{"id":60579,"date":"2019-08-04T10:42:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T07:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60579"},"modified":"2023-02-26T18:19:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T16:19:08","slug":"joab-hires-the-best-woman-for-the-job-then-mansplains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joab-hires-the-best-woman-for-the-job-then-mansplains\/","title":{"rendered":"Joab Hires The Best Woman For The Job- Then Mansplains"},"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":[444,372,600],"acf":{"old_id":"60579","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":41525,"related_cahpter":"277","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But despite that, the Wise Woman of Tekoa did her job brilliantly, changing the course of history","content":"

\u201cAnd Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched a wise woman from there and said to her\u2026 \u2018[Y]ou shall come to the king and speak to him in this manner\u2014\u2019 and Joab put the words in her mouth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And the Wise Woman of Tekoa goes on to tell a tall tale wherein she reveals to King David his own shortcomings and convinces him that his son Absalom should be allowed to return from exile.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We know little about the biblical category of \u201cwise women,\u201d though there are several scattered throughout the Tanakh. They appear to be women of repute, status, and ability. It seems reasonable to surmise that a \u201cwise woman\u201d was known for being wise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So why would Joab\u2014David\u2019s general\u2014bother fetching a wise woman to speak to the king if he was only going to tell her what to say? How was he utilizing her wisdom by putting words in her mouth?<\/span><\/p>\n

Scholars Robert Polzin and Robert Alter posit that perhaps Joab merely gave the Wise Woman of Tekoa an outline of a story, and the woman \u201cis in fact brilliantly improvising\u2014 which in some ways she would have to do, given the fact that she is not reciting an uninterrupted speech but responding to David\u2019s declarations, picking up clues from the way he reacts.\u201d That perhaps this woman was summoned for her rhetorical skills and insight into human behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Torah has something to teach every generation, and as I consider the Wise Woman of Tekoa through a modern lens, I wonder what it has to teach us about how women are utilized\u2014or not\u2014in men\u2019s spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joab seems to value the Wise Woman of Tekoa. He does not merely hire a local Jerusalemite to relay the story he has concocted. He doesn\u2019t put just any woman up to the job, but a <\/span>wise woman<\/span><\/i>. Yet as soon as he encounters her, he begins telling her what to do. He tells her how to dress, how to act, what to say. In his mind, he has called upon this woman because of what she has to offer\u2014because of her expertise\u2014but practically he feels the need to control her because, naturally, he knows how to do her job better than she does.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the Wise Woman of Tekoa was a skilled rhetorician capable of convincing a great king. Or perhaps, as we see all too frequently today, she was an expert in her field who wasn\u2019t given the chance to do her job because a man was sure he knew how to do it better.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To her credit, no matter whose words she used, the Wise Woman of Tekoa did her job brilliantly, changing the course of history.<\/span><\/p>\n

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