This week's parasha is dedicated to the memory of Alicia Ross.
May her family be comforted.
What kind of relationship do we want to have with God in the coming year?
Study with Baruch Sienna
This year's cycle of weekly Parasha study explores what connections and insight we can find by examining the Torah portion together with the Haftarah.
Each week we will be looking at the Torah and Haftarah portions, and seeing what connections and insight we can find. Together with this new approach, we are introducing a new format as well. This new look will eventually be updated throughout the site.
This week we begin the Torah cycle again starting with Gen. 1:1, and the Torah opens with the description of the creation of the cosmos and of humanity. The Haftarah taken from Isaiah, (42:5-43:11) begins: "Thus says the Eternal God, the One who created heavens and stretched them out, who made the earth and all that grows in it, who gives breath to its people and spiritual to all who walk on it." The connection is clear. In both passages, God is the Creator of heaven and earth. God is further described as the creator and maker of Israel (43:1). The Haftarah also uses images of light and darkness to describe liberation from exile.
Our highlighted verse describes God as a woman in labour. K.I.Parr suggests that the prophet transforms the image of the exaggerated breaths of a birthing mother (think Lamaze) into the forceful breath of God that 'hovers over the water' and that is breathed into humans.
Scholars identify this 'deutero-Isaiah' (from chapters 40 on) as a different author from the Isaiah ben Amotz identified in Isaiah 1:1. The 'Second Isaiah' preached in Babylonia in the sixth century BCE and brought a message of consolation to Israelites who had been captured and exiled.
In the ancient world, since women gave birth, the female element was often associated with creation. (The waters of creation can be imagined as the world's amniotic fluid.) However, in our Parasha God is not described as a birthing mother. The Haftarah, describing God's special, covenantal relationship to Israel, pictures God as ready to battle Israel's enemies. But juxtaposed to verse 13, "The Eternal goes out like a warrior..." Isaiah uses a surprising image. God is described as a woman in labour! This use of female imagery is quite distinctive to Isaiah. Women were (and, in some settings, still) excluded from full participation in religious cultic life. Mayer Gruber suggests that this and the typically prophetic description of God as husband and Israel as wife may have contributed to women's feeling of marginalization and their attraction to cults where femaleness existed as a positive and Divine value. He writes, "Perhaps, as a result of this realization, our prophet deliberately made use of both masculine and feminine similes for God."
With the tunes and liturgy of the High Holy Days still reverberating in my ears, God is pictured as father and king: Avinu, Malkeinu. Various attempts have been made to make this image less male, though I don't find Our Mother, Our Queen a particularly effective solution. Some mahzorim (prayerbooks) leave the Hebrew Avinu, Malkeinu untranslated and simply written in English letters. Others translate it as 'Our Source, Our God, or offer the poetic and feminine imagery of Shechinah, M'kor Hayeinu as an alternative, less gendered version. Perhaps Near One, Far One, or Imanent, Transcedent captures the metaphor's meaning.
But the High Holy Day liturgy is full of metaphors besides father and king. One of my favourite passages that is sung quite joyously is: Ki Anu Amecha v'ata Malkeinu.
For We are Your People and You are our God;
We are Your children and You are our Parent.
We are Your servants, and You are our Sovereign.
Even with gender neutral translation, the images remain all pretty hierarchical. The prayer continues with language that would have resonated for the ancient Israelite farmer: For we are your sheep and You are our Shepherd, we are Your vineyard and You are our keeper, we are Your treasure and You are our kin. These images of God as shepherd and vineyard keeper feel closer and warmer, even though we are still passive. But my favourite of all is: For we are Your beloved, and You are our Lover. This final egalitarian image reflects a mutual relationship of love and care.
The Canadian poet Ruth Brin has written:
When men were children, they thought of God as a father;
When men were slaves, they thought of God as a master;
When men were subjects, they thought of God as a king.
But I am a woman, not a slave, not a subject,
not a child who longs for God as father or mother.
I might imagine God as teacher or friend, but those images,
like king, master, father or mother, are too small for me now.
God is the force of motion and light in the universe;
God is the strength of life on our planet;
God is the power moving us to do good:
God is the source of love springing up in us.
God is far beyond what we can comprehend.
Ruth Brin's poem suggests that our images of God may be more a reflection of our own self image than they are a description of God. Think of who you are. What kind of relationship do we want to have with God in the coming year?
Shabbat Shalom.
BDS
