{"id":1864,"date":"2019-07-29T12:20:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2019-07-29T12:20:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:20:59","slug":"hebrew-bible-metoo-and-the-light-of-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1864","title":{"rendered":"Hebrew Bible, #MeToo, and the Light of the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adrenalinedrash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Moon-2-1.jpg?resize=300%2C168\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1866\" data-link=\"http:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?attachment_id=1866\" class=\"wp-image-1866\"\/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I went to church again last Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every summer, I offer a series for this particular church.\nThis summer, the series was entitled \u201cThe Hebrew Bible and #MeToo.\u201d It is based\non <em>Malignant Fraternities, <\/em>a book I am writing for Routledge Press on male\nhomosociality and friendship in Hebrew Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A host of biblical male relationships lead to frightening outcomes\nfor women in Tanakh. In 2 Samuel 13, for example, two men trap a woman in a\nroom (shades of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge). In the biblical text, the victim\nis Tamar, the daughter of King David. Tamar is raped by her half-brother,\nAmnon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnon\u2019s friend. Jonadab, helps him. Other men are\ninvolved, too, including an unidentified number of male witnesses who are permitted\nto watch the scene unfold. They watch, listen, and partake vicariously until Amnon\nfinally orders them to leave. He rapes his sister immediately afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he is finished with Tamar, Amnon calls a servant, who\nappears at the ready. One must wonder whether the servant and the other men\ncontinued participating in a shared, vicarious fantasy \u2013 listening, perhaps, at\nthe door?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnon orders his servant to get rid of the residue. For that is what Tamar is to him now. \u201cGet <em>that<\/em>,\u201d Amnon orders, \u201cand bar the door behind her\u201d (2 Samuel 13:17). The word Amnon uses for Tamar is \u201cthat,\u201d a simple demonstrative pronoun, <em>zot<\/em>. Tamar is no longer a person, no longer even a woman. For Amnon, she is no more than detritus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNothing\nbelongs to us any more; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our\nhair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will\nnot understand. They will even take away our name\u201d (Primo Levi, <em>Survival in\nAuschwitz, <\/em>p. 27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The parishioners and I went through this terrible story.\nWe spoke of the #MeToo movement, of the powerful men who have abused women at will.\nSome women spoke of their own fears \u2013 could they go to a bathroom alone in a\nbar? Could they walk to their care late at night feeling safe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We agreed that women are not safe in this country. But\nthey could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Towards the end of our hour together, I spoke of this week\u2019s\nparsha, Pinchas. In it, Torah describes a sacrifice that should be brought <em>for\n<\/em>YHVH (Numbers, 28:15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a surprising idea \u2013 even shocking. For what, asked\nthe rabbis, must <em>God<\/em> atone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Genesis says that God made two great lights. Then, the\ntext goes on to assert that God made one light (the sun) larger than the other\n(the moon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Babylonian Talmud (Chullin 60b), the moon\nwas deeply hurt. Quietly, she asked God how such a thing could be possible; how\ncould God create two great lights with the result that one would be smaller\nthan the other? God\u2019s response was impatient and commanding. \u201cGo,\u201d God said.\n\u201cmake yourself smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nmoon did not understand. Why should she make herself even smaller? YHVH\npropitiated: even though she would be smaller, she would be seen both by day\nand by night. But the moon pointed out: what use is a lamp in the light of the\nday?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nJewish people will reckon days and years by her cycles, God said. Holy people\nwill be named after her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nall these gifts are as nothing to the moon. Eventually, YHVH sees the light and\noffers to make an atonement sacrifice. In effect, God apologizes to the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>Moon: White Sliver of Shechina\u2019s Return<\/em>, a baby\nnaming ceremony co-created by my beloved teachers, Rabbis Daniel and Hanna\nTiferet Siegel, Reb Daniel writes that the moon will not always be the lesser light.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He reminds us that Isaiah says: \u201cAnd the light of the moon\nshall become like the light of the sun\u201d (30:26). &nbsp;He notes that prayerbook blessings for sanctifying\nthe new moon reads: \u201cMay the light of the moon be like the light of the sun and\nlike the light of the seven days of creation, as it was before it was\ndiminished, as it is said: \u2018The two great luminaries.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imbalance between and women must be temporary. Women will\nnot always fear. They will not always be made to be smaller. There can be a\nfuture in which both lights will shine with equal strength and equal brilliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May it be so in our own lifetimes. May we make it so in our lifetimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This post is dedicated to Rabbi Daniel Siegel and Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel. For reminding us, for teaching us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I went to church again last Sunday. Every summer, I offer a series for this particular church. This summer, the series was entitled \u201cThe Hebrew Bible and #MeToo.\u201d It is based on Malignant Fraternities, a book I am writing for Routledge Press on male homosociality and friendship in Hebrew Bible. A host of biblical male &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/?p=1864\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Hebrew Bible, #MeToo, and the Light of the Moon&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[513,511,512,364],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-metoo","tag-2-samuel-13","tag-pinchas","tag-tamar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adrenalinedrash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Moon-2.jpg?fit=300%2C168&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}