{"id":65560,"date":"2019-11-11T14:42:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T12:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=65560"},"modified":"2023-06-04T15:27:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T12:27:59","slug":"a-special-hell-for-women-and-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-special-hell-for-women-and-children\/","title":{"rendered":"A Special Hell For Women And Children"},"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":[529,667,386,457,600],"acf":{"old_id":"65560","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":41525,"related_cahpter":"347","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Perhaps it\u2019s time to break the cycle of inherited trauma and imagine a better view of the future than Isaiah could?","content":"

And their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes<\/span>. <\/span>Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In his latest vision of doom and gloom, the prophet Isaiah threatens the people of Israel with infanticide and rape. The subject of this threat is the Israelite <\/span>men<\/span><\/em> \u2014 the women and children are their property in the same way as their houses \u2014 the threat here is really that of destruction of property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While threatening what will befall the men, of course, no consideration is given to the women.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing in this passage that is concerned with the experience of the women, who first watch their children murdered, and are then raped by the murderers. It is a special kind of hell that befalls the women of Isaiah 13, and yet the men who write their story give no thought to their experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible is rife with rape. Dina, the Levite\u2019s concubine, Tamar. The women of Numbers 31 and Judges 21. The summoning of Bathsheba. Deuteronomy with its captive brides and women raped in a city, in a field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As in Isaiah, these are stories told to further men\u2019s narratives. As in Isaiah, consideration is not given for the women\u2019s experiences; there was no #MeToo movement in the biblical age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And what of Isaiah\u2019s infanticide?<\/span><\/p>\n

There is in Isaiah 13 a chilling inversion of an earlier biblical moment. \u201cBy the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, as we remembered Zion.\u201d These opening lines of Psalm 137 are beloved and well-known. Less known are the closing lines of this biblical poem, \u201cFair Babylon, you predator, a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us; a blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The dashing of babies was apparently rich fodder for the biblical literary imagination. But how could a people who suffered having their babies dashed against the rocks \u2014 who wished this as a kind of eye-for-an-eye justice upon their worst enemy \u2014 return from exile only to threaten this same atrocity against their own people? The oppressed threatens to become the oppressor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaiah 13 offers us a rare glimpse into a people wounded by exile who, in turn, perpetuated a cycle of abuse. Thousands of years later, we continue to internalize Jewish trauma and pass it down from generation to generation. Is smashing our babies against the rocks really what we want to wish upon ourselves or others? Is the cycle of abuse really a legacy the people of Israel wants to perpetuate? Perhaps it\u2019s time to break the cycle of inherited trauma and imagine a better view of the future than Isaiah could.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether for women or for the future of Judaism, we owe it to our past to do better for our future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":65569,"id":65569,"title":"is13-baby","filename":"is13-baby.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-special-hell-for-women-and-children\/is13-baby\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is13-baby","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":65560,"date":"2019-11-11 12:44:37","modified":"2022-05-18 03:23:04","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1152,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1440,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-1200x900.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is13-baby-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A 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