{"id":76051,"date":"2020-06-15T15:48:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T12:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76051"},"modified":"2020-06-15T15:48:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T12:48:09","slug":"hosea-and-the-taming-of-the-shrew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/hosea-and-the-taming-of-the-shrew\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosea And The Taming Of The Shrew"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"76051","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":72765,"related_cahpter":"503","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How do we feel, as Kate?\r\n\r\n","content":"

How does one alter the nature of another person\u2014for the better?<\/span><\/p>\n

Shakespeare confronts this problem in his play \u201cThe Taming of the Shrew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Petruchio sets out to \u201ctame\u201d his new wife, the shrewish Kate. He bullies and brutalizes her, deprives her of food and sleep, makes her doubt her sanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ostensibly, this regimen is effective. By the end of the play, \u201cKate the curst\u201d, \u201cwaspish\u201d Kate, has become docile and submissive. To prove it, Kate takes to the stage and proclaims to the other women:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper\u2026<\/span>
\n<\/span> Such duty as the subject owes the prince,<\/span>
\n<\/span> Even such, a woman oweth to her husband\u2026<\/span>
\n<\/span> I am ashamed that women are so simple<\/span>
\n<\/span> To offer war where they should kneel for peace<\/span>
\n<\/span> Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,<\/span>
\n<\/span> When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But we the audience are left feeling uneasy: Has Kate really been converted or is she shamming? Is she being passive-aggressive? Or, as some modern critics see her, is she the victim of \u201cStockholm Syndrome\u201d whereby her will is subsumed by her captors?<\/span><\/p>\n

We wonder too about Petruchio: Does he really want a woman so broken in spirit as Kate now seems to be? Or has he extinguished in her the very qualities that made her attractive to him in the first place?<\/span><\/p>\n

God\/Hosea in our chapter must also deal with the problem of converting a woman. The \u201cadulterous wife\u201d must be remade loyal and pure.<\/span><\/p>\n

(And even if one considers that this incident never really happened but is only a \u201cmetaphor\u201d, still\u2026a metaphor must WORK!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Petruchio, God\/Hosea devise a program of deprivation. (Has God also made some unrecorded cosmic wager, like He has regarding Job?):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Israelites shall go a long time without king and without officials, without sacrifice and without cult pillars, and without ephod and teraphim\u201d (verse 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

This verse is very odd. It contains both \u201cgood\u201d elements (king, prince, sacrifice, ephod) and \u201cbad\u201c (pillar, teraphim). Does God want the wayward wife to retain some of her flirtatiousness?<\/span><\/p>\n

Further: To deprive a wife of affection is (if one is faithful) to deprive oneself as well. \u201cNo king without a kingdom.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One recalls that there is precedent in the Torah for deprivation therapy. In Deuteronomy 21, the captive war bride is made to wait for 30 days before being permitted to her husband. But there, the objective is to make HIM lose interest. It is really aversion therapy!<\/span><\/p>\n

We appreciate now the enormous gamble that God here undertakes. After 2000 years of \u201chiding His face\u201d, will the groom still want the bride? Will the bride still want the groom? And will the bride that emerges be the same one that the groom wanted, the one that followed Him into the desert during the days of her betrothal?<\/span><\/p>\n

We, the Jewish people, are in the role of the woman here. What are our feelings?<\/span><\/p>\n

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