keturah (easily fertile, another slap in the face) before Sarah’s grave was cold. Although rabbinic scholars often sought to soften this hard reality with the contention that “Keturah” is another name for Hagar – who Abraham brought back home after Sarah’s death, this is not born out by the biblical text.

Genesis 25:1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastwards to the east country.

7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred and seventy-five years. 8Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. 11After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.

The other big – and happy! – news that Isaac has taken a wife. As Robert Alter has shown, this is not a simple report of an engagement, but the story of Abraham’s servant finding Rebecca and bringing her home for Isaac conforms to a literary convention of ancient Hebrew narrative he calls the Betrothal Type-Scene. (The Art of Biblical Literature, Basic Books: 1983)

Each literary culture has its own norms and conventions which assist the author and audience by providing a shared set of assumptions about how a given interaction will play out. The audience recognizes the conventions without necessarily being aware of them, much as one of us, watching movie previews in a darkened theater, can probably identify the genre of a given clip within the first 60 seconds of music and images. We know a Sci-Fi film from a Romance from a Comedy intuitively based on a myriad of cues. In much the same way, when flipping TV channels we can identify within seconds whether we are watching a commercial, infomercial, news program, or drama. We speak the language, we have internalized the genres. The challenge in dealing with ancient texts like those in the biblical corpus is that we do not have the same facility with genre that exists between ourselves and modern works of art. We must stretch ourselves to meet the biblical text in the fixed form that it remains – we must attempt to in-generate ourselves.

So here are the elements of a Betrothal Type-Scene, according to Alter:
A. The Bridegroom (or his surrogate) on Journey to a Foreign Land
B. Girl(s) at a Well
C. Someone Draws Water
D. Girl(s) Rush to Tell
E. Betrothal
F. Ceremonial Meal

Download and print out a document I have prepared with examples of this type-scene in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, accessible at this link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddbxqpcb_4fcrqc4fb&hl=en

Try to identify every element in each story. Isaac and Rebecca’s betrothal is the most complete of the examples, but it also gives us tremendous information about its heroine – Rebecca is the mother of industry, drawing water for the servant and all the camels, too!)

Notice that the Jacob narrative lacks the final element – the ceremonial meal, a good hint that something with this betrothal is about to go terribly awry. (Does waking up after the wedding night with the wrong woman in your bed qualify as ‘terribly awry’?!)

Alter demonstrates some of the ways that an author can invoke a type or genre only to subvert it, creating tension in the audience who, recognizing the type and getting prepared to see it play out, are surprised when the formula doesn’t come together and forced to make meaning out of its lack of fruition. Look at the examples of 1 Samuel 19:11-12 (there is no wedding! this should be a clue that Saul will end up without a kingdom…) and Ruth 2:1-14.

Variations upon the type-scene give the audience cues about characterization: Laban’s avarice; Isaac’s passivity; Rebecca’s initiative; Jacob’s sensitivity; Rachel’s barrenness; Moses as liberator; Ruth’s heroism; Saul’s isolation.

Now look at John 4. It will be clear by now that we will be considering the story of the Samaritan woman at the well…let’s walk through it together.

A. Bridegroom (or his surrogate) on Journey to a Foreign Land:

John 4:4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— 2 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

Audience expectations are being established. Is Jesus the bridegroom? His surrogate? Will he meet a marriageable young woman at a well?

B. Girl(s) at a Well

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’.

Great! Here’s the girl, there’s the well. The audience settles in for a good old fashioned betrothal. But wait – why is the bridegroom asking the maiden to draw the water? Is she going to be like Rebecca, that ultimate biblical woman of industry?

C. Someone Draws Water
9The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)* 10Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 11The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ 15The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ 25The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ 26Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,* the one who is speaking to you.’ 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’

Now the audience finds itself quite uncomfortable and thinking hard. Is somebody going to hurry up and get that water? Each of them keep asking the other for it! And what is this ‘living water’ business all about. In addition, it turns out that this is no young maiden at the well, but an unfortunate woman whose life has seen tragedy after tragedy – in the culture of the time, where unmarried women were extremely vulnerable, a woman whose husband died had to accept marriage to his brothers or other kin in order to survive. Clearly this woman lost multiple husbands and suffered great turmoil – and worse, is presently being forced to live without the small legal protections that official marriage provided. The audience is moved by her plight, and by Jesus’ recognition of her social poverty. The betrothal scene – invoked by all this marriage talk and yet subverted by its content – has truly run off the rails.

D. Girl(s) Rush to Tell

28Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ 30They left the city and were on their way to him.

This is just one example of the many ways the New Testament repeats renews and pays homage to the literary convention of the Hebrew Bible.

Vayeira..."And He Appeared"...Genesis 18:1-22:24

Genesis 22:1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 2He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ 8Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ 13And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’ 19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

Generations of readers have wondered at how Abraham could tolerate God’s test. Already forced to abandon Ishmael and Hagar, how could he obediently agree to kill his son Isaac- and do it himself?

In times of cruel oppression and dire desperation, Jews saw bravery in Abraham’s actions, and even more bravery in Isaac’s!

4 Maccabees 12:9-12
"Brothers, let us die like brothers for the sake of the law; let us imitate the three youths in Assyria who despised the same ordeal of the furnace. Let us not be cowardly in the demonstration of our piety." While one said, "Courage, brother," another said, "Bear up nobly," and another reminded them, "Remember whence you came, and the father by whose hand Isaac would have submitted to being slain for the sake of religion."

At different times and places in history, some Jews have acted on the challenge and killed themselves rather than submit to forced conversion or other violence.

Centuries of Christians have read in the text of Genesis 22 a prefiguring of the crucifixion of Jesus:

“Although Judaism sees the purpose merely as a point of testing of Abraham’s faith, Christianity understands the full typological significance of what took place—as a sign post pointing to the most significant event in all history: when another Father would offer His “only Son” upon the same mountain. The offering of Isaac is a carefully constructed divine pattern which pointed to the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross many years later. That this is true can be seen from the numerous typological correlations between this event and the crucifixion.” (See link for reference)

Click on this link for a table listing the perceived links between the two stories:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_3f9vzw4dr&hl=en

Muslims, however have preserved a different story of Abraham’s test, where Ishmael, and not Isaac, is the intended (and very willing!) victim.

QURAN CHAPTER 37:
101So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear. 102. Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, he said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills one practising Patience and Constancy!" 103. So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah., and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), 104. We called out to him "O Abraham! 105. "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" - thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 106. For this was obviously a trial- 107. And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice: 108. And We left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times: 109. "Peace and salutation to Abraham!" 110. Thus indeed do We reward those who do right. 111. For he was one of our believing Servants. 112. And We gave him the good news of Isaac - a prophet,- one of the Righteous.

Notice that the Qur’an does not specifically state that Ishmael was the sacrificial son…however, only after the incident did Abraham hear “the good news of Isaac - a prophet,- one of the Righteous.” Therefore, some exegetes (not all Muslim interpreters!) reasoned, Ishmael is the son referred to in the Qur’an’s story.

Hayatu 'l-Qulub (Merrick's ed. p. 28) says: "On a certain occasion when this illustrous father (Abraham) was performing the rites of the pilgrimage at the Mecca, Abraham said to his beloved child, `I dreamed that I must sacrifice you; now consider what is to be done with reference to such an admonition.' Ishmael replied, `Do as you shall be commanded by God. Verify your dream. You will find me endure patiently.' But when Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael, the Most High God made a black and white sheep his substitute, a sheep which had been pasturing forty years in Paradise, and was created by the direct power of God for this event. Now every sheep offered on Mount Mina, until the Day of Judgment is a substitute, or a commemoration of the substitute for Ishmael." (Hughes' Dictionary of Islam, p. 219).”

So what "really happened"? What is "the meaning" of the story? We would do well to remember a quote from Zakovitch and Shinan: “The Torah does not always ask to imprison the reader in one interpretative channel. To the contrary, at times it encourages and calls for confusion, and places upon itself the responsibility that not all readers will arrive at identical interpretive understandings.”

(Zakovitch and Shinan, That's Not What the Good Book Says, 2004.)

Lech L’cha "Go Forth!": Genesis 12:1 through 17:27

Each week I discuss the interpretation of a portion of the Torah, or Pentateuch. In order to complete the 5 Books of Moses in one year, I have chosen to follow the Jewish reading cycle, known as the “parasha” or “section.” A few readers of this class/blog have asked me about the titles of each section, so here is the explanation: most parashot (plural of parasha), just like most biblical books, are titled after one of the first major Hebrew word present in them. This week’s title is Lech Lecha… "Go forth."

With these words begin the story of the emergence of a new family, nation, and eventually, religion:

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ Genesis 12:1-3

Last week’s lesson included Jewish and Muslim versions of a story about Abraham smashing the idols – way back in his childhood in Ur of Chaldea. Here is the link to last week’s handout: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_2c88gxjhd&hl=en

But what gave the interpreters creating this Abraham legend the idea that Abraham’s father Terah was and idol worshipper or seller? They read their bibles very closely and noticed Joshua 24:2

“And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors-- Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor-- lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.”

And so, bidden to “go forth,” Abraham and his family journey into a new land and new covenant.

Each parasha is so vast that a discussion of the history of interpretation of all its parts would take a long time! Today I want to concentrate on the figure of Hagar, introduced in Genesis 16:

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2and Sarai said to Abram, ‘You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!’ 6But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.’ Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.”

Many modern readers feel sympathy for Hagar, who seems to be pushed around at best, without consent, and at worst, against her will.

African-American women have often found a in Hagar a figure mirroring the stories of their own mothers:

“Enslaved, raped, but seen by God, Hagar has been a cherished biblical character in African-American communities. Womanist theologian Delores S. Williams explains:
The African-American community has taken Hagar’s story unto itself. Hagar has ‘spoken’ to generation after generation of black women because her story has been validated as true by suffering black people. She and Ishmael together, as family, model many black American families in which a lone woman/mother struggles to hold the family together in spite of the poverty to which ruling class economics consign it. Hagar, like many black women, goes into the wide world to make a living for herself and her child, with only God by her side.

The story of Hagar demonstrates that survival is possible even under harshest conditions.”

Other modern African-American interpreters have seen in Hagar a true love for Abraham, a heart broken by the viciousness of Sarah and Hagar’s ultimate expulsion:

O Abraham! what dost thou say?
That I depart? I must away
From out thy home, from out thy life!
What words are these? canst thou be mad,
Or do I dream? What means this strife?
Thy love alone hast made me glad;
O Abraham! thou hast been the light,
Within these years of woeful night.

From: "The Expulsion of Hagar” by Eloise Alberta Bibb

Next week we will see how Islam has envisioned Hagar as a heroine, not a victim; mother of a nation. For a preview, see this link, which tells an Islamic version of Hagar’s espulsion from Abraham and Sarah’s household; how this valient mother bravely succumbed to God’s will and let Abraham leave her, and their son, behind. Like Abraham, Hagar concedes to the bewlidering command, Lech Lecha..."Go forth."

http://books.google.com/books?id=hc5CuBCvTGsC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq=Sahih+Al-Bukhari++hagar&source=web&ots=dVKXr60niN&sig=E571kIsL6XiV9uvKGDflZYfX4WY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA152,M1

Noach - Genesis 6:9 through 11:32

Imagine a Bible without covers. Imagine that it is unbound, a sheaf of papers piled together a little haphazardly. Are the pages numbered? Are the separate books clipped together? If you dropped it, would you ever get it back together and in order again?

The Hebrew Bible as we know it has covers. It has a Table of Contents, pagination and even an ISBN number. It is not just a "canon" but The Canon, fixed, unchanging in black and white. This can make us hard to remember that the Bible is not really a thing, but rather a collection of things. It’s a grouping of assorted poetry, history, just-so-stories, works of praise, travelogues and even a building manual and recipe or two. And it certainly did not spring full-fledged, ISBN number and all, from the hand of Moses like Athena springing full-grown from Zeus’ head. It took a lot of time and arguing for people to decide just what should be included in the Bible, and what should be left out.

Both Judaism and Christianity have myths about how their Scriptures came to be canonized, but these are idealized stories that do not tell even a portion of the tale – the debates, infighting and suppression of books which for some reason were out of fashion or that some groups in power found ideologically or theologically suspect. Many of the books in the OT and NT canons barely made it in there… imagine a bible without the Song of Songs, without Esther, without the Gospel of John or the Letter to the Hebrews?

But what about all those works that were left out? Did the people who loved and preserved these books just drop them like hot potatoes because somebody in charge suddenly decided that they were not “scripture?” No… these (now-parabiblical) traditions continued to be preserved, venerated, and of assistance for generations of theologians and thinkers who turned to them for guidance and biblical interpretation. Sometimes works of biblical interpretation - which were never meant to be read as Scripture in and of themselves – became so venerated over time that they attained the quality of scripture and were thought to relate the “truth.” We’ll meet examples of both trends now, pertaining to the main character in this week’s bible portion: Noah.

Debate swirled around the character of Noah in ancient times. What were we to make of this hero’s essential nature? He certainly starts out well, all that ark building and command obeying, but the whole drunkenness and exposure bit in Genesis 9 gave interpreters pause. Was he righteous, or wretched? Saint or sot? Here are some ancient “votes” on the issue:

Very early Jewish texts like 1 Enoch and the Genesis Apocryphon (discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls) imagine Noah as exceedingly righteous – almost divine. Both these works preserve a story of Noah’s miraculous birth and attributes as an infant. Noah is so disconcertingly special that his father Lamech thinks that he must be illegitimate – his mother must have been fooling around with those naughty angels who were marrying human women in Genesis 6:1-4! Lamech finds out that Noah is his son, but only after putting his poor wife through misery; in the Genesis Apocryphon she begs him to remember their enjoyment during lovemaking in order to prove that she is faithful. Whoever said ancient texts were boring? Click here for a link to excerpts of these stories: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_1hjmtw3cf

The bible does seem to indicate that Noah was righteous, but many rabbinic interpreters focused on the follow up to that statement:
Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. (Gen 7:1)

Why in this generation? Maybe, some said, Noah was simply the best of a bad lot? See this discussion:

R. Johanan said: In his generations, but not in other generations. Resh Lakish maintained: [Even] in his generations — how much more so in other generations. R. Hanina said: As an illustration of R. Johanan's view, to what may this be compared? To a barrel of wine lying in a vault of acid: in its place, its odour is fragrant [by comparison with the acid]; elsewhere, its odour will not be fragrant. B. Sanhedrin 108a

In the New Testament, however, Noah’s saintliness was upheld and he was likened to Christ:

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
1 Peter 3:18-22.

Of course, this typology overlooks Noah’s drunkenness… something many ancient rabbis (in response to Christian claims of Noah-Christ connections?) refused to do:

Noah, after having been called A righteous man (Gen. VI, 9), is called A MAN OF THE GROUND; but Moses, after having been called An Egyptian man (Ex. II, 19), was then called The man of God (Deut. XXXIII, 1). He was more beloved than Noah, who ended as a castrate. AND PLANTED A VINEYARD. As he was going to plant the vineyard the demon Shimadon met him and proposed, ' Come into partnership with me [in this vineyard], but take care not to enter into my portion, for if you do I will injure you.’ Genesis Rabbah 36:3

By the time we arrive at the story of Noah in the Qur’an – retold more than seven times in this work – Noah is an indubitably perfect prophet, and a type of Muhammad:

27 We did send Noah unto his people, ‘Verily, I am to you an obvious warner; 28 that ye should not worship any save God. Verily, I fear for you the torment of the grievous day. 29 But the chiefs of those who misbelieved amongst his people said, ‘We only see in thee a mortal like ourselves; nor do we see that any follow thee except the reprobates amongst us by a rash judgment; nor do we see that you have any preference over us; nay more, we think you liars!’ 30 Said, ‘O my people, Let us see! If I stand upon a manifest sign from my Lord, and there come to me mercy from him, and ye are blinded to it; shall we force you to it while ye are averse therefrom? 31 ‘O my people, I do not ask you for wealth in return for it; my hire is only from God; nor do I repulse those who believe; verily, they shall meet their Lord. But I see you, a people who are ignorant. 33 O my people, who will help me against God, were I to repulse you? Do ye not then mind? I do not say that I have the treasures of God; nor do I know the unseen; nor do I say, "Verily, I am an angel;" nor do I say of those whom your eyes despise, "God will never give them any good!" God knows best what is in their souls-verily, then should I be of the unjust.’ Sura 11

The end of this week’s reading introduces another figure – one whose righteousness is not in doubt in Judaism, Christianity or Islam: Abraham. One of the most fun and interesting traditions relating to Abraham in antiquity was a story of his actions as a young boy: Abraham Smashing the Idols. Most Christians I teach have never heard this story; many Jews in my classes know it so well that they are surprised to discover that it isn’t in the bible! To read Jewish and Muslim versions of this tale, click here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_2c88gxjhd&hl=en

Enjoy!

In the Beginning... Bereshit; Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 6:8

These comments related to the chapters and verses indicated in the lesson's title, above.
Genesis 1:1-5 thrusts the reader into the formless and void of nothing-ness from which creation emerges:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

(Please note that I usually refer to the NRSV translation - unless otherwise specified.)

Targum Pseud0-Jonathan, also called Targum Yerushalmi (an Aramaic translation of the Torah of unknown date) relates the first moments of creation slightly differently:

With wisdom the Lord created. And the earth was vacancy and desolation, and solitary of the sons of men, and void of every animal; and the Spirit of mercies from before the Lord breathed upon the face of the waters. And it was evening, and it was morning, in the order of the work of the creation, the First Day.

It is a beautiful statement: "with wisdom the Lord created." And yet, are we to understand this "wisdom" as a descriptor of God's approach to creation...or maybe as "Wisdom," a second divine person present at the creation? Although this interpretation may seem far-fetched, we would do well to remember the words of Proverbs 8:22-31:

The Lord created me [Wisdom] at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—

When he had not yet made earth and fields,or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,

rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

The Hebrew word for wisdom is Hokmâ, a female noun. We see that Proverbs envisions God creating Wisdom first, as almost a heavenly help-mate, who then joins the Lord in the creation of the world, and they rejoice together in their work. But how does God create? through speech: then God said, ‘Let there be light.’

In Aramaic translations of biblical texts, the term Memra is often used to denote the creative or directive word of God. The meaning of Memra is "the word," - understood to be a manifestation of the divine in the human realm. The Greek translation of this "word"? -- logos.

Although the Gospel of John is often said to be the "least Jewish" of the gospels, it is easy to see that the same sentiments expressed in Proverbs and preserved in the relatively late Targum are present in John's prologue where he describes Creation as a partnership: (John 1: 1-5)

In the beginning was the Word (logos) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

As in Genesis 1:1-5 this New Testament text describes creation from "the beginning" to the separation of "darkness and light."

____________________

Notice that the verses covered in this lesson describe not one, but THREE separate creations, three worlds through which humanity passes, striving and failing: the Garden of Adam and Eve, the world outside the Garden, and following the destruction of this world by water, the world after the Flood.

Please click on the following link to view a table comparing these three worlds side-by-side.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddbxqpcb_0cc9qxvht

You'll notice that there is a progression from world to world:

Garden -
The first story describing Adam and Eve in the garden envisions an intimate relationship between humans and God, parental. God explicitly forbids; God is the one who pronounces the curses. Sin is external. The attainment of knowledge threatens the boundary between God and humans.

Farm -
In the second story, God is more distant. He speaks to Cain, but interacts less. God warns rather than forbids; Cain is a free moral agent. God again pronounces the curse. Sin is an internal struggle. The theme of knowledge is addressed again - this time the problem is Cain's denial of knowledge and responsibility.

Vineyard -
In the third story, describing Noah's drunkenness, God is absent. There is no divine warning- and it is Noah who utters the curse. Sin is both external and confusing... it is difficult to understand exactly what sin occurred, and who was to blame (Ham? Canaan? Does Noah bear some blame as well?). Noah voluntarily forfeits knowledge.

Notice that the third and final world - the world of Noah's Vineyard after the Flood - is our world. Sin is complex and confusing, blame often difficult to discern and assign, and it is all too tempting to forfeit knowing-ness and choose sleep, or wine, television or similar distractions.

____________________

Sura 23 of the Qur’ān verses 12-16, titled "The Believers," describes the creation and existence of humans like this:

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإنْسَانَ مِنْ سُلالَةٍ مِنْ طِينٍ

Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay);

ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَاهُ نُطْفَةً فِي قَرَارٍ مَكِينٍ

Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed;

ثُمَّ خَلَقْنَا النُّطْفَةَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْعَلَقَةَ مُضْغَةً فَخَلَقْنَا الْمُضْغَةَ عِظَامًا فَكَسَوْنَا الْعِظَامَ لَحْمًا ثُمَّ أَنْشَأْنَاهُ خَلْقًا آخَرَ فَتَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ الْخَالِقِينَ

Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones, and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!

ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ لَمَيِّتُونَ

After that, at length ye will die

ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ تُبْعَثُونَ

Again, on the Day of Judgment, will ye be raised up.

It is a vivid description, almost clinical in its specificity, and extremely reverent of the Creator, narrating the span of a human life - and afterlife - in the space of four verses.

What do you think about the stories and ideas covered?

Share your thoughts!

The Boundless Bible

…also known as “The Bible Unbound” and “Torah with a Twist.” Not your usual bible study! Over the course of a FULL YEAR, this online class takes a look at the entire Torah, or Pentateuch, from “let there be light” to the Promised Land. The goal of this class is never to tell you what the Bible means; instead we explore what is has meant to centuries of interpreters. The emphasis is on the varied – and sometimes wacky – way these stories have been understood in Jewish, Christian and Muslim circles.

Remember when Abraham passed off Sarah as his sister because he knew that Pharaoh would want her, even at such an advanced age? We’ll read an ancient text describing her ravishing beauty – in terms that would probably have made her blush!

Was Isaac merely bound on Mount Moriah, or was he actually killed in the process? Or was it Ishmael, and not Isaac after all?

These sorts of questions guide our study. Join us! The class will be conducted in a blog-like format. Each week there is an assigned reading from the Bible, and I will post an Instructor Commentary discussing some interpretations of interest. Your job is simply to read, reflect and RESPOND! Comment! Argue! Let others know what you think. The first lesson will be posted on October 20th, 2008. Its subject? B’reishit: Genesis 1:1-6:8.