Praise Her Works- A Most Praiseworthy Book
reviewed by Allan Gould
Sometimes, a new book seems to cry out, "Why hasn't anyone thought of that before?" I felt that strongly while reading, and enjoying greatly, a lovely paperback recently put out by the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia, called Praise Her Works: Conversations with Biblical Women, edited by Penina Adelman, a scholar-in-residence at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.
What a great idea this is, and beautifully developed! The concept is inspired: there was, apparently, a little-known Yemenite text written in the 13th century called Midrash HaGadol, of which only parts were previously translated into English. (Even if this text was non-existent, or a hoax, I'm still thrilled by the use of it here). Each of nearly two dozen "Biblical women" were linked, in the original midrash, to a different line in the famous "Eyshet Chayil" from the Book of Proverbs, which is sung traditionally by a Jewish husband to his wife at the Sabbath table. (So, for example, Noah's wife, who is not even given the honour of a name in the Torah, is linked with the opening line "A woman of valor/who can find"; Yocheved, the mother of Moses, is hooked to "She sets her mind on an estate and acquires it," etc.)
What editor Adelman (who has also written nearly a third of these chapters) has done is explained beautifully in her Introduction: "New rituals are found, not made. They are waiting to be uncovered, like the sculpture living inside the stone. Books are often the same. Praise Her Works is a book inspired by a ritual, which, in turn, emerged from a text. Jewish creativity encourages interaction between tradition, text, and human being."
Every chapter in this book, covering every historical woman of our heritage—not all of them Jewish, which is intriguing; I was fascinated to see Vashti (of Purim fame) included in a joint chapter with the heroine Esther—is laid out in the same way: we get a solid, prose description from Jewish texts of the woman; then an often-scholarly commentary; then a "message" from that Famous Ancient Woman to the reader; then a marvelous study section called "For Further Thought," which has questions for the reader to consider ("What were your impressions of Sarah, the Matriarch, when you were a young girl? Compare them to your impressions now. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sarah's relationship with Abraham? What enabled their marriage to last?), followed by suggested readings from sourcebooks, books, works such as Genesis: The Feminist Companion to the Bible, and so on.
I approached this book the way I think most people—both women AND men—should: I looked up our daughter's name, Elisheva, who, I find, 95% of Biblical readers cannot identify as the wife of Aaron, the High Priest. (Her name is mentioned only once in the second book of the Five Books of Moses, but there are interesting comments in the Talmud about her), and read it to my wife, who is her mother. We were both moved by the section, "Elisheba Speaks," when she describes how she felt when her "two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, strode up to the altar in what they may have thought was an imitation of their father, the High Priest. . . . How long had they been planning their subterfuge? What did they think would happen?. . . . When I saw them struck down, my spirit briefly left me and went to be with them. My boys had come from my womb and now they were returning to the earth's womb." [Her sons were killed by God for bringing "a strange fire" to be sacrified.]
Merle and I then turned to the chapters which have HER Hebrew names: Miriam and Rachel, and studied those. We both were shaken by the poetic description "in Miriam's own words" of how she (purportedly) responded when the Hebrews arrived on the other side of the sea, after its miraculous parting:
When my feet touched dry land, I felt such profound gratitude, uncertainty, relief, and fear. Then I had to choose. With all those feelings grappling for dominance, which would triumpth? I chose gratitude. I knew that we could die in the wilderness, but at that moment, we were alive and safe. Dayenu. . . . And then the water closed over the charioteers and their horses, and any path back to Egypt was cut off forever. So what now? We dance. Not because the enemies have died. They too are the children of God. Not because the future is easy. No, because we are here now, surrounded by loved ones, witnessing the greatest miracle of our lives against all the odds. We dance.
Wonderful. The "Miriam" chapter was written by Marsha Pravder Mirkin, a clinical psychologist, resident scholar at Brandeis, and published author, and it's one of the best in the book. Many chapters are far more prosaic; some are dull.
Still, what a fine, moving, and, yes, empowering, book this is—and not only for women, or men with daughters. Praise Her Works: Conversations with Biblical Women is truly the perfect Bat Mitzvah gift, and a superb work to use with study groups of any gender. It will never be Oprah's Choice, or make a best-seller list. But I am so glad that it exists; so pleased that I read it, and was enriched by it.
Allan Gould is a Toronto-based author and journalist. He is presently teaching a course for KOLEL based on his own, edited anthology, WHAT DID THEY THINK OF THE JEWS?
