Judaism for the Thinking Person
Religion & Spirituality:Judaism
From Hollywood to Hazor: The Mother of Israel and the Foundational Jewish Story Arc
What may just be the oldest section of the entire Bible? The Song of Deborah (in the Book of Judges), the ancient altar song about the prophetess Deborah uniting the Israelite tribes to attack and defeat the Canaanite king at Hazor, which is a archaeologically verified. She was known as "The Mother of Israel." As Jews, we do not have a Father of our Country, we have the Mother of our Country. What is her story arc? How would it be taken today? I put this powerful truth (that she is real, that the song describes real events, that we actually have the history of the Mother of our Country) up against the reflections of actress Brit Marling (of the TV show "The OA") in her piece in the New York Times called "I Don't Want to Be the Strong Female Lead" in which she reflects on the absence in our culture of a genuine female story arc that is strong, real, and not emerging from a male stereotype. I offer Deborah as our answer. [Footnote: When I teach that Deborah tells Barak she will get the credit, I am going with the plain meaning in that verse, not the narrative surprise (perhaps a later addition) later on that it turns out to be Yael.]
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