{"id":38597,"date":"2018-08-25T23:16:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T20:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=38597"},"modified":"2022-03-20T09:35:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T07:35:28","slug":"subverting-male-authority-through-the-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/subverting-male-authority-through-the-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"Subverting Male Authority Through the Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[365,429,513],"acf":{"old_id":"38597","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38062,"related_cahpter":"31","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A woman\u2019s legacy among our ancient ancestors","content":"

In Genesis 31, we read the story of Rachel stealing her father\u2019s <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> while escaping from Laban with Jacob, Leah, and their whole family. When Laban realizes both Jacob and his <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> are gone, he chases after them and searches their whole caravan for the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>. Rachel cleverly hides them in a cushion and sits on them; when Laban comes to search her tent, she claims she is menstruating and cannot rise, successfully concealing the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> from her father.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many classic commentators focus on Rachel\u2019s reason for stealing the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>, concerned that the text could be read to understand that Rachel was worshipping idols. Rashi\u2019s classic claim is that she was attempting to wean Laban from idol worship, committing an act of \u201chonoring one\u2019s father and mother\u201d while simultaneously fleeing from him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Radak\u2019s reading claims that the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> were objects that could have been useful to Laban in tracking the caravan as they fled; thus, Rachel stole the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> to protect the whereabouts of Jacob. <\/span><\/p>\n

Modern feminist readers (myself included) love to see Rachel using her menstruation as a way to subvert her father\u2019s authority by not rising when he enters the room and by hiding his possessions from him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exclusively male classic commentators focus on <\/span>why<\/span><\/em> Rachel stole the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>, incorporating her actions into the acceptable roles for women of their time. The modern scholars focus on <\/span>how<\/span><\/em> she concealed the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>: she uses her menstruation, the ultimate symbol of her femininity (and therefore her powerlessness among men), as a way to subvert male authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel stealing the idols represents her keeping a piece of her religious life from before her marriage. Whether or not she plans to use the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em>, having them is a way to hold onto her identity as separate from her husband. In hiding the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> under the guise of her period, the story hints to us that a piece of Rachel\u2019s way of life, continues throughout the generations of her descendants. In fact, the only two other times the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> appear in the possession of an Israelite throughout the rest of Tanach, is in association with Rachel\u2019s descendants: Michal, a Benjaminite, keeps <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> in her home, and Micah from Ephraim makes <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> in his. Rachel ensures that a piece of her life and her identity – separate from her relationship to Jacob – remains throughout the generations of her descendants. Her using her period as the way to hide the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> hints to us, the readers, to look at her descendants\u2019 connection to the <\/span>teraphim<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Her success in maintaining a remnant of her identity in her children is clear. From the sages, we hear of a tradition that <\/span>baneha shel Rachel, <\/span><\/em>Rachel’s children,<\/span> will be the ones to defeat the descendants of Esau, that is, Amalek. It is also the children of Rachel who share her unique beauty, with the repetition of the Biblical description of beauty – <\/span>y\u2019fat to\u2019ar v\u2019yifat mar\u2019eh<\/span><\/em> – appearing among several of her descendants. Perhaps, the appearance of the <\/span>teraphim<\/span><\/em> among her descendants serve as a physical symbol of the inheritance of Rachel, a rare occurrence of a woman\u2019s legacy among our ancient ancestors.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":103135,"id":103135,"title":"-6236d930b60c4--6236d930b60c5gen31-woman legacy rachel.jpg","filename":"6236d930b60c4-6236d930b60c5gen31-woman-legacy-rachel.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/6236d930b60c4-6236d930b60c5gen31-woman-legacy-rachel.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/subverting-male-authority-through-the-generations\/6236d930b60c4-6236d930b60c5gen31-woman-legacy-rachel-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6236d930b60c4-6236d930b60c5gen31-woman-legacy-rachel-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":38597,"date":"2022-03-20 07:35:12","modified":"2022-03-20 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