I'm sitting here now in the apartment of Professor Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, and Dr. Eskenazi is Professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. And Professor Eskenazi is perfect for the week, the topics that we're dealing with this week. You've written on the post-exilic period, your book, In an Age of Prose, deals with Ezra Nehemiah and the wonderful dynamics of how Ezra Nehemiah works as literature and the new emphasis and this new age that begins after The Exile. You've also written most recently a commentary on the Book of Ruth, which won a big prize, and then also, of course, your big commentary. The name of it is the- >> The Torah Women's Commentary. >> Torah Women's Commentary, the Torah Women's Commentary, and also, a very important work. Now, because you deal with so many different issues that we're dealing with this week, I would want to talk to you about the Book of Ruth and the role women play within the post-exilic age. The book of Ruth is often thought to have emerged in the post-exilic period, is that correct? >> Right, right, right. >> What's it tell about, though, the book of Ruth is set in an age where it's not the post-exilic age. >> Right, it tells the story of what happened during the time of the judges, but as you read the book you come to the end of it, and you learn from it that the time of the writing is much, much later. So much later that the writer has to explain the customs to the audience, to say, well, this is how they used to do in the old days. >> And it's set within the days of the judges, right? >> The story is supposedly taking place in the time of the Judges, but the book itself comes from the post-exilic period. >> And, in comparison to the Book of Judges, it's a much different type of story. >> Yes, very different. The Book of Judges is a war book, where violence and danger loom everywhere you go, and the judges themselves are really warriors. Whereas, once you come to the Book of Ruth, you have a whole new other concept of where the agenda is, where the issue is. >> What is that, what is that new concept, what are some of the- >> The domestic, the family become the center of life >> Women who are usually kept in the shadow in other documents and other texts are suddenly at the center of the story. >> And why do you think that's happening in the post-exilic period that the literature that it's even being told about in earlier period is kind of re-imagining that period with a life centers around the family? What would cause that? >> Well, I've been really inspired by your work on the subject. >> [CROSSTALK] That's why I ask you the question, I'm feeling you. >> Yes I, you convinced me completely. There is a change in a change in conceptualizing what counts as power, what counts as heroism. And even though the home was always important, it only becomes a recognized arena of where the action is in the post era once you move away- >> Well, why do you think in the post period? What happens in the post period That would make that the case. >> You don't have the national sovereignty. You're basically a colonized people. You're living under the imperial power of Persia. >> And that makes the family more important? In what way? >> No, the family was always important. >> Okay. But now heroism and the model of what it is to count as an important person, moves away from the public arena, or the the battlefield if you will, into the home. And a person's worth is measured by how he, and she, function in the home. And you have a very beautiful example with Boaz. One of the main characters in the book is a man named Boaz. And he's introduced as [FOREIGN], which usually translated elsewhere in the Bible as A man of great, a great warrior. But this man in this world, he's not a warrior. These words that elsewhere signal a soldier on the field. Here they speak about a man whose great act of. Power is that he welcomes the Widow and the Stranger and the poor Woman and Ruth and takes her under his care. >> I mentioned that, and I learned that from you, I mentioned that in our lessons this week and so the book of Ruth is situated in the cannon >> As part of what's called the writings. >> The writings [INAUDIBLE] The writings and those are 11 books that are all presumably finally shaped into [INAUDIBLE] >> And one of those other books within that corpus of the canon >> Is Proverbs. Initially Proverbs has also some similar things you were telling me about before so what's the last chapter of the book of Proverbs is very similar to the Boaz. Let me backtrack a moment and say there are 11 books in Ketuvim, six of them have women at the center. >> Wow. >> Were very, very prominent, that's a huge percentage. >> And people, the scholars, archaeologists seem to agree that the Ketuvim are, in many ways >> Forming at the last stage of the canon, right? >> Right, post exilic, post exilic period. >> Okay, so women play a big role within this collection of writing? >> Yes, yes, women become really important, so back to Proverbs. Proverbs is really framed with women. >> Mm-hm. >> Right in the first chapter you read something that is quite astonishing. >> It says heed the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother. The word teaching is Torah, so it says do not forsake the Torah of your mother. Elsewhere, the only figures who dispense Torah are God Moses and the priests, and here twice in the Book of Proverbs it's the mother who dispenses Tova. >> Tova being what? >> The teachings. >> The teachings, okay. >> The authoritative teaching. >> Okay, and here we have something quite new that it's the father and the mother who are dispensing this, teaching this divine wisdom. >> And the word is such a powerful, loaded word in the Bible, and then the book ends With the great chapter that describes a woman of valor. Again the word [FOREIGN] just as. >> What's she called in Hebrew? >> [FOREIGN] >> [FOREIGN] just like [FOREIGN]. >> So woman of. >> But [FOREIGN]. >> [FOREIGN] >> And corresponding it means a woman, how would you translate that? >> I would translate it, a woman of valor, a woman of power, and it describes. >> What are some of the things they have said about this woman of valor? >> She does everything. >> Yeah, like what? >> She is a farmer, she's a weaver. She is an administrator, she is a business woman. >> She does it all. >> She does it all, and she's very precious, and the song, it's almost a poem, celebrates her. >> Yeah. >> And throughout the book of proverbs, the man is instructed that the most important decision of his life other than >> His relation to God is the woman in his life. >> Elsewhere Protestant >> Throughout Protestant. >> Throughout Protestant. >> [CROSSTALK] A man's fortune. >> And then choose the woman. >> Choose the right woman, the right woman is your success- >> And so- >> The wrong. >> [CROSSTALK]. The book climaxes with this final chapter and praise of her. >> Yeah. >> Now some of the feminists biblical scholars have a problem with that. >> Sure. >> What is their issue? >> Well there are a couple of problems with it and I've gone back and forth, I used to hate that chapter. >> Yeah, yeah. >> And I came to appreciate it, A because- >> It valorizes woman for being a person who contributes in so many ways. We know she's a mother, but it's not about her children. We know she's a wife, but it's not about her wifehood. She's really a person who gives a great deal to the community and has authority. She makes decisions, she contributes, she gives charity, she's in charge, not only feminist, all kinds of women object because she works too hard. Who wants to work too hard? And the problem is, her husband, we are told sits at the gate. >> Yeah. >> She does all the work that's not such a happy picture, wanting to do half the job today. >> Is there a way of seeing the positively or more sympathetically. >> Well, I see positively is an image of women of power, of a woman who is not only doing everything, because women have been doing these things all along >> But she's celebrated, she's acknowledged, she's affirmed as the most precious element in a person's life, so that's new. >> So it's all wonderful to see how the wisdom teachings of this can section called is really >> Very much shaped by the role women play, with the climax being this praise of this valorous woman. >> Yeah, and you have Esther, another powerful woman, and Ruth. >> Let's wrap up a little here, and we'll pursue a couple more things related to women within the okay?
