So, on Saturday, we talked about Parshah Toldot, Genesis 25:19-28:9. It was a fun discussion, very lively, although now I find there wasn’t much memorable about it. I do remember our ardent feminist saying that if Rebecca had told Isaac about the Lord’s prophecy, Isaac would have attributed it to hormones. And, of course, the terribly vivid dreams that pregnant women often do have puts a new light to me on this whole annunciation business generally. Not that the vivid dreams aren’t real oracles, rather that perhaps that particular bit of hormonal whatsit is more holy than I had previously surmised.
Other points that were brought up were, let’s see, the bad example provided by the Lord. The whole repetitive brother-favoritism thing with Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and Benjamin and the boys. Also the heredity gullibility; you’d think it would be harder for his sons to fool Jacob. There was generally a feeling that Esau got a bad rap, although there was also some sentiment that Esau wasn’t right for the head-of-tribe job. Oh, and how nice it would have been if the Lord had said the whole family will share, and had brought in a family therapist.
Speaking of family therapy, next week is Vay’etze (Gen 28:10 � 32:3), Jacob’s ladder, the Leah-Rachel business, the totally bizarre polyandry with multiple surrogates, the whole speckled-goat trick, the Mystery of the Missing Teraphim, and Laban’s final farewell. Frankly, I can’t make heads or tails of it.
,
-Vardibidian.
the Leah-Rachel business, the totally bizarre polyandry with multiple surrogates, the whole speckled-goat trick, the Mystery of the Missing Teraphim, and Laban’s final farewell. Frankly, I can’t make heads or tails of it.
Well, clearly, Jacob was fairly pissed off about being hoodwinked at the altar, and wasn’t about to let the matter drop. The lesson of the whole parasha seemed to be “If you annoy God’s chosen people, they’ll get their own back, and probably then some.” It really makes this part of the Torah seem like an advertisement — “Hey, can your god get you this kind of good fortune?”
My point is basically: i certainly don’t walk away with the sense that God favours people because they’re better people. I mean, yes, Laban tricked Jacob first, but still… I mean, Jacob’s not particularly a better guy than Esau — maybe he’s a better patriarch (maybe), but they’re both sort of jerks. Ditto Leah and Rachel (not necessarily jerks, just one not clearly “more moral” than the others).
So, here’s a counterfactual for you: we haven’t yet reached the part of the Torah where there are a lot of laws, and possibly that’s part of the problem for Our Heroes. They’ve been chosen, but they haven’t really been given many guidelines to go along with that, so they’re basically just running around doing whatever they want, and God backs them up when they get into trouble. What if there had been a couple of “Thou shalt not be an ass to thy brother” rules early on? Would that have saved Our Heroes some pain and suffering, or was it necessary for them to have free rein for awhile in order to test the limits of their god’s affection for them?
That’s really interesting. One of the things that’s been a sort of theme from discussions is the sense that the Lord is learning on the job. I’m not leading discussion this week, as it happens, but I’d love to put that idea to the congregation.
I should probably, for completeness’s’s sake, say that the Noachite Laws are in effect (Gen 9:1-17), but the text there is so vague and even the rabbinic interpretation (to which, presumably, Laban and Rachel didn’t have access) don’t provide much in the way of guidance.
Oh, and Rachel and Leah are jerks.
Thanks,
-V.
… the terribly vivid dreams that pregnant women often do have puts a new light to me on this whole annunciation business generally. Not that the vivid dreams aren’t real oracles, rather that perhaps that particular bit of hormonal whatsit is more holy than I had previously surmised.
For Ellen Ross’s course Christian Life and Thought in the Middle Ages, we read Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics which gave eleven writings of women who claimed direct contact with the divine in some form or another and discussed the visions and their possible divine or earthly natures. Fascinating reading and discussion.
Side comment:
Maybe I’m lucky, in that all my dreams are vivid. I haven’t noticed an increase in vividness, being pregnant. The subjects/plots are more body/baby oriented than adventurous, but that seems sort of predictable.