Category Archives: Hannah

Hannah Narrative: Thunder, Trouble, and Following Our Inner Voice (August 26 2021)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg
August 26, 2021

The Hannah Narrative is recited by Jews every year on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the New Year (this year falling on September 7). Through a close reading of 1 Samuel 1 we will prepare ourselves to hear the thunder of change and the quiet inner voice of our souls.   You will find source sheets here: https://tinyurl.com/RuHay-Hannah

Although Hannah is held up as a model of prayer by Jews and Christians alike, how often do we ask what Hannah is actually praying for? What is her heart crying out for? What inner strength does she call on? What external prods and goads does she have? Does Hannah want to be recognized as being more than she appears? Can we as queer folk dig into our transgressive hearts to find a new understanding of Hannah as a woman whose dreams may reach beyond being mother and wife? And what is the role of Hannah’s co-wife, Penninah? Is she a nuisance or a holy troubler of the waters?

You may wish to read a commentary I wrote a few years ago.

You may enjoy this except from Marcia Falk’s Un’taneh Tokef (page 29 in her book “The Days Between”)

A great shofar is sounded
And a voice of slender silence is heard.
The voice is one’s own
a reed in the chorus
a breath in the wind

Banner is an etching by Marc Chagall (1958): “Hannah Evokes the Eternal.” Hannah in red robe is prominent in the foreground and stretching up to pray. Smaller in background is a figure who appears to be uncomfortable or disdainful. A few livestock are looking on.

At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

The Hannah Narrative: Listening to (my, your, their) Inner Voice (August 18, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
August 18, 2016.  Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.

Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However we open the doors at 6:45 for schmoozing. Feel free to bring your own veggie snack for the early part. —- A parking consideration is in effect for the three blocks around EC during all regularly scheduled events.

Accessibility information: MBTA accessible, all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

The Hannah Narrative, 1 Samuel 1:1-2:10, is recited as the Haftarah every year at Rosh Hashanah. R Nahman of Breslev teaches that “During the Days of Awe it is a good thing when you can weep profusely like a child. Throw aside all your sophistication. Just cry before God; cry for the diseases of the heart, for the pains and sores you feel in your soul. Cry like a child before his father.” (From R Noson’s work, “Liketey Eitzot”). The Talmud presents Hannah as an example to all of how to pray. “R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah! Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart: from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips.” (B. Berachot 31a-b)

Through many years of reciting the Hannah Narrative at the High Holy Days, I have generally understood the Hannah Narrative to be an example of how one needs to dig into one’s soul and shout out one’s inner longings. In this class, I want to ask the question, what is our responsibility to really listen? Is there a problem in expecting the Other to dig into their soul and to reach out to Us? In the Hannah Narrative, only Penina really listens from her own empathetic soul.

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

SHANAH V’SHANAH: THE HANNAH NARRATIVE (1 SAM 1-2) AND THE CYCLE OF TIME

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Nehirim Women’s Retreat – Workshop

Shanah v’shanah means year after year. The Hannah Narrative (1 Samuel chapters 1-2), is the haftarah for Rosh Hashanah and is thus read in the synagogue shanah v’shanah. The text tells us that Hannah goes shanah v’shanah to the temple in Shiloh, grieving for her empty life. One year she rises up from her grief; in the next years she goes annually to Shiloh to celebrate her little son, Samuel. We read closely what the text says about Hannah’s transformation (internal longing, deep desire, thunder from outside). We study Rabbi Nahman of Breslev regarding the roots of change, and how Rosh Hashanah (the New Year – coming soon!) is the season for revitalization. We apply his teaching to the Hannah Narrative with the goal of learning to uncover and act upon our longings for transformation.

THE MAKING OF MEANING (Winter 2009-10)

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Classes at Congregation Eitz Chayim

How Do Jews Make Meaning?  Three part series looking at the meaning of biblical texts, rabbinic interpretations, and how we as modern Jews make meaning.
Study of Hannah Narrative, Bathsheba/David, and Song of Songs.

Penina will guide participants in wrestling with the meaning of a biblical text counterpoised with a complementary rabbinic text. How do the Rabbis subtly or not so subtly interpose their own meanings on the biblical text? What can we learn about how we interpose our meanings and about how we make meaning for ourselves as modern Jews?

Date: October 25, 2009
Title: Part 1: The Hannah Narrative: “I Am a Woman of Stubborn Spirit”
Description: Hannah, the mother of Samuel, is held up in Jewish tradition as a model of prayer. But who is she? How and why is she a model?  The biblical text highlights her bitter and afflicted soul. Using texts from Samuel and various midrashim, Penina will guide us in a study of Hannah’s struggle to reveal her stubborn spirit to herself and to learn to pour out her soul in prayer.
Date: November 15, 2009
Title: Part 2: Bathsheba and David
Description: The relationship between Batsheva and David is fraught with ambiguity. Was Batsheva a victim or a victor? Was David a hero or a heel? If Batsheva was not barren, could their son Solomon have been a rightful hero-king? Why does the story in Samuel and Kings differ from the story in Chronicles? Through storytelling and a close reading of the few short texts where Batsheva appears in Samuel and Kings (and where she doesn’t appear in Chronicles) Penina will present the story of Batsheva and David and will encourage all present to come to their own conclusions about these two monarchs.
Date: January 10, 2010
Title: Part 3: The Song of Songs: “And Fire Flashed all Around”
Description: According to Song of Songs Rabbah, when the Rabbis linked up the words of the Torah with those of the Prophets and the Prophets with the Writings, “the fire flashed around them.” Why is this statement in the Midrash about Song of Songs?   How do the Rabbis link up Song of Songs with the Torah, to produce a reading that flashes with fire?   We will explore the meaning of “Love is stronger than death” (SoS 8:6). Texts will be taken from Song of Songs, SoS Rabbah and Genesis.

HAFTARAH FOR ROSH HASHANAH (2007)

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Classes at Congregation Eitz Chayim
Four part series looking at Hannah’s story in the haftarah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
Hannah was a remarkably independent biblical woman who was among a small and elite group of women who were called prophets in the Jewish tradition. She was barren until her prayers were answered and she gave birth to Samuel. Her story has resounding relevance to Jews of every age.

  • Bible – Close study of I Samuel 1:1 – 2:10 in English with reference to Hebrew
  • Rabbinics – Selected texts (in English) from Talmud and Midrash.
  • Hasidism: R. Nachman of Breslov on Rosh Hashanah
  • Contemporary commentary.

Notes from Class 9/7/11 – Deeper look at Nefesh and “After she/they ate”

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Nefesh – Beth related Hannah’s bitter nefesh to Creation –
The actual language in Gen 1:7 is that God breathes into the nostrils of the adam the breath of life: nishmat chayyim. This life force that comes from God is not so different from nefesh perhaps, so the idea that Beth expressed, that Hannah’s bitter nefesh comes from feeling she is without God’s lifegiving force is still an informative connection.
1 Samuel 1:9: 
וַתָּקָם חַנָּה, אַחֲרֵי אָכְלָה בְשִׁלֹה וְאַחֲרֵי שָׁתֹה
This verse is translated in several ways:
Robert Alter The David Story
And Hannah arose after the eating in Shiloh and after the drinking.

Alter says (The Art of Biblical Narrative, note on page 83): “I vocalize ‘eating’ differently than does the Masoretic text, which seems to make Hannah the subject, something contraindicated by the indication that she is breaking a fast in verse 18.”
Everett Fox Give us a King (no annotation)
Hannah arose after eating at Shiloh and after drinking.
JPS Tanakh (no annotation)
After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah arose
Artscroll Tanach (no annotation)
Hannah arose after eating in Shiloh and after drinking.
Etz Hayim (note: “Literally, ‘After she had eaten (akh’lah),’ namely Hannah”)
After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah arose
אַחֲרֵי אָכְלָה : Acherei ach’lah – this is the Hebrew in our text and is a simple feminine past tense in Modern Hebrew.  We would think it should be translated “after she ate.”  However, all of our translators read either “after eating” or “after they ate.” 
According to P.Kyle McCarter in 1 Samuel (Anchor Bible), the Septuagint reads “after eating. ”
This is the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, also called LLX, from about 300 BCE to 100 CE, which is thought in some cases to reflect an older Hebrew text than the Masoretic Text, or MT, from about 7th to 10th centuries CE.
 וְאַחֲרֵי שָׁתְתָה: After she drank – Acherei shat’tah – this is the simple Hebrew past but it is NOT the Hebrew in our text. 
The Hebrew in our text is
וְאַחֲרֵי שָׁתֹה.  V’acharei shatoh. This is known as the infinitive absolute form of the verb, but is used in a peculiar way. 
Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, in reference to this verse, states that
וְאַחֲרֵי שָׁתֹה” is impossible Hebrew, and as the LXX shows, a late addition.”  In other words, it is violating all the rules of grammar.
I would conclude that our translations, do not say “After she ate and after she drank” for the following reasons:
·         There is an immediate textual problem because one verb is in past tense and one verb is in a verb form which is “impossible in Hebrew.”   Therefore, one cannot simply give both verbs as “She ate and she drank.”
·         According to LLX, “after eating” is the original form of ach’lah.
·         According to verse 18, Hannah eats after her prayer is completed and after Eli has given her his peace blessing.
·         It would appear that in order to make sense of verse 18, and in order to make sense of some impossible Hebrew, and in keeping with the LLX translation, our modern translators have chosen to translate either “they ate and drank” or “after eating and drinking.”  The latter translation, chosen by Alter, Fox and Artscroll preserves the ambiguity of the text, because it does not state clearly who ate and drank.  The JPS and Etz Hayim translations, “After they had eaten and drunk” do not give you the flavor of the ambiguity.

The Rabbis on Hannah as an example of prayer

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Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth 
(31a) R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah! [I Sam. I, 10ff]   Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart🙁עַל-לִבָּהּ) from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips. But her voice could not be heard: from this, it is forbidden to raise one’s voice in the Tefillah. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken: from this, that a drunken person is forbidden to say the Tefillah.

Hannah – Marat Nefesh (bitter soul) and Ani (affliction)

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I Samuel 1:10-11 says of Hannah (my translation and emphasis)
10 With a bitter soul she prayed to [against, upon] the Lord and wept copiously.
11She vowed a vow, saying: Lord of Hosts, if seeing, You will see the affliction of Your handmaid, and remember my request and not forget Your handmaid, and You will grant to your handmaid male seed, I will give him to YHVH all the days of this life, and a razor will not go on his head.
Bitter soul in the Hebrew is marat nafesh.  Marat  is a form of the word mar, meaning bitter, and nafesh  is translated sometimes as soul, spirit, or life-source.
The word translated as affliction is ani. 
In “Reading Ruth” Aviva Zornberg discusses the uses of the word mar (bitterness) and ana ( a form of ani – affliction) in relationship to Naomi.  Zornberg’s interpretations can help us to understand Hannah. 
We start by listening to Naomi say Hashem ana vi, which may be translated as “God afflicted me.”  Zornberg discusses what this means. 
What exactly does “afflict” mean?  Rashi says, “He testified against me, that I had been guilty in his presence.”  I had been guilty of something.  He testified against me, that I am incriminated of some unknown crime.  Then Rashi quotes another reading.  Ana vi: midat hadin, God’s faculty of judgment has afflicted me.  God in his role as judge, as punisher, has come out and afflicted me.  So ana vi can mean to afflict, to impose pain on me, or it can mean to testify against me. (pg 68).
Naomi’s bitterness comes both from suffering the losses of her husband and the sons she has borne and raised, and from feeling humiliated that God is afflicting her.  Zornberg goes on to say
Naomi assumes that all who witness her suffering know she must be guilty.  In interpreting Hashem ana vi– God has born witness against me – Ibn Ezra supports this translation by reference to a verse in Job.  [He] refers us to Job 10:17: techadesh edekha negdi – you are constantly sending new witnesses against me.  The chapter of bitter complaint in which Job says this begins by his saying, adabra bemar nafshi, let me speak in the bitterness (mar) of my spirit. 
[JPS translation of Job 10:1 is I am disgusted with my life;  I will give rein to my complain, t Speak in the bitterness of my soul]
The word mar, of course, echoes one of the words Naomi uses regarding herself several times.  What does Job say in the bitterness of his spirit?  “I say to my God, don’t condemn me.  Let me know why you quarrel with me” (Job 10:2).  Let me know why You have it in for me.  I feel there is a mystery in the destiny You have imposed upon me.  I must be guilty – I assume I must be guilty – but I am not clear why.  At least tell me exactly what it is that justifies this terrible suffering.  “If I am wicked, woe to me.  But if I am righteous, yet I still can’t lift up my head: (Job 10:15).  In the next phrase, listen carefully to the Hebrew: Seva kalon u-reeh onyi – because I am filled with shame, and look upon my affliction.  Onyi – from the same root as ana in Naomi’s ana vi.  I’m filled with shame as I look on my affliction knowing that the affliction must mean guilt.  (pg 69-70)
How does this help us to understand Hanna’s bitter sprit and her affliction?
Naomi calls herself mara, bitter.  Job refers to speaking bemar nafshi, out of the bitterness of his sprit.  And Hannah is in marat nafesh, bitterness of spirit.  The midrash interprets that the use of a common word in different verses suggests a common meaning.  Naomi and Job both find themselves feeling that God is witnessing (testifying) against them.  The are both afflicted (ana or onyi) and their bitterness arises out of their affliction.  Right after Hannah mentions her marat nafesh she asks God to “look upon her affliction (oni)”  We have learned from Ruth and Naomi that the affliction is related to feeling that God is punishing them for something;  although neither of them may know why, they do feel the weight of the punishment.  Hannah, in her “affliction” feels punished by God as well.  God has sealed up her womb.  Hannah does not know why.  Her bitterness of spirit may come, therefore, not from being childless per se, but from feeling that God has punished her for some unknown reason by sealing up her womb.

Supplemental Texts – more detailed:

BITTER  mar –  Hannah’s bitter soul
1 Sam 1:10 With a bitter soul
v’hee marat nafesh
 וְהִיא, מָרַת נָפֶשׁ
On my part, I will not speak with restraint;
I will give voice to the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. (במר נפשי) (b’mar nafshi)
Job 7:11
I am disgusted with life;
I will give rein to my complaint,
Speak in the bitterness of my soul. (במר נפשי) (b’mar nafshi)
I say to God, “Do not condemn me;
Let me know what you charge me with.”
Job 10:1-2
“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied.  “Call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot very bitter.  I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.  How can you call me Naomi, when the Lord has dealt harshly with me (ו’הוה ענה ב’) (Adonai ana vi), when Shaddai has brought misfortune upon me!”
Ruth 1: 20-21
Oh, no, my daughters!  My lot is far more bitter than yours מר-ל’ מאד)) (mar li meod), for the hand of the Lord has struck out against me.
Ruth 1:13
AFFLICTION   ani   – Hannah’s affliction
1 Sam 1:11 You will see the affliction of Your handmaid
tirah ba’oni amateyha
תִרְאֶה בָּעֳנִי אֲמָתֶךָ
Aviva Zornberg talks about affliction in relationship to Naomi and Job (in Kates, Judith A. and Twersky Reimer, Gail, eds.  Reading Ruth: Contemporary Women Reclaim a Sacred Story.  New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.).
Naomi uses this strange expression: Hashem ana vi, God afflicted me.  What exactly does “afflict” mean?  Rashi says, “He testified against me, that I had been guilty in his presence.” I had been guilty of something.  He testified against me, that I am incriminated of some unknown crime.  Then Rashi quotes another reading.  Ana vi: midat hadin, God’s faculty of judgement has afflicted me.  God in his role as judge, as punisher, has come out and afflicted me.  So ana vi can mean to afflict, to produce pain, to impose pain upon me, or it can mean to testify against me.    Zornberg, pg 68
In interpreting Hashem ana vi – God has borne witness against me – Ibn Ezra…refers us to Job 10:17: techadesh edekha negdi – you are constantly sending new witnesses against me.   Zornberg, pg 69
So sated am I with shame,
And drenched in my misery. (עניי) (anyi)
Job 10:15
You keep sending fresh witnesses against me.
Job 10:17