Pushing and Pulling: The Life of Moshe

Exodus 2:10 tells us that Moshe's name means "He-Who-Pulls-Out." As we will see throughout the Exodus narrative, Moshe's life is indeed characterized by both pulling and pushing--literally and figuratively, physically and emotionally, internally and externally. Moshe is a reluctant hero of sorts, someone who goes back and forth between rescuing and wanting to be rescued. Like Yosef, he is a more fully developed and emotionally complex character. Thinking of Exodus 2-8, in what ways do you see this pushing-pulling metaphor guiding Moshe's transformation? How is he characterized by this idea of pushing-pulling, and how does it shape his own narrative as well as the narrative of the Hebrew people in the text?

Please post your response no later than Thursday, April 3, 10am.

Yehuda and Tamar

The story of Yehuda (one of Yosef's brothers) and Tamar in Genesis 38 seems out of place. The story appears smack dab in the middle of the Yosef narrative, which forces the reader to consider a new story before getting back to the one about Yosef. It's not even chronological--the story takes place many years later than the Yosef story. Given the nature of the story and its content, what do you make of its placement in the biblical text? Do you think there is a reason for this? What effect does it have, if any, on the way you read the Yosef story?

Please post your comment no later than Tuesday, March 25, 3pm.

"I Will Not Let You Go Unless You Bless Me"

In the Afterword to For the Love of God, Ostriker writes:

Meanwhile, we live in a world in crisis. Perhaps immersing ourselves in some of the wisest writing ever written will help us know ourselves and the world better. Let us not try to simplify reality. Let us not use our sacred texts as a security blanket or a blindfold, much less a weapon.

Ostriker is speaking about the ways in which we, in a contemporary era, use the bible. We all know that the bible, or at least so-called biblical values, have been used (or mis-used) throughout history to justify violent and unethical behaviors that, in and of themselves, violate one of the most important principles of the bible: namely, that we should love our neighbors. Consider, for example, the Crusades, the forced conversions (the only other choice being death) of Native Americans, the bombings of abortion clinics, etc.

However, what if this is not simply a phenomenon of the Common Era? I wonder whether it is possible to see the same phenomenon taking place in the very narratives of the bible. Characters in the biblical narrative were not reading the bible as we know it, in its canonical form, but they were "reading" its equivalent: hearing God speak directly or indirectly, hearing from God's messengers, seeing God in dreams and visions, hearing the stories of God in previous generations, oral transmission of God's commandments. Can you think of any instances in the bible where characters might be using "sacred texts," as Ostriker says, as "a security blanket or blindfold," or even a weapon?

You may refer to stories in Genesis or any other part of the bible, even if we haven't read it in class.

Please post your response no later than Saturday, March 8, 12pm.