In the book Conceived in Hope: The Struggles of Biblical Mothers in the Tapestry of Redemption, author Chana Tannenbaum quotes Prof. Uriel Simon of Bar-Ilan University as saying, “The Bible names 1,426 men and only 177 women so that women constitute just 12.4% of the names that appear in the Bible.”
Some of the women who appear in Hebrew scripture, such as Miriam the prophetess (Exodus); Rahab the harlot (Joshua 2); and Deborah the judge (Judges 4), are known for roles other than mothering, but most stories of women in the Tanach revolve around their role as mothers.
This is true whether they are initially barren, give birth to children they lose or for whom they have to fight, or give birth to children who become part of the process of redemption.
The stories of biblical women
Tannenbaum divides Conceived in Hope into four sections. Each contains the stories of four biblical women and their relationship to mothering, and concludes with a personal story of a contemporary woman who has struggled with the same issue as the biblical women.
Each chapter begins with a connection to a non-biblical source, ranging from the early 20th-century poetry of Rachel Bluwstein, the Russian-born poet who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1909 and wrote poems in Hebrew, to an episode of Seinfeld. Then, Tannenbaum reviews the biblical story in context before delving into the personality of the specific woman on whom the chapter is focused and her relationship to being a mother.
Some of the women she writes about, such as the biblical matriarchs, are initially barren but ultimately bear at least one child; some, like King David’s first wife, Michal, never give birth; and others, like the two mothers in the famous story about King Solomon, who proposes cutting a baby in half (I Kings 3), must fight for or lose their children.
Still others give birth to children who, in Tannenbaum’s words, would “play a role in the salvation of the world.”
Though there are at least a dozen books that tell the stories of women in the Hebrew Bible, Tannenbaum includes some women rarely written about, such as the wife of Obadiah (II Kings 4); King Saul’s concubine, Rizpah (II Samuel 21); and the murderous, wicked Athaliah, queen of Judea (II Kings 11).
Other stories, such as that of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel; and Ruth, the heroine of Shavuot, are much more familiar to the average biblically knowledgeable reader. Yet, even with the more familiar stories, Tannenbaum deepens our understanding of them by culling from a wide range of classic rabbinic and contemporary sources.
For example, it is somewhat well known that Moses was born on the 7th of Adar. Tannenbaum brings Exodus Rabbah as a source to demonstrate “that the date that Batya rescues Moses is the sixth of Sivan, which corresponds with the date that the Jews received the Torah at Mount Sinai.”
She also adds some of her own novel interpretations, such as “The Isaac/Rebecca dynamic echoes the Abraham/Sarah dynamic. Abraham’s kindness is reined in by Sarah’s strength, and Isaac’s strength is balanced by Rebecca’s kindness.”
Insights from biblical women
In her conclusion, Tannenbaum reflects on the lessons we can learn from each of these biblical personalities.
She writes, for example, “From the barren mothers, we learn different ways of dealing with adversity, and we learn about the roles women can play as parents and influencers. Hazlelponi [the mother of Samson, whose story is told in Judges 13] teaches that women have superior insight, the ability to see and understand events in a way that is different from men. Hannah teaches about the necessity of partnering with God…”
The book’s highlights can be found in Tannenbaum’s own insights. One example is her comparison of the women whose interconnected stories are all related to the birth of King David and his descendant, the future Messiah, for whom Jews have been waiting for thousands of years. They are Lot’s daughters (Genesis 9); Judah’s daughter-in-law, Tamar (Genesis 38); and Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth.
Nevertheless, the author doesn’t automatically assume that her readers are already familiar with the biblical stories.
The book’s final chapter is a must-read in which Tannenbaum skillfully connects the women of the Bible to the eternal story of Jerusalem.
The writer is a freelance journalist and expert on the non-Jewish awakening to Torah happening in our day. She is the editor of Ten From The Nations and Lighting Up The Nations.
CONCEIVED IN HOPE: THE STRUGGLES OF BIBLICAL MOTHERSIN THE TAPESTRY OF REDEMPTION By Chana Tannenbaum251 pages; $35
