Mothers, Midwives, and Sisters at The Center: Family-Centered Female Agency and Ancient Jewish History and Culture

This essay is dedicated to the late Fran Eizenstat, who lived her Jewish faith in multiple roles, including that of mother, sister, wife, advocate, and protector of children as a gifted activist.

Introduction: Divine-Human Interaction and Jewish History

The interaction between divine and human agency is a defining hallmark of ancient Jewish culture and history. As scholars Robert Alter, Adele Berlin, and Marc Brettler point out, Jewish history is a story of the driving force of divine-human interaction, moving human events and understanding forward.

Robert Alter sums this up in two insightful sentences:

The implicit theology of the Hebrew Bible dictates a complex moral and psychological realism in biblical narrative because God’s purposes are always entrammeled in history, dependent on the acts of individual men and women for their continuing realization. To scrutinize biblical personages as fictional characters is to see them more sharply in the multifaceted, contradictory aspects of their human individuality, which is the biblical God’s chosen medium for His experiment with Israel and history. [1]

Along with Berlin and Brettler (the editors of the Jewish Study Bible),[2] Yosef Yerushalmi also vividly illustrates this core thematic element of Jewish history. In Zakhor, Jewish History and Jewish Memory, Yerushalmi eloquently describes human-divine interaction in Jewish history as  “the paradoxical struggle between the divine will of an omnipotent Creator and the free will of his creature, man, in the course of history; a tense dialectic of obedience and rebellion.”[3]

In contrast to the narratives of other ancient Middle Eastern belief systems, the

Biblical narratives focus intently on this divine-human interaction--compassionate yet justice-oriented, grounded in agency, free will, and choice.[4]

As scholar Tivka Frymer-Kensky brilliantly summarizes, in discussing the ancient Near Eastern theological movement into Hebrew monotheism: "The absorption by God of all the forces of nature leads humanity onto center stage. Biblical monotheism is essentially anthropocentric, though not in the sense that the world exists to serve humanity. Rather, in the absence of other divine beings, God's audience, partners, foils, and competitors are all human beings, and it is on their interaction with God that the world depends." [5]

Both divine and human agency drive Jewish history forward--at times stumbling, at times gloriously triumphant, at times slogging through darkness and despair. Frymer-Kensky succinctly pinpoints the dilemma and spiritual opportunity here: "If God has power over the world, why does not everything go well for Israel? The search for the answers to these questions (what we call theodicy) brings Israel to a new valuation of the role of humankind.”[6]  

Agency, defined as "the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power," characterizes this historical interaction between G-d and humankind. Agency is exerted through continual choice, sometimes choices requiring great courage, intelligence, and resourcefulness. This essay will explore some of that agency, as females have exercised it in ancient Jewish history.

This essay proposes that female agency has significantly interacted with the divine--to save, produce, and drive forward Jewish history and culture. Sometimes independently and sometimes in positions proximal to male leaders, strong women have saved the Jewish people, advanced history, and/or produced culture as advocates, protectors, and midwives.[7] 

Discussing the role of women in the Bible, scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky points out that: "The women of the Bible are shown primarily within the family, with family-oriented goals. They are shown most often as mothers and wives and less often as daughters and sisters." [8] Nevertheless, in the Bible, even family-centered female agency is exercised within the constraints of highly patriarchal culture, as Ilan and her colleagues carefully document.[9]

Drawing particularly on the work of Tivka Frymer-Kensky and Ilana Pardes, as well as the Women's Torah Commentary by Tamar Eskenazi and Andrea Weiss, this essay will analyze and reflect on the protective advocacy of four women of the Exodus narratives: the two midwives Shiprah and Puah; Yochaved, mother of Moses; and Miriam, the sister of Moses.[10] Subsequent papers also explore the role of Queen Esther as a wily and loving wife and courageous leader, protecting the Jewish people.[11] Finally, future papers will examine the role of Jewish midwives during medieval times in protecting Jewish women, children, and culture. This future  essay will raise the possibility that medieval midwives may have played a hidden role in helping develop Halakah (religious law) related to women's reproductive lives, childbearing, and early childrearing.[12][13]

Background: Feminist Scholarship and Female Agency In Divine-Human Interaction

Until the modern era, studies of female agency in Biblical narratives and historical accounts have been confined to the shadows and sidelines of Jewish scholarship. The scholarship of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Ilana Pardes, Tamar Eskenazi Tamar Weiss, and others lift up women's roles generally, including roles as warriors and independent rulers. Scholars Deena Aranoff, Galit Hasan-Rokan and Elisheva Baumgarten highlight women in their roles as mothers, neighbors and midwives. All work with great dedication to excavate the previously hidden roles of women, delving into sources heretofore unrecognized: informal written sources, such as correspondence; archeological and anthropological sources; oral histories and stories, including folklore.

Additional primary sources like these are most likely yet to be uncovered. As detailed by Frymer-Kensky, women in patriarchal Jewish culture were traditionally respected, even honored, as advocates for and protectors of their children and husbands. Consequently, continued feminist scholarly inquiry into women as family-centered advocates should be even more fruitful as dedicated scholars carefully excavate additional primary sources.

As the initial work of a very new Jewish thinker, this essay modestly seeks to explore and support those scholars who have pulled back (and continue to pull back) the shutters concealing female agency realized in congruence with their family roles.[14]

Four Hebrew Females As Courageous Advocates and Protectors in Egypt: the Biblical Narratives

As Frymer-Kensky succinctly summarizes: Women are protectors: when children were at stake, women defied improper commands and were not intimidated by authority. The women who set in motion the events leading to the Exodus were all motivated by their desire to save the lives of little children.[15]

The Exodus from Egypt is traditionally portrayed as the overwhelming will of G-d, acting in interaction with Moses and Aaron. But there would not have been the Exodus without Shiprah and Puah (the dedicated and subversive midwives who risked their lives to oppose Pharaoh's decree), Yochaved, Moses's mother who bravely defied the Pharaoh to bring Moses into the world, and Miriam, Moses's clever and brave sister.

Shiphrah and Puah, the heroic and subversive midwives

These midwives risked the wrath of the Pharaoh--possibly even their death--to save the lives of babies--and to safeguard Hebrew mothers and families from devastating infant-related genocide and massive, devastating collective grief. In Ilana Pardes' incisive words:

They deceive Pharaoh by confirming his racist anxieties concerning the proliferation of the Hebrew slaves. Relying on a common racist notion, according to which the Other is closer to Nature, Shiphrah and Puah claim that the Hebrew women need no midwives for, unlike Egyptian women, they are animal-like (chayot, translated by King James as “lively”) and can give birth without professional help.[16]

For their subversion of the Pharaonic decrees, Shiphrah and Puah are rewarded by G-d with "their own households." (Exodus 1: 20-21)[17] Presumably, this gift of their own households gave them more autonomy than most women of that era enjoyed. Using the lens of literary analysis, one might ask if this is an indication of G-d showing favor to and rewarding female agency, especially when it is used to thwart racist and misogynistic behavior that threatens the well-being of others.

Yocheved, strong and disobedient mother

Even after the Pharaoh's attempt to force the midwives to kill male babies--and then his genocidal decree that all people under his command should murder male Hebrew babies--Yocheved, mother of Miriam and Aaron and then Moses, conceives and brings Moses into the world.[18] (Exodus 2:2) She risks both her own punishment and possible death--and the death of baby Moses--by hiding him from the Egyptian authorities for several months. (Exodus 2:3)

She then undertakes the risky venture of floating him out on a river in a basket. (Exodus 2:3-4)  In addition, Yochaved further disobeys Pharaoh's murderous decrees by agreeing to serve as her own baby's wet nurse (Exodus 2:8-10).[19]

Miriam, a determined and resourceful advocate for the infant Moses

While still just a girl, Miriam defies Pharoah and wades into the Nile River, vigilant over the basket containing her baby brother. She then courageously confronts Pharaoh's daughter with the offer to find a wet nurse (Exodus 2: 7-10 ). In doing so, she secures a safe and protected Hebrew infancy and toddlerhood for Moses in his own home, with his biological mother and family.

Reflections

In reflecting on these Biblical narratives and some of the scholarship surrounding them, I am struck by the reality that these four women exerted agency as enslaved women, in a powerfully subjugating culture, which doubly dominated them as both women and as Hebrews.

Why were they able to exercise any autonomy and experience success?[20] Certainly, in these Biblical narratives, their congruence with the divine will might be understood to play a role. But so too does their intelligence, cunning, strength, courage, and love--attributes of female agency that, in these narratives, G-d seems to favorably interact with to ensure success. Could we see these narratives broadly as divine endorsement of female agency and of female skill?

At this juncture in ancient Jewish history, the entire future of the Jewish people was carried forward by the agency of these remarkable women.

If the murder of Jewish male babies at this massive a scale had succeeded, the resultant collective genocidal-related trauma might well have weakened Hebrew capacity to attempt a later, hugely grief-stricken mass migration into a frightening wilderness.[21] When Moses and Aaron showed up, if large-scale murder of babies had succeeded, would not the questions have been rightfully raised: where was this G-d, when our babies were being murdered en masse? What kind of powerful G-d is this you want us to believe in and follow, who tolerates the killing of all our male babies? [22]

Conclusion

Human-divine interaction has always been central in ancient Jewish history. As feminist scholars have brought female agency--and its interaction with the divine--more and more out of the shadows of Jewish scholarship, we can all be fuller human beings. We can all more fully appreciate the way G-d calls us to act, in our times. We can all more fully respond to that call.

References

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. Rev. & Updated ed. New York: Basic Books, 2011.

Aranoff, Deena. “Mother’s Milk: Child-Rearing and the Production of Jewish Culture.” Journal of Jewish Identities 12, no. 1 (2019): 1–17. Accessed March 26, 2022. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/719557.

Baumgarten, Elisheva. Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30699.

———. Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Accessed March 26, 2022. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30699.

Berlin, Adele, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Jewish Publication Society, eds. The Jewish Study Bible. Second edition. Oxford ; New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Eskenazi, Tamara Cohn, and Andrea L. Weiss, eds. The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. New York: URJ Press : Women of Reform Judaism, 2017.

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva Simone. In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York : Toronto : New York: Free Press ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992.

Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “Front Matter.” In Tales of the Neighborhood, i–vi. 1st ed. Jewish Narrative Dialogues in Late Antiquity. University of California Press, 2003. Accessed April 2, 2022. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pppfc.1.

Katz, Jordan R. “Jewish Midwives, Wise Women, and the Construction of Medical-Halakhic Expertise in the Eighteenth Century.” Jewish Social Studies 26, no. 2 (Winter 2021): 1–36. Accessed May 17, 2022. https://stanford.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=150405095&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Lehman, Marjorie Suzan, Jane L. Kanarek, and Simon J. Bronner, eds. Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination. Jewish Cultural Studies volume five. Liverpool, UK: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, in association with Liverpool University Press, 2017.

Pardes, Ilana. Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Pizzo, Peggy Daly. Parent to Parent: Working Together for Ourselves and Our Children. Beacon Press, 1983.

Shaye J. D. Cohen. The Beginnings of Jewishness : Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Accessed March 27, 2022. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=nlebk&AN=9460&site=ehost-live&custid=s8983286.

Tamara Or. “Why Don’t We Say Anything to Them? (BBes 30a): Women in Masskhet Betsah.” In A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud: Introduction and Studies, edited by Ṭal Ilan, Tamara Or, Dorethea M. Salzer, Christine Steuer, and Irina Wandrey, 183–196. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.

Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory. The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish studies—Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.

“Definition of AGENCY.” Accessed May 23, 2022. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agency.

Footnotes

[1] Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, Rev. & updated ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2011), pp. 12–13.  I subscribe both to Alter's way of understanding Biblical narratives as literature in which important truths are embedded (not the direct word of G-d) and his understanding of the Hebrew Bible as a composite work of literature.Two aspects of the "forward motion" of Jewish Biblical history that resonate deeply with me are the historical movement of the people of ancient times away from child sacrifice and also towards a value, not always completely perfectly expressed, for freedom from lifelong enslavement.

[2] Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler remind us that the human agents interacting with G-d include such characters as the stubborn Pharaoh, who refuses cooperation with the divine intentions. They emphasize that Biblical narratives are also the story of human-human interaction. Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Jewish Publication Society, eds.,The Jewish Study Bible, Second edition. (Oxford ; New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 92, p.99 All the Biblical citations from The Jewish Study Bible, JPS Translation.

[3] Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, The Samuel and Althea Stroum lectures in Jewish studies (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982), p. 12. Kindle edition

[4] Tikva Frymer-Kensky provides deeply researched comparisons, throughout her entire book,  (Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses), between the concepts of gods and goddesses in ancient Near Eastern religions and the concept of G-d in the Hebrew Bible

[5] Ibid., p.107.

[6] Ibid., p. 100.

[7] Ibid.; Ilana Pardes, Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992); Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, eds., The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (New York: URJ Press : Women of Reform Judaism, 2017); Deena Aranoff, “Mother’s Milk: Child-Rearing and the Production of Jewish Culture,” Journal of Jewish Identities 12, no. 1 (2019): 1–17, accessed March 26, 2022, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/719557; Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), accessed May 18, 2022, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30699.

[8] Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses. P.121

[9] Tamara Or, “Why Don’t We Say Anything to Them? (BBes 30a): Women in Masskhet Betsah,” in A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud: Introduction and Studies, ed. Ṭal Ilan et al. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 183–196. pp 4-6

[10] This essay will not discuss the equally courageous decision made by the daughter of the Pharaoh to adopt a Hebrew male baby, after her father has just decreed that all such babies are to be murdered. This admirable woman is not Jewish and is thus outside the scope of this particular essay. Since she was a likely practitioner of the Egyptian religion of that era, her actions, however, are a shining early example of interfaith cooperation to protect children.

[11] Space and time constraints prevent me from discussing other Biblical women recognized primarily as wives of political leaders, who also acted as advocates and protectors--Zipporah, the wife of Moses, for example, who circumcised her own son with a flint, or Bathsheba, the wife of King David, who, as David was dying, strenuously advocated for their son, Solomon, to be named David's successor as king.

[12] Some of the underlying assumptions of this paper are that the Hebrew Bible is a composite work of literature which reflects the attitudes and cultural mores of the times, including patriarchal mindsets about women. Since the authors relied on these mindsets in creating the Hebrew Bible, many other women, not just the ones noted in the Biblical narratives, may have exerted agency in ancient times. Their actions may simply not have been recognized and/or recorded.

[13] Space constraints do not permit an in-depth exploration,in this particular essay, of the valuable scholarship focused mainly on ancient and medieval women in their domestic roles as householders, mothers and neighbors. See, for example, Aranoff, “Mother’s Milk;” Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), accessed May 18, 2022, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30699;  Galit Hasan-Rokem, Tales of the Neighborhood, 1st ed., Jewish Narrative Dialogues in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 2003), i–vi, accessed April 2, 2022, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pppfc.1; Marjorie Suzan Lehman, Jane L. Kanarek, and Simon J. Bronner, eds., Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, Jewish cultural studies volume five (Liverpool, UK: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, in association with Liverpool University Press, 2017).

[14]  I plan to write later papers that will explore the roles of midwives, mothers and grandmothers in the production of Jewish Halakah, after a more indepth exploration of the scholarship of Deena Aranoff, Elisheva Baumgarten, Galit Hosan-Rokem, Jordan Katz and others. I also plan to research and write about female activists, political, intellectual and religious/spiritual leaders as producers and drivers of Jewish culture and cultural exchange in the post-medieval eras--and as change agents in modern societies.

      Exploring the roles of Jewish women creating policy and social change in U.S society that especially benefited (and benefits today) women, children and families has a strong appeal to me. Separately, I have written and published several papers describing the roles of Jewish activists and leaders.

[15] Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses, pp 121–122.

[16] Pardes, Countertraditions in the Bible. P.82

[17]In this paper, all citations from the Hebrew Bible are from Berlin, Brettler, and Jewish Publication Society, The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition, Tanakh Translation. Kindle Edition.

[18] Possibly, Yochaved is assisted in childbirth by either Shiprah or Puah, further intensifying the roles of these midwives in the liberation of the Hebrew people..

[19] Serving as a wet nurse to her own son was an utterly valuable decision, but one that carried significant risks of being reported to the authorities by someone who might have known that the baby was her own son. However, this courageous maternal choice meant that  Moses would have been able to develop a loving initial emotional attachment to his own parents--the foundation of healthy lifelong development and of learning. Moreover, he would have developed attachment to his older siblings, including Aaron and Miriam. Finally, Moses would have learned some Hebrew language and culture, possibly making him more capable of becoming a bicultural person, once he is brought to and then further educated in the Pharaoh's palace. Deena Aranoff notes this and further elucidates that, even as a prince of the Egyptian palace, Moses shows an unusual identifcation with a Hebrew slave who has been struck by an Egyptian and she traces the potential influence of his early rearing in his Hebrew family home as an important influence on this identification. Aranoff, “Mother’s Milk,” p. 14.

[20] African-American history in the U.S. has many parallels here. Harriet Tubman was one such example of a doubly dominsted human being who acted with extraordinary courage, intelligence and resilience to rescue other African-Americans from slavery. One can see this also in the tenacity and resourcefulness of Dolores Huerta, who organized farm workers alongside Cesar Chavez and even today--in her 90s-- continues her advocacy work. Parallels with Holocaust experiences of mothers also come to mind.

[21] Sometimes grief and anger over the suffering and death of their own children sparks advocacy for social and policy change. In interviewing parents for my book, Parent to Parent: Working Together for Ourselves and Our Children (Beacon Press, 1983), I listened to many parents describe their evolution into child and family advocacy from traumatic beginnings. The contemporary mobilization of parents around better policies to prevent school shootings is one example of this.

[22] Space constraints do not permit here a exploration of Miriam's roles once the migration had begun and during the long time in the wilderness. Yochaved also, If she participated in the migration, would have experienced moments of triumph and of challenge, as Moses, Aaron and Miriam struggled with leadership issues. Finally, the midwives would have been highly likely to participate in the migration, along with the families to whom they had been so heroically devoted. During such a long time in the wilderness, their midwifery skills would have likely been repeatedly called upon, under dry, dusty and dangerous conditions that would have required considerable female agency, adaptability and resourcefulness.