Summer Tanach Studies
Monday, August 2, 2010, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Eitz Chayim Community Room
Topic “The Cushite Woman”
Zipporah, the Cushite Woman, Miriam and Moses
Review Zipporah (previous blog)
Num 11:35-12:9 and Related Texts
Bring wine and food as desired.
Bring your own Tanach if possible
Category Archives: We have met the enemy…
Notes from Zipporah and Bridegroom of Blood
It may be useful to look over the notes prior to the class on Cushite woman. In the discussion, some suggested that since God had decreed circumcision with Abraham, Moses was not in compliance and therefore Zipporah needed to circumcise Moses. In this view, it was not Gershom who was circumcised. My notes contain an alternate view.
Keturah and Midian
Ø Gen 25:1-2 After death of Sarah, and Rebekkah moves into Isaac’s tent – Moses takes Keturah for wife– one son is Midian. (nomadic desert tribes) –
Ø Gen 25:6 sons of Abraham’s concubine (pilagesh) are sent eastward. (Perhaps Keturah’s sons.). I Chron 1:32 states “Sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine (pilagesh). Pilagesh is between wife and slave, technically independent, sustained by man, yet free to leave. (TWC p 125)
Exodus –Jethro and Zipporah
Ø 2:15-22 – Moses flees from Pharoah after killing the Egyptians and goes to the land of Midian
· Per Etz Hayim: early history of close friendly relations between Midianites and Israel – became enemies following conquest of Canaan (see Num 31)
Ø 3:1 – Father in law priest now called Jethro. Moses tending flocks goes to Horeb (Sinai) and burning bush; mysterious and miraculous Presence. YGod calls Moses to service, Moses demurs. —YMagic rod snake; —Yleprous hand [CUSHITE]; —Ywater turns to blood [ZIPPORAH]; —YAaron to speak [CUSHITE].
Ø 3:20 – So Moses took his wife and sons.
Ø 4:18-20 – Moses takes leave of Jether (Jethro) and Moses heads to Egypt
Ø 4:22-3 – Moses to say to pharoah about killing first-born (he never does)
Ø 4:24-26 – the mysterious bridegroom of blood and Zipporah’s evident priestess power. Echoes of burning bush mysteriousness and blood.
· Moses’ legs could be genitals.
· Tosefta Shabbat 15:8 – women can circumcise, but not in Bavli. See also Cohen.
· (JSB 113) the saving power of the bloody foreskin may foreshadow the protective role of blood on the Israelite’s door posts.
· (Pardes) Interpretations of why God seeks to kill Moses (strictly speaking not clear if Moses or son is intended victim)
o premonition of things to come re Pharaoh: plague against firstborns; danger to nation as a whole during last plague
o variation of theme of Moses refusing call – comes after God’s revelation at bush and Moses’ reluctance
· (Pardes) Interpretations of Zipporah’s action
o she placates the attacker and illustrates to Moses that the weak can overcome the strong – and can stick hostile oppressors; and Moses did seem paralyzed by weakness here.
o right after this Ex 5, Moses goes to pharoah.
o she rescues him a bit like Miriam and Pharaoh’s daughter did
· Note Jacob wrestling with Angel: Gen 32:23-33 for a comparable mysterious encounter with God
· Etz Hayim: confrontation with God is so terrifying that it makes confrontation with Pharaoh minor. hatan damim could convey “you are now circumcised and so protected for me by means of the blood of circumcision.” Shades of protection of pascal lamb blood.
Etz = Etz Hayim
Fischer = Exodus to Deuteronomy A Feminist Companion to the Bible: “The Authority of Miriam,” Imrtraud Fischer
JSB = JPS Study Bible
Nashim = Nashim Spring 2010 Wendy Zierler “On Account of the Cushite Woman that Moses Took”
Pardes = Countertraditions in the Bible
Summer Tanach Studies July 19
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The formation of the Israelites
To those who were in the Canaanite class, thanks for sending me back to check on my comments about the Iron Age being responsible for cisterns and creating terraces.
Although a huge number of cisterns were required, along with clearing the wilderness and creating the terraces in the settlement in the hills of Palestine in the time of Joshua (about 1200 BCE), the evidence that iron tools made this possible is thin. What is certain that there was a huge amount of physical labor involved in the settlement, in creating the irrigation systems and the vineyards etc. Carol Meyers says “The role of the Israelites as inventors of technology is a moot point. What stands out is the presumably unprecedented and widespread use of cisterns in the pioneer period [time of Joshua circa 1200 BCE]…. The number of implements made of iron in proportion to bronze does not rise significantly in the Iron I period. Whether iron or bronze tools, the physical effort involved was sustantial.” Discovering Eve, pg 55. See also the PBS Nova series “The Secrets of the Bible.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/
Texts for Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest
Summer Tanach Series “We Have Met the Enemy and S/he is Us”
http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm
MONDAY, June 21 – Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest
MONDAY, June 21 – Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest
TUESDAY, July 6 – topic tbd
MONDAY, July 19 – topic tbd
MONDAY, August 2 – topic tbd
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm in the Eitz Chayim Community Room
136 Magazine Street, Cambridge
Feel free to bring brown bag dinner and/or wine
Through a close and intertextual reading of selected Biblical texts, we will explore the intersection of gender and politics in the ancient Israelite love/hate relationship with the outsider/other.
Each session will be completely stand-alone. Come to any or all.
Neither prior text study nor knowledge of Hebrew is required. Penina will supply the text choices. Bringing your own tanach (Bible) will be very helpful.
Topics may include
• Moabite women (and Ruth and David) – the permeable boundary between insider and outsider
• The Cushite woman (and Miriam and Moses)
• The Adam and Eve – is Creation in the image of God androgynous? Is YHVH gendered?