{"id":61448,"date":"2019-08-19T16:22:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T13:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61448"},"modified":"2023-03-13T15:43:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:43:54","slug":"imagining-a-voice-where-there-is-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/imagining-a-voice-where-there-is-none\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining A Voice Where There Is None"},"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":[548,600],"acf":{"old_id":"61448","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39842,"related_cahpter":"288","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How did Abishag feel about her role?\u00a0Was she as silent as the text?","content":"

The first new character we meet in 1 Kings is Abishag the Shunamite. She is brought to the king to warm him; the text assures us that though she lies in bed with him, and is beautiful, they do not interact sexually. Instead, Abishag\u2019s job is to warm the king where mere blankets cannot, to literally be a warm body and nothing more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abishag is the last of the many women over whom King David asserts control. David has, over his life, had many wives and concubines; he summons Bathsheba from her home and leaves his concubines guarding the palace to be raped by Absalom. In contrast with these actions, it seems minor for the king to maintain a woman servant whose job it was to simply lie in bed with him, acting as a body-heat furnace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did Abishag feel about her role? The text offers no information; she is voiceless. In a scene parallel to the story of Esther, King David\u2019s courtiers search the land for a beautiful young woman, and bring her to the palace. Perhaps Abishag came eagerly, excited to be proximate to royalty. Perhaps she was dragged unwillingly. Either is possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, it would not have mattered if Abishag wanted to serve David. She did not have a choice. Her desires are not recorded because they do not matter to the plot and they did not matter within her own story. She is unheard in the Biblical text, and it is likely that she was unheard in life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lacunae in the Bible lead to so much interpretive possibility. The narrative gaps have offered Jews throughout the millennia the opportunity to build stories around our own interests and concerns, to see our own priorities within the sacred texts. But sometimes these holes in the Bible\u2019s story stymie us, leaving the unseen characters unseen and those who do not speak as voiceless. In encountering these silent figures, we must not only work to imagine their voices; we must be moved to prevent those near us in our own lives from going silent in the world and in our records of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: James Tissot, <\/span>King David with Abishag sitting at his feet \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61449,"id":61449,"title":"1kings1-King_David_with_Abishag","filename":"1kings1-King_David_with_Abishag.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1kings1-King_David_with_Abishag.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/imagining-a-voice-where-there-is-none\/1kings1-king_david_with_abishag\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings1-king_david_with_abishag","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61448,"date":"2019-08-19 13:22:38","modified":"2019-08-19 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