Friday, October 24, 2008

Genesis 35, or, "Everybody Dies"

Okay, not "everybody," but quite a few.

Namely, Rachel, Isaac, and a bunch of innocent townsfolk.

With Jacob's sons having just slaughtered every man in a nearby ruling tribe, God decides that it's time for him and his family to get the heck out of Dodge. God tells Jacob to flee to Bethel, the site where the stairway to Heaven was revealed to him (See Genesis 28). Jacob packs his family up and they hightail it out of there.

Just to make sure nobody follows them, God then kills everybody in the nearby towns.

Okay, to be fair, this is my interpretation of this passage. The actual verse reads: "the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." I suppose you could take this as meaning that God spared their lives, yet paralyzed them with fear. Kind of like Gotham City at the end of Batman Begins. If God were Scarecrow, the villain.

Anyway.

Jacob and his family vamoose. On their way to Bethel, Rachel dies while giving birth to one last son, Benjamin. And then, when the family reaches Bethel, Isaac dies as well.

---

FYI: Rachel's tomb is still in existence and is the third holiest site in Judaism. You can visit a website about it HERE. There, you can learn more about the tomb, buy a pizza for an Israeli soldier, or, if your name happens to be Rachel, sign up for their project to collect the names of every Rachel in the world. Mazel tov!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Genesis 34, or, "The Bible Suddenly Turns Into a Frank Miller Comic"

Jacob's sons go vigilante

One day, Jacob's daughter Dinah walked off into the area around their home to mingle with the other women of the land. While out, she caught the eye of the local ruler Shechem, who took her and "violated" her. He took a shine to her (he's a big romantic, evidently), and not quite understanding that this isn't the proper way to court a woman, he and his father Hamor go to see Jacob about a possible marriage between the couple.

By the time Shechem and Hamor arrive, Jacob and his sons have already learned of what happened to Dinah. Shechem is willing to offer them anything in exchange for a marriage with Dinah. Jacob's sons tell him that if he and all the males of his family get circumcised (again, a sign of one's pact with the God of Abraham), then they will give their sister over to him. Shechem accepts their terms and wasting no time he goes off and circumcises himself and the men of his family.

I imagine that recovery from a modern circumcision must be painful, so I can't even begin to think of what it must have been like back in the Biblical days (no anesthetic!). While the guys are all nursing their manhoods back to health, Jacob's sons seize the opportunity to invade Shechem's home, kill all the men in his family and ransack all their stuff.

There ain't no turning the other cheek about it. This is blood-thirsty revenge.

Pop Cultural References to Genesis 34: The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont. A book based (loosely) on the story of Dinah.

Monday, October 20, 2008

GENESIS 33, or, "Brotherly Love"

JACOB: "Dude, my bad."
ESAU: "No dude, seriously, totally my bad."


After worrying and worrying about how his brother will accept him, Jacob finally meets with Esau. To Jacob's surprise, Esau greets him with a warm embrace, and the two brothers are moved to tears by their reconciliation. All past transgressions between them are forgotten.

That's about the long and the short of this chapter. I've mentioned before how warring brothers is emerging as a theme in Genesis, and here with Jacob and Esau we have the first time that a pair of siblings have resolved their rivalry amiably. We'll have to see what happens with Jacob's son Joseph to discover if this is Genesis' last word on fraternal relations.

BONUS:
Celebrate Jacob and Esau's reunion with this nifty online coloring book!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

GENESIS 32, or, "Wrestlemania"

Jacob heads back home, brawls with the All-Mighty

You may remember from Genesis 27 that Jacob had to flee his home because his brother, Esau, was threatening to kill him. Well, now that Jacob is going home again he thinks things might still be a little awkward between him and his sibling. Jacob sends people ahead of him to shower Esau with gifts to butter him up and hopefully hedge that murderous rage that's been building up for the last several decades.

When Jacob is left alone a man comes and wrestles with him. They fight until the dawn, when Jacob finally pins the man down and demands a blessing. The man turns out to be an angel of God (or perhaps even God himself), so the man/angel/God blesses Jacob and gives him a new name.

As I have written before, there are several interpretations to this passage, but the one I like most is that the chapter is urging us to question and "wrestle" with the ideas of the Bible. It's a story about the importance of struggling toward meaning.

Are You Ready to Rumble?:
Come to fisticuffs with God like Jacob did in this nifty flash game! Watch your hip!