From Eve to Esther-Rabbinic Reconstruction of Biblical Women (review)

Hebrew Studies 37 (1996) 210 Reviews The preceding shortcomings do not, however, diminish the importance of Gentry's study. It breaks new ground in elucidating the complex textual picture of the Greek Job. Robert J. V. Hiebert Ontario Bible College and Theological Seminary North York, Ontario M2M 4B3 Canada FROM EVE TO ESTHER-RABBINIC RECONSTRUCTION OF BIBLICAL WOMEN. By Leila Leah Bronner. Pp. 214. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994. Paper, $18.99. Leila Leah Bronner's From Eve to Esther presents rabbinic reconstructions of biblical women. The book is one in a series on "Gender and the Biblical Tradition," which includes Katheryn Darr's Far More Precious Than Jewels: Perspective on Biblical Women (1991) and Cheryl Anne Brown's No Longer Be Silent: First Century Jewish Portraits of Biblical Women (1992). Bronner has introductory and concluding chapters, a chapter on "Aggadic Attitudes towards Women," chapters on Eve, Sarah bat Asher, Ruth, Hannah, and Deborah, and on daughterhood and marginalized women. Bronner carefully distinguishes between the portrayal of biblical women in halakhic literature, which has received the greater scholarly attention, and the portrayal of women in aggadic literature . She also underscores that female modesty was a dominant value to the rabbis-what she describes as "a form of social control" {p. 6)-and pursues how this value is reflected in the rabbis' literary portrayal of women. Bronner is careful not to make sweeping assertions. Her study of rabbinic sources reveals that the rabbinic attitude toward women is complex, what she calls "problematic," and "riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions " (p. 15). Rabbinic interpretation subordinates Eve to Adam and, consequently, women to men; Eve's name is not connected with life but with forbidden knowledge, lust and temptation, sin and death. Her depiction justifies male dominance and female subordination in Judaism. Bronner accurately subtitles the chapter on Eve as "Temptation, Modesty, and the Valorization of Matrimony." On the other hand, rabbinic interpretation takes Sarah, granddaughter of Jacob, and transforms her, endowing her with spiritual and prophetic qualities totally absent from her role in the biblical text. In rabbinic literature she receives from Asher the secret of Hebrew Studies 37 (1996) 211 Reviews how to recognize the redeemer, and she helps Moses locate the bones of Joseph (Exodus Rabbah, 10th c.); she was the one who informed Jacob that Joseph was alive (Book ofJashar, 13th c.); she entered a house of study and corrected a sage (Pesiqta de Rav Kahana), an act no other woman in all of rabbinic literature is said to have done. While the depiction of Sarah, who is scarcely mentioned in the Bible (Oen 46:17; Num 26:46; 1 Chr 7:30), is expanded and enhanced by the rabbis, the rabbis also embellish Naamah, another woman scarcely mentioned in the Bible (Gen 4:22), but in a negative way (p. 53). Rabbinic interpretation takes the person of Ruth and glorifies her. She is paralleled to Jacob, fit to stand as the foremother of David (p. 70). Though Ruth was lacking the main portion of her womb, the Holy One shaped a womb for her "and gave her pregnancy" (p. 75). She was of royal origin; her father was Eglon, King of Moab (p. 77). Bronner concludes that "in addition to the loyalty, steadfastness, lJesed, and obedience that Ruth displays in the biblical text," the sages "add beauty, royal lineage, and a highly exaggerated modesty." In other words, Ruth, in rabbinic interpretation, "is the paragon of all those virtues that sages believed a woman ought to embody " (p. 80). In her chapter "On Hannah and Prayer," Bronner shows how the biblical depiction of Hannah at prayer led to the rabbis' delineation of four characteristics of heartfelt prayer: 1) in a low voice, 2) with lips moving, 3) with concentration, and 4) not when drunk (p. 95). Hannah is depicted as a prophetess who prays for the survival of her co-wife Peninnah's children who were dying as punishment for their mother's mean-spirited teasing of Hannah (p. 97). While Hannah is the only woman the Bible portrays as praying, the rabbis depicted other female biblical characters as praying also. In fact, according to the Midrash, Sarah speaks to...