{"id":60547,"date":"2019-08-03T22:26:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-03T19:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60547"},"modified":"2023-02-26T16:18:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T14:18:45","slug":"a-story-both-modern-and-radical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-story-both-modern-and-radical\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story Both Modern And Radical\u00a0"},"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":[383,457,567,600],"acf":{"old_id":"60547","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38574,"related_cahpter":"276","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The text forces us to reckon with Tamar\u2019s humanity post-rape, and forces us to do better for women and other vulnerable people who are victims of powerful men","content":"

The story of the rape of Tamar by her brother Amnon is both modern and radical. Modern in that it could happen today; and radical in that it demands our unflinching attention. Though our society is less rigidly patriarchal than Tamar\u2019s, it is chilling to read alongside today\u2019s news. David does nothing, because he is unable to confront the painful reality that his favorite son is a violent misogynist. When faced with competing interests, then and now, women\u2019s lives are deemed less important than male comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rebecca Solnit writes that \u201cBeing unable to tell your story is a living death and sometimes a literal one\u2026. Violence against women is often against our voices and our stories.\u201d Tamar is silenced multiple times, yet her voice is unusually strong. She uses all the tools in her intellectual and rhetorical arsenal to defend herself against Amnon. Amnon silences her when she resists and he rapes her, and again after the rape, when she pleads with Amnon not to send her away, sentencing her to a \u201cliving death\u201d as she would be unable to marry. Her final, literal silencing is at the hands of her \u201cgood\u201d brother Absalom, who comes upon her screaming immediately after the rape, and tells her to keep quiet about it. There is no plausible way to read this text as a cautionary tale, to keep women in line.Tamar\u2019s only sin is her existence, something Amnon seems to hold against her, referring to her as \u201cit\u201d when he instructs his servant to lock her outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast to Absalom, the Talmud notably praises her reaction, stating \u201cTamar established a great fence at that time by way of her public outcry, as people said: If such an occurrence could happen to the daughters of kings, all the more so could it happen to the daughters of ordinary people.\u201d I used to fear Amnon would kill Tamar each time I read this story, a plausible if brutal ending to her tale. But the text forces us to reckon with Tamar\u2019s humanity post-rape, and forces us to do better for women and other vulnerable people who are victims of powerful men. Tamar had no other life ahead of her, and stayed in Absalom\u2019s house \u201cforlorn,\u201d disappearing from the text, as so many women do from life. With her skills and talents, who can say what Tamar could have accomplished?<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Niccol\u00f2 Renieri (Nicolas Regnier), 1591\u20131667, “Amnon and Thamar” \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60549,"id":60549,"title":"2sam13-Amnon_and_Thamar_by_N.Regnier","filename":"2sam13-Amnon_and_Thamar_by_N.Regnier.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam13-Amnon_and_Thamar_by_N.Regnier.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-story-both-modern-and-radical\/2sam13-amnon_and_thamar_by_n-regnier\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam13-amnon_and_thamar_by_n-regnier","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60547,"date":"2019-08-03 19:26:22","modified":"2019-08-03 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