{"id":56732,"date":"2019-06-03T15:43:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T12:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56732"},"modified":"2022-12-26T18:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T16:17:20","slug":"a-new-era-starts-with-the-same-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-new-era-starts-with-the-same-old\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Era Starts With The \u201cSame Old\u201d"},"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":[366,526,839],"acf":{"old_id":"56732","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"233","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Rival wives, one infertile, the other derisive - where have we heard this before?","content":"

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transferred it to Joshua. Joshua [transferred it] to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and the prophets transferred it to the Men of the Great Assembly. (Avot 1:1)<\/span><\/p>\n

Having passed from the Torah (Moses) through the Books of Joshua and Judges (\u201cthe elders\u201d), we enter the era of the prophets with the Book of Samuel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of what we read at the beginning of this book is familiar. Once again, our lead character lives on Mt. Ephraim, and, once again, there are traces of a link to Bethlehem (see our comments to Judges 17<\/a> and 19<\/a>) in his designation as Ephrati (v.1), a title used elsewhere to identify natives of Bethlehem (cf. Ruth 1:2). On the other hand, he is married to two women\u2014far fewer than several of the judges who had to have been married to numerous women in order to father their scores of children. Likewise, in a narrative manner reminiscent of the birth of Moses (Exodus 2), the father (here\u2014Elkanah, there\u2014Amram) recedes far into the background, leaving the women (here\u2014Hannah and Peninah, there\u2014Jochebed and Miriam) to dictate the course of events.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of particular interest here is the nature of the relationship between Elkanah\u2019s wives as described in verse 6: \u201c<\/span>And her rival vexed her sore, to make her fret (<\/span>hir\u2019imah<\/span><\/em>), because the LORD had shut up her womb\u201d (JPS 1917),<\/span> which can be read in two completely different ways. According to the conventional reading, Peninah mocked Hannah\u2019s infertility increasing her despair. This is reflected in the first half of Rashi\u2019s commentary (ad loc): \u201cShe would say to her, \u2018Did you buy your older son a cloak today, or your younger son, a shirt\u2019?” The unconventional reading, however, reflected in the continuation of that same commentary, imputes to Peninah a nobler intent: \u201cIn order to make her complain. Our Rabbis explain (Baba Batra 16a), ‘in order to make her storm (<\/span>ra\u2019am<\/span><\/em>),’ that she pray. Penina had good intentions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So our hero, Samuel, seems to be the product of a kind of domestic tension we have seen previously. First, it matches the circumstances out of which Isaac emerged: a patriarchal father figure (Abraham), a favorite wife who is without child (Sarah), and a second wife (Hagar) whose fecundity makes a mockery of her rival\u2019s infertility. And it is also reminiscent of the situation of Jacob whose favorite, Rachel, was vexed by the fertility of her rival, Leah.<\/span><\/p>\n

New lyrics, but an old score.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56733,"id":56733,"title":"isam1-sarah_hagar","filename":"isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-new-era-starts-with-the-same-old\/isam1-sarah_hagar\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam1-sarah_hagar","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56732,"date":"2019-06-03 12:43:20","modified":"2022-03-07 06:59:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":345,"height":210,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar-300x183.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":183,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","medium_large-width":345,"medium_large-height":210,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","large-width":345,"large-height":210,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","1536x1536-width":345,"1536x1536-height":210,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","2048x2048-width":345,"2048x2048-height":210,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","post_full_size-width":345,"post_full_size-height":210,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","home_baner-width":345,"home_baner-height":210}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A New Era Starts With The \u201cSame Old\u201d","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Rival wives, one infertile, the other derisive - where have we heard this before?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":56733,"id":56733,"title":"isam1-sarah_hagar","filename":"isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-new-era-starts-with-the-same-old\/isam1-sarah_hagar\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam1-sarah_hagar","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56732,"date":"2019-06-03 12:43:20","modified":"2022-03-07 06:59:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":345,"height":210,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar-300x183.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":183,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","medium_large-width":345,"medium_large-height":210,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","large-width":345,"large-height":210,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","1536x1536-width":345,"1536x1536-height":210,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","2048x2048-width":345,"2048x2048-height":210,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","post_full_size-width":345,"post_full_size-height":210,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam1-sarah_hagar.jpg","home_baner-width":345,"home_baner-height":210}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110654,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56732\/revisions\/110654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}