Judging By Her. Reconfiguring Israel in Ruth, Esther, and Judith

Abstract

The period following the Babylonian Exile - a period in which 'Israel' was forced to reinvent itself - shows a modest proliferation of female main protagonists in Israel's narrative literature. My study takes its cue from this observation. I read the books of Ruth, Esther, and Judith, all written in the centuries following the Exile, as attempts to conceptualize the religious and ethnic entity ‘Israel’ via a woman’s body, and to endorse this conceptualization vis-à-vis differing voices both from without and within. To presuppose the interaction of various concepts (ethnicity, religion, gender, embodiment, etc.) translates into conceptual and methodological interdisciplinarity. The framework guiding my analysis combines notions from ethnic, religious, and gender studies as heuristic tools. The ‘glue’ connecting all central concepts of this analysis can be found in the opposing forces of othering and familiarization. Two other opposing forces, basic to any text and especially pertinent where metaphors and symbols are concerned, are convention and innovation. (Historical) discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics both display alertness for the way in which a text employs and alters conventional images, making them suitable tools of analysis for my aims. Reading the books of Ruth, Esther, and Judith within this heuristic and methodological framework, a number of common tendencies are revealed. All three texts are indeed characterized by the tension between 'old' and 'new', concerning both the religious and ethnic identity of Israel and the way in which this identity is communicated by means of a female body. All three texts are presented as sequels to Israel’s history as it is put forward in other (now canonical) texts, and presuppose God’s continuing involvement with his people. However, the way in which Israel can or should relate to her God is subtly modified by suggesting alternatives for official Temple worship and sometimes bypassing the latter altogether. Second, while older prophetic texts make use of metaphoric language portraying Israel as YHWH’s unfaithful wife, grieving widow, or ravaged virgin, Ruth, Esther, and Judith can be construed as embodiments of Israel of a different kind. In and through their bodies, the community is presented as simultaneously vulnerable and inviolable, marginalized and triumphant. Their tricksterism, in all its comicality, underlines the precarious situation in which the women and the community they represent are caught. Yet it also has the power to defeat threats from outside and amend Israel’s self-perception on the inside. Israel no longer has to perceive of herself as a battered wife but as one who can deploy her qualities – seductive and otherwise – for the survival of the community.