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Monday, March 8, 2021

International Women's Day and Our Four Matriarchs of the Jewish People

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

              My favorite picture of a Jewish woman in Israel today, a descendant of Rachel, a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), guarding the land from terrorists.  

Women have been recognized in our history ever since the beginning.  Our men's wives were outstanding, not to be forgotten women.

Sarai/Sarah was the niece of Abram/Abraham (who was born in about 1948 BCE) and the mother of Isaac.  Abram's father was Terah and one of Terah's sons was Haran.   She was one of the 4 matriarchs of the Jewish people.  They married before they left Haran, which could also have been her father's name.    

While traveling to Egypt with Abraham, and later in Philistia, her beauty attracted the local ruler, who added her to his harem, but she was restored to her husband when it became known that she was a married woman.  After marriage, she failed to get pregnant and many years went by and she remained barren.  In desperation, as producing children in her generation meant security for life, she gave Abraham her young Egyptian servant, Hagar, who bore him Ishmael, and since she was Hagar's owner,  so was her son.  By the age of 90, Sarah became pregnant and had Isaac.  She died at age 127.  Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah in Bethlehem for her burial.  (If you cut the ages in half, she was pregnant at 45 and died at 63, numbers more familiar to us).  Sarah and Hagar did not get along.  Ishmael was teasing Isaac and life was unbearable for her as the "old" wife as Hagar didn't let her forget her age.                                              

Rebekah was Isaac's wife.  She was the daughter of Bethuel and sister of Laban, and mother of Esau and Jacob, twins.  Laban and Rebekah's  grandfather was Nahor II.   She was known for her kindness and is regarded as one of the 4 matriarchs.  The legend is that she is the ideal type of Jewish womanhood. Abraham's envoy, who had been dispatched to Aram Naharaim to find a wife for his master's son, Isaac, was attracted to her for her kindness at the city's well. He chose her to be the wife for Isaac.  Rebekah had a wet nurse, Deborah, who died after Dinah's experience related below, and was buried in Bethel.  

                                                               

Leah was the 1st wife of Jacob and daughter of Laban, son of Bethuel, son of Nahor II.  The local custom of marriage insisted on the oldest daughter in a family to be married off first.  Her father, Laban, tricked Jacob and substituted her when wedding vows were being read.  Unbeknown, he had married Leah instead of Rachel, the girl he was in love with.  Leah bore Jacob 6 sons:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter named Dinah.                                                                 

Rachel was one of the 4 matriarchs and the 2nd wife of Jacob.  She was the daughter of Laban, son of Bethuel, son of Nahor II.,  and lived in Haran in Aram-Naharaim.  Rachel was born on the day that Jacob received blessings and was told by G-d that his name would become Israel, and named where he stood, Bethel.  She died when she was 36.  (If you cut 36 in half,, she would have been only 18 years old.)  Jacob wanted to marry her but was tricked into marriage with her older sister, Leah, which was the custom for marriage.  Jacob had to work for 7 more years to earn  Rachel for a wife.  She was the mother of Joseph, and much later, Benjamin but died in childbirth.  We remember her as the weeping compassionate mother for her descendants who were driven into captivity.  

All were intermarried, related to each other.  That's what happened in those days.  You married within your tribe.  By the time Jacob had had 12 sons by Leah, Rachel, and their 2 handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah, probably both being Egyptians, we see the beginning of the 12 Tribes of Jacob.  Leah had 6 sons, Rachel had 2, and the handmaids each had 2. 

                                                               


 
Dinah, the one and only daughter mentioned, had an experience similar to those daughters of today.  She went outside in her new town to see if she could find some other girls her own age. Her father, Jacob, believed that at last he would find tranquility in Canaan, calling it "Eretz Yisrael" She was raped by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivvite, prince of the region,  while her brothers were busy with their cattle in the fields, and was avenged by her brothers, Simeon and Levi.  What others in the neighborhood would have accepted as a commonplace occurrence, the sons of Jacob took as a moral outrage upon their sister.  These brothers annihilated the inhabitants of the town of Shechem (Gen 34).  Shechem was in Canaan.  

As it turned out, Shechem said afterwards to his father, Hamor, that he had fallen in love with Dinah and wanted to marry her.  Hamor went to Jacob and spoke to him about the marriage.  Hamor, of course, was an uncircumcised man, the mark they used to identify others of their own clan.  So they talked the men of the town to become circumcised.

On the 3rd day, when they were all in pain, Simeon and Levi acted and killed all the men of that clan.  Jacob, who knew nothing of their plan, was in shock, and his sons answered him saying that they thought Shechem had treated Dinah like a harlot.  The family then had to move and went to Bethel where Jacob had been.  

Dinah was a very special girl to these 12 brothers, their one and only sister.  They must have treated her with great respect.  No one was going to hurt their sister.  The incident was an over-reaction of a horrific deed that caused the family to leave and seek another safer spot in Canaan in which to put up their tent.  It seemed to set up all the problems they would find in Canaan thereafter.  

The Hivites were one of the 7 nations inhabiting Canaan when the Israelites took possession of the country.  

Resource:

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

 


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