Continuing her examination of women in the Hebrew Bible, Rapaport retells and comments on six stories in which women stepped outside acceptable behavior to help their families or their people. They are Lot and his daughters, Dinah and Shechem, Judah and Tamar, David and Batsheva, Amnon and Tamar, and Ruth and Boaz. By day she is an attorney specializing in sexual harassment cases. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

BIBLICAL SEDUCTIONS

SIX STORIES RETOLD BASED ON TALMUD AND MIDRASHBy SANDRA E. RAPOPORT

KTAV PUBLISHING HOUSE, INC.

Copyright © 2011 Sandra E. Rapoport
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60280-170-7

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................xviiINTRODUCTION................................xxiONE Lot & His Daughters.....................3TWO Dinah & Shechem.........................59THREE Judah & Tamar.........................149FOUR David & Batsheva.......................241FIVE Amnon & Tamar..........................325SIX Ruth & Boaz.............................397NOTES.......................................527BIBLIOGRAPHY................................605INDEX OF SOURCES............................611GENERAL INDEX...............................621

Chapter One

Lot His Daughters

GENESIS 19:30-38

And Lot went up from Zoar and settled in the mountain, and his two daughters were with him, because he was afraid to settle in Zoar, so he settled in the cave, he and his two daughters. And the elder one told the younger one, "Our father is old; and there is no man in the land to come to us in the [natural] manner of all the land. "Let us give our elderly father wine and we will lie with him; thus will we live on through our father's seed." And they gave their father wine that night; and the elder [daughter] came and lay with her father, and he did not know that she lay [with him] and that she arose [from him]. And it happened on the morrow, the elder said to the younger, "Now have I lain last night with my father; let us give him wine again this night, and you will come and lie with him, and we will live on through our father's seed." And they fed their father wine on that night also; and the younger arose and lay with him and he did not know that she lay [with him] and that she arose [from him]. And the two daughters of Lot became pregnant from their father. The elder gave birth to a son and she called his name Moav; he is the father of Moav to this day. And the younger also gave birth, and she called Iris name Ben Ami; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

We encounter Lot's daughters here at the low point of their young lives. These girls—known in the Bible only as "the elder" and "the younger"—in the space of a matter of days or even hours, have gone from being the virginal daughters of Lot and his wife in the city of Sodom, to motherless refugees huddling in a cave. They have been irrevocably transformed, much as the landscape they inhabit has been scarred and altered, by the sudden and cataclysmic destruction of their world.

The Bible reader must ask, How did they come to be here? For the answer let us hark back to biblical events that took place years before the evening described in chapter 19 of the book of Genesis, where the great drama of the city of Sodom unfolds.

LOT PARTS WAYS WITH ABRAHAM

Lot had parted ways with his dynamic and pious uncle Abraham some years earlier, after violent quarrelling had broken out between the two men's shepherds. Their substantial flocks had overlapped one another grazing the same pastures, and in the time-worn way of the world, the land was not big enough for both to live together in peace. So Abraham had offered Lot independence, suggesting that Lot go either to the north or to the south, and that he, Abraham, would be content to wander elsewhere in order to keep the peace. Lot portentously turned his face eastward, and when he saw the verdant, well-watered Jordan Valley, he chose to settle there, in the city of Sodom. The Bible tells us that at that time, well before God thought to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the valley—reaching to the settlement of Zoar—had the lush appearance of the Garden of Eden and the land of Egypt.

The alert Bible reader should detect the text's hints of evil events to come: The Bible tells us that Lot chose to travel eastward, mikedem, the same direction—and using the same exact Hebrew word—that Adam and Eve were banished when God chased them from Eden. In fact, the Almighty stationed the heavenly guards at the eastward-facing gate of Eden, wielding the flaming and revolving sword of God in order to prevent unworthy mankind from returning there. The Bible text has made it plain that flight in an eastward direction is a flight away from the sacred space, the space of harmony and unity. The fact that Lot chooses to settle in the east—mikedem—is an indicator that Lot's vision is flawed, and that—like Adam and Eve, his biblical progenitors—he is making a wrong choice that will inform his character and will reflect tragically upon him for the rest of his days.

Lest we miss the reference to mikedem, the Bible also tells us that in Lot's eyes the Jordan Valley resembles the land of Egypt. This is a reference to Abraham and Lot's ill-advised journey into that land, where Abram's wife—and Lot's sister, Sarai—had been abducted by the Pharaoh. It was in Egypt that the Pharaoh, after glimpsing Sarai's fabled beauty, had held her prisoner in his palace, and subjected her to the terrors of abduction and near-rape. It is telling that in Lot's eyes the verdant land to the east reminds him of this same land of Egypt, a land of verdant natural physical beauty, but also one where immorality and sexual depredation rule, and from which he and his uncle and sister had narrowly escaped with their lives. By juxtaposing the Jordan Valley and Sodom and Gomorrah with Egypt, the Bible issues a subtle and tacit admonishment to Lot for his myopia in choosing to settle in Sodom because of its resemblance to Egypt. The careful reader expects that Lot will pay a high price for his choice.

So Abraham remained in Canaan, and resumed his isolated, nomadic life, and Lot parted from his uncle, settling in Sodom, the most lush of the cities in the valley. Lot even sought to straddle the best of both worlds—pastoral and urban—by keeping his flocks nearby, right outside the city walls. He could not quite abandon his nomadic roots even as he strove to become a city dweller. Perhaps Lot felt he could weather whatever this Egypt-like city had in store, and that in the meantime—as was the case when they left Egypt—he would amass great wealth. We will see that Lot's abandonment of the semi-nomadic life in favor of an urban existence will spell trouble for him. In fact, the Bible loses no time in telling us in the very next verse about the character of the inhabitants of Lot's new home.

WHO ARE THE SODOMITES?

And the men of Sodom were evil and sinned before God exceedingly. Gen. 13:13

This verse is packed thrice-over with expressions of the corruption of the Sodomites, Lot's adopted neighbors. First it tells us that the men of Sodom were evil. Then it says that they were sinners against God. And third, that their cruel acts placed them beyond the pale of acceptable behavior. It is the rabbis of the midrash who elaborate. The word "sinner" refers to the fact that the Sodomites sinned in matters of money and property in their daily interactions. They refused to give even a penny to the outstretched hand of the alms-seeker, and they outlawed the centuries-old custom of offering hospitality, food and drink to wayfarers. The word "evil"—or ra in Hebrew—is thought to describe worse behavior even than one who sins in isolated transactions; it indicates a more degenerated character trait, a totality and pervasiveness of evil, or ra.

The midrash amplifies still further, explaining that the Sodomites contravened all seven of the basic rules of moral social behavior expected of the peoples of the ancient world, known as the Noahide Laws. These are:

1. The prohibition against idolatry and a belief in One God 2. The prohibition against incestuous and adulterous relations 3. The prohibition against murder 4. The prohibition against cursing the name of God 5. The prohibition against theft 6. The prohibition against eating the flesh of a living animal 7. The obligation to establish courts of justice and a rational social order.

In order to help us to understand the Bible's brief verse outlining Sodom's execrable behaviors (and thereby appreciate the life Lot has chosen for himself, and his daughters' place in it), the Talmud explains that the city of Sodom was established in a land that God had blessed exceedingly. We are told that bread came forth from the earth as if by magic; its earthy rocks yielded sapphires, and its very dust was gold. But the inhabitants of Sodom were haughty, and they worshipped only the god of mammon, and sought to keep all strangers, travelers and wayfarers away from their city so as not to share even the smallest bit of their wealth. They viewed every passer-by as a potential thief with designs on their good fortune. Even merchants were prohibited from entering Sodom to trade their wares. The Sodomites considered themselves completely self-sustaining, and looked upon merchants from other cities as having only one intention: separating the Sodomites from their coins. In fact, if a wealthy traveler chanced into the city, they conspired to seat him against a weak retaining wall, then they intentionally toppled the wall, killing the stranger and keeping his purse.

Eventually, the word spread near and far that one entered Sodom at one's own risk. To paraphrase the words of the Talmud, the Sodomites "caused the sound of the footfall of the traveler to be forgotten from amongst them." Over time, only the unknowing or the desperate chanced to enter the city's gates.

The Talmud devotes several pages just to explicating this one verse in the Lot saga (And the men of Sodom were evil ...). It relates one heartbreaking story that is known by its introductory words: "There was a certain maiden ..." If we were reading about any other town, those words might signal the start of a fairy tale, involving as it does a virtuous and courageous maiden with a tender heart. But instead this is a tragic tale, told by the rabbis of the Talmud to illustrate why none of the Sodomites will have a portion in the world-to-come. And as it involves the Sodomite men, a virginal maiden and physical retribution for acts of kindness to strangers, it is a portent for the next segment in the Lot story.

The Talmud tells us that there was a certain maiden in Sodom whose heart was compassionate, and who secretly brought bread to the poor by hiding it in her water pitcher. The midrash tells us that her name was either Pelotit or Paltith, and that she was Lot's eldest daughter. She was seen carrying her water pitcher to and fro in the streets—a common enough sight, as it fell to the maidens to fetch and carry the water from the town well. She waited until she was alone or until no one was looking, and as the opportunity arose she would reach into her pitcher and give the secreted bread to a pauper. She was eventually found out by the Sodomites, who determined to make an example of her by punishing her horribly. They smeared her naked body with honey from head to toe, making a brutal mockery of the girl's sweet nature. They then bound her and stretched her out atop the city wall. The honey attracted swarms of bees who stung the maiden repeatedly, and bit her until she died. It is said that her unheeded, agonized cries—her za'akah in Hebrew—went on for hours and rose even to the Heavens. In the words of Nehama Leibowitz, "it was this one deed, this cry, that weighted the scales against them," causing God to determine and seal the Sodomites' fate.

The midrash picks up on the Bible's use here of the Hebrew word za'akah—outcry. The word is used in Gen. 18:20 and 21 when God is contemplating annihilating Sodom and Gomorrah, and again in the Lot story in Gen. 19:13 when the angels are explaining to Lot the reason he must hurry and exit Sodom (because the 'za'akah' of this place has become great before the presence of the Lord, and He has sent us to destroy it). The reader should be alert to the Bible's use of this particular word, as it indicates a visceral cry of extraordinary anguish. Whenever this word za'akah—outcry—appears in the Bible text, it is virtually certain that God's appearance is not far behind. It is said that this za'akah is so elemental and profound that it catches God's ear. It is this special quality of anguished, hopeless crying out that the Talmud uses as a springboard for its eloquent story of the hapless Sodomite maiden.

The Talmud's gruesome tale evokes in the reader precisely the emotions intended: revulsion and anger at the Sodomites, and a disapproving wonderment that Lot, raised in Abraham's household, should not only prefer to live among such people, but also appear to flourish there. This is especially so if, as the midrash suggests, the maiden in the tale was Lot's eldest daughter. Lot's seeming acquiescence to Sodom's evil and perverse nature early on only foreshadows his "sacrifice" of two of his other daughters later in the story. It also provides important background to the cave seduction by these selfsame daughters following the destruction of Sodom.

One might wonder how Lot was able to ingratiate himself into the Sodomite society given that he, too, came to them as a stranger. We will see as the story unfolds that he never does become fully integrated in the eyes of his Sodomite neighbors; they turn on him in an instant when it suits them. Lot was ever the stranger in their eyes.

The Talmud implicitly allows us to draw the sexual parallels in the tale: a compassionate, blameless maiden is treated to the Sodomites' violent perversion of her kind act of hospitality by being stripped, publicly shamed and abused, bound and "stung" to death. The reference to bee stings in the tale is a thin veil to the underlying sexual nature of the violation, one that will echo in the coming verses. The reader can entirely appreciate and applaud that God finally responds to this innocent's bootless cries. The Almighty has had enough!

LOT AND THE TWO ANGELS

Lot, apparently, has not. It is this city of Sodom that Lot inhabits for many years, except for the intervening, terrifying episode in Gen. 14 when he was taken prisoner in the battle with the Four Kings and eventually rescued by his valiant uncle Abraham.

We encounter Lot, a town judge, sitting at the city gates as evening falls. He sees two angels dressed as men arriving at the entrance to Sodom. The two strangers are none other than two of the three angels who had visited Abraham in the heat of the day in the Bible's prior story (Gen. 18). The Talmud is specific, naming Abraham's three angels and their tasks, as each angel is usually assigned but one mission at a time. They were the angels Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. Raphael came in order to heal the aged Abraham's wounds after his circumcision; Michael's task was to relay to Sarah the news that she would bear a son in a year's time; and it fell to the angel Gabriel to destroy the city of Sodom. But because of the twofold task ahead—the rescue of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—the Bible tells us two of Abraham's three angels appeared that same evening at the gates of Sodom. The angel Raphael had completed his assigned task and returned to the heavenly host, and God pressed the angel Michael into service once more. The angels Michael and Gabriel—referred to in most of this portion of the Lot story as "men"—will rescue Lot and destroy Sodom.

It is significant that the Bible uses the term "angels" in the first verse of the Lot story (Gen. 19). They were referred to as "men" in the Abraham story because their task was a uniquely mortal one: visiting the sick. But here in the Lot story they are introduced as "angels" because they will be calling upon supernatural forces to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

They waited until late in the day before entering the city because they were, at their essence, angels of mercy, and had hoped that Abraham would be successful in his plea to the Almighty to spare the cities from annihilation. Only when Abraham was unable to wring any more mercy from God than a promise to spare the cities if but ten righteous men could be found, did the angels move into position. We should remember that the angels were also sent by God to reconnoiter the evil city of Sodom. Was it truly past saving? And the corollary question if the answer to this first inquiry were "yes:" Was Lot alone worthy of being saved?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from BIBLICAL SEDUCTIONSby SANDRA E. RAPOPORT Copyright © 2011 by Sandra E. Rapoport. Excerpted by permission of KTAV PUBLISHING HOUSE, INC.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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