Summary

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant _________________________________________ Summary About the Author Book Reviews Discussion Questions Author Interview Further Reading

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Summary _____________________________________________ The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery. "Like any sisters who live together and share a husband, my mother and aunties spun a sticky web of loyalties and grudges," Anita Diamant writes in the voice of Dinah. "They traded secrets like bracelets, and these were handed down to me the only surviving girl. They told me things I was too young to hear. They held my face between their hands and made me swear to remember." Remembering women's earthy stories and passionate history is indeed the theme of this magnificent book. In fact, it's been said that The Red Tent is what the Bible might have been had it been written by God's daughters, instead of her sons. --Gail Hudson Source: www.amazon.com

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About the Author _____________________________________________ Anita Diamant is a prize-winning journalist whose work has appeared regularly in the Boston Globe Magazine and Parenting magazine. She is the author of five books about contemporary Jewish practice: Choosing a Jewish Life, Bible Baby Names, The New Jewish Baby Book, The New Jewish Wedding, and Living a Jewish Life (with H. Cooper). She lives in West Newton, MA, with her husband and daughter, Emilia, to whom the book is dedicated. Diamant says it was the relationship between Leah and Rachel that stimulated her thinking about The Red Tent. "The Biblical story that pits the two sisters against one another never sat right with me. The traditional view of Leah as the ugly and/or spiteful sister, and of Jacob as indifferent to her, seemed odd in light of the fact that the Bible gives them nine children together...As I re-read Genesis over the years, I settled on the story of Dinah, their daughter. The drama and her total silence (Dinah does not utter a single word in the Bible) cried out for explanation, and I decided to imagine one." Aiding her work was "midrash," the ancient and still vital literary form, which means "search" or "investigation." "Historically, the rabbis used this highly imaginative form of storytelling to make sense of the elliptical nature of the Bible-to explain, for example, why Cain killed Abel...The compressed stories and images in the Bible are rather like photographs. They don't tell us everything we want or need to know. Midrash is the story about what happened before and after the photographic flash." She points out that "The Red Tent is not a translation but a work of fiction. Its perspective and focus-by and about the female characters-distinguishes it from the Biblical account in which women are usually peripheral and often totally silent. By giving Dinah a voice and by providing texture and content to the sketchy Biblical descriptions, my book is a radical departure from the historical text." Source: www.bookbrowse.com

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Book Reviews _____________________________________________ Library Journal: Skillfully interweaving biblical tales with events and characters of her own invention, Diamant's (Living a Jewish Life, HarperCollins, 1991) sweeping first novel re-creates the life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth and happy childhood in Mesopotamia through her years in Canaan and death in Egypt. When Dinah reaches puberty and enters the Red Tent (the place women visit to give birth or have their monthly periods), her mother and Jacob's three other wives initiate her into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe. Diamant sympathetically describes Dinah's doomed relationship with Shalem, son of a ruler of Shechem, and his brutal death at the hands of her brothers. Following the events in Canaan, a pregnant Dinah travels to Egypt, where she becomes a noted midwife. Diamant has written a thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating portrait of a fascinating woman and the life she might have lived. Kirkus Reviews: Cubits beyond most Woman-of-the-Bible sagas in sweep and vigor, this fictive flight based on the Genesis mention of Dinah, offspring of Jacob and Leah, disclaims her as a mere ``defiled'' victim and, further, celebrates the ancient continuity and unity of women. Dinah was the cherished only daughter of ``four mothers,'' all of whom bore sons by Jacob. It is through daughters, though, that the songs, stories, and wisdom of the mothers and grandmothers are remembered. Dinah tells the mothers' tales from the time that that shaggy stranger Jacob appears in the land of his distant kin Laban. There are Jacob's marriages to the beautiful Rachel and the competent Leah, ``reeking of bread and comfort.'' Also bedded are Zilpah, a goddess worshipper who has little use for men, and tiny, dark, and silent Bilhah. Hard-working Jacob is considerate to the equally hard-working women, who, in the ``red tent''-where they're sequestered at times of monthly cycles, birthing, and illness--take comfort and courage from one another and household gods. The trek to Canaan, after Jacob outwits Laban, offers Dinah wonders, from that ``time out of life'' when the traveling men and women laugh and sing together, on to Dinah's first scent of a great river, ``heady as incense, heavy and dark.'' She observes the odd reunion of Jacob and Esau, meets her cruel and proud grandmother, and celebrates the women's rite of maturity. She also loves passionately the handsome Prince Shalem, who expects to marry her. Dinah's tale then follows the biblical account as Jacob's sons trick and then slaughter a kingdom. Diamant's Dinah, mad with grief, flees to Egypt, gives birth to a son, suffers, and eventually finds love and peace. With stirring scenery and a narrative of force and color, a readable tale marked by hortatory fulminations and voluptuous lamentations. For a liberal Bible audience with a possible spillover to the Bradley relationship. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. National Catholic Reporter "The best fiction reporters create a world and bathe us in its sounds and sights, its language and climate, the intricate relationships among its inhabitants. Anita Diamant has performed this wondrous craft: She has brought forth one of those books that appear effortless precisely because the writer has pondered even the length of breath between each character's words . . . This earthy, passionate tale, told also with great delicacy, is, quite simply, a great read." —Jane Redmont

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Discussion Questions _____________________________________________ 1. Read Genesis 34 and discuss how The Red Tent changes your perspective on Dinah’s story and also on the story of Joseph that follows. Does The Red Tent raise questions about other women in the Bible? Does it make you want to re-read the Bible and imagine other untold stories that lay hidden between the lines? 2. Discuss the marital dynamics of Jacob’s family. He has four wives; compare his relationship with each woman? 3. What do you make of the relationships among the four wives? 4. Dinah is rich in "mothers." Discuss the differences or similarities in her relationship with each woman. 5. Childbearing and childbirth are central to The Red Tent. How do the firtility childbearing and birthing practices differ from contemporary life? How are they similar? How do they compare with your own experiences as a mother or father? 6. Discuss Jacob’s role as a father. Does he treat Dinah differently from his sons? Does he feel differently about her? If so, how? 7. Discuss Dinah’s twelve brothers. Discuss their relationships with each other, with Dinah, and with Jacob and his four wives. Are they a close family? 8. Female relationships figure largely in The Red Tent. Discuss the importance of Inna, Tabea, Werenro, and Meryt. 9. In the novel, Rebecca is presented as an Oracle. Goddesses are venerated along with gods. What do you think of this culture, in which the Feminine has not yet been totally divorced from the Divine? How does El, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, fit into this? 10. Dinah’s point of view is often one of an outsider, an observer. What effect does this have on the narrative? What effect does this have on the reader? 11. The book travels from Haran (contemporary Iraq/Syria), through Canaan and into Shechem (Israel), and into Egypt. What strikes you about the cultural differences Dinah encounters vis-à-vis food, clothing, work, and male-female relationships. 12. In The Red Tent, we see Dinah grow from childhood to old age. Discuss how she changes and matures. What lessons does she learn from life? If you had to pick a single word to describe the sum of her life, what word would you choose? How would Dinah describe her own life experience? Source: readinggroupguides.com

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Author Interview _____________________________________________ Rebecca : Part of me really, really didn't want to go back to Genesis to watch the disappearing of those ancestresses - so much pain & anger, yet another part of me could not wait to be with Dinah & her mothers again. I came up in a Church of England society yet was always told I was a Jewess like Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe heroine. During an interview with Britain's biggest distillery, the personnel director informed me even though I was “one of The People of the Book” they would not allow me to observe my religious holidays - ah, the good old pre-PC days! I was an adopted war orphan being raised by a religiously mixed family - Jewish Father & a “nothing!”(her word) Mother. I had no idea of what I was. Anita : Rebecca, because of the press of time I simply cannot engage in your Interview process. I am, however, forwarding my most frequently asked questions(FAQ) in hopes they will satisfy you. I could answer two of your own questions. FAQ : What was the inspiration for The Red Tent? Anita : I had just turned 40, needed a new career challenge after writing non-fiction for 20-plus years, & turned to the most venerable source for story ideas: the Bible. Dinah's silence inspired me to tell the story from her perspective. FAQ : How did you do your research? Anita : My research focused on the everyday life of women in this period of history, in the ancient Near East. I did not study the Bible or rabbinic sources, but concentrated instead on the food, clothing, social organization, architecture, & medicine of the era (ca. 1500 BCE). I was the recipient of a library fellowship at Radcliffe College at the Schlesinger Library on the History of American Women, which permitted me access to the entire Harvard Library system. I also had access to the Brandeis library system, thanks to the women's studies department, which appointed me a visiting scholar for a year. FAQ : Was there really a red tent in ancient times? Anita : I did not find any evidence that women in this period of history in this place (ancient Iraq/Israel) used a menstrual tent. However, menstrual tents & huts are a common feature in premodern cultures around the world, from Native Americans, to Africans. The rendering of what happened inside that tent is entirely my own creation. FAQ : What exactly are the midwife's “bricks”?

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Anita : First off, these bricks have nothing to do with the reddish oblongs that comprise houses & fireplaces. Midwife's bricks, which I found mentioned in various historic sources, were probably flat & certainly large enough to stand on. There is some debate about what they were used for. They may have had a purely “magical” function, or they may have helped the laboring mother to keep her footing while she squatted to deliver her baby. FAQ : How long did it take you to write The Red Tent? Anita : It took me three years to write the book. While I worked on it, I also wrote a non-fiction book & articles for various magazines. FAQ :What is your work process? Anita : When I'm at home, I try to write most days. I have a home office, which is where I do most of my work. While writing The Red Tent, I also did some writing at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, which provided me with an office. I finished the manuscript in a rented vacation cottage in Gloucester, Massachusetts. FAQ : How is it that the female characters worship gods other than the god of Jacob? Anita : The Bible mentions the presence of “teraphim,” which are household idols/gods in the house of Laban. At the time of the story, a whole pantheon of gods & goddesses were worshipped. The notion of monotheism grew out of this context, in which the family god or El (a generic name for “god”) of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, co-existed with other gods. From a Jewish/Christian perspective, this is long before Sinai & the Ten Utterances, which command “You shall have no other gods before me.” Which is in itself a tantalizing nod to the existence of other deities. FAQ : What led you to characterize Rebecca as you did? Anita : The biblical character of Rebecca is that of a fierce, headstrong woman. She knows which of her sons is chosen by God, & she manipulates one son against the other, & deceives her husband. From that starting point, I pushed the character further, & made her a kind of oracle. FAQ : Why did you change the rape to a love affair? Anita : I could never reconcile the story of Genesis 34 with a rape, because the prince does not behave like a rapist! After the prince is said to have “forced” her (a determination made by the brothers, not by Dinah), he falls in love with her, asks his father to get Jacob's permission to marry her, & then agrees to the extraordinary, even grotesque demand that he & all the men of his community submit to circumcision. Furthermore, I wanted Dinah & all of the women in my story to be active agents in their own lives, not passive pawns or victims. FAQ : What is your religious/Jewish background?

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Anita : I did not a formal religious education as a child. My family did not affiliate with a synagogue until I was in high school, nor were we observant beyond lighting Hanukkah candles & holding an annual family seder. My Jewish education has been “remedial.” As an adult learner, I continue to study & explore the vast treasury of Jewish texts, literature, & culture. FAQ : Is The Red Tent going to be made into a movie? Anita : Movie rights of have been sold to Palomar Pictures, an independent film company in California. It is also available on audio tape, & in large print format. Foreign editions are available or forthcoming in 15 countries around the world, including: Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, & Sweden. FAQ : Are you writing another novel? Anita : Yes. I'm completing a second novel, set in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Obviously, not a sequel, this book tells a contemporary tale of women's friendship. Rebecca : As I read I kept getting the impression that women in ancient times were used to living in what we would call polygamy - one husband with many wives. During my years in the counter culture this was somewhat revived which had me I researching early Mormon religious life. When did Jews change to monotheism & why? Anita : I assume you mean “monogamy,” & not “monotheism.” I'm not sure of the answer, but I do know that the Ashkenazic Jews & Sephardic Jews came to this decision at different times: the Jews of Northern Africa had more than one wife for much longer than the Jews of Europe, reflecting, I'm sure, the custom of their respective host cultures. Rebecca : Oops - a Freudian slip slipped in! Do you think that modern women would benefit by a monthly retreat from the hurly-burly of daily life & could PMS be a symptom of ignoring the spiritual aspects of our cycles? Anita : Women need relaxation & rest, more than we get, regardless of where we are in our cycles. I do not have a comment about the connection of PMS to “the spiritual aspects of our cycles,” as I am always suspect about ascribing “causes” to biological phenomenon. Rebecca : Anita, you have transformed the quality of those ancient, primal stories & given me back a part of my psyche that I had not realized was lost, thank you. Blessings be upon your path. Of course the Union of American Hebrew Congregations would have a website - why would I think otherwise? I spent long minutes visiting them & remembering my years back in the 1960s in their Chicago offices & Wisconsin camp. Do check out my review of Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, you will be as impressed & inspired as I am. Source: www.rebeccasreads.com

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Further Reading _____________________________________________ Midwives by Christopher Bohjalian In the pastoral community of Reddington, Vermont, during the harsh winter of 1981, Sibyl Danforth makes a life-or-death decision based on fifteen years of experience as a respected midwife -- a decision intended to save a child, a decision that will change her life forever. In the midst of a brutally cold night, cut off from the area hospital and even from the rescue squad by an ice storm that has downed phone lines and made roads impassable, Sibyl feels she has no alternative except to attempt to save the baby of a woman in her care who she fears has died of a stroke during a long and difficult labor. Later that day, however, the midwife's assistant tells the police that she believes the mother was still very much alive when the cesarean section was performed in the cold and isolated farmhouse. Sarah by Orson Scott Card Sarai was a child of ten years, wise for her age but not yet a woman, when she first met Abram. He appeared before her in her father's house, filthy from the desert, tired and thirsty. But as the dirt of travel was washed from his body, the sight of him filled her heart. And when Abram promises Sarai to return in ten years to take her for his wife, her fate was sealed. Abram kept his promise, and Sarai kept hers they were wed, and so joined the royal house of Ur with the high priesthood of the Hebrews. So began a lifetime of great joy together, and greater peril: and with the blessing of their God, a great nation would be built around the core of their love. This is the first novel in Card’s Women of Genesis series. Queenmaker By India Edghill For over forty years, Michal lived and reigned in David's court. She was the beautiful and proud daughter of King Saul and the prize David would risk his kingdom to win. Behind the palace doors, beneath the burning sun of the desert, or fleeing from Absalom's warriors, Michal was at the center of court intrigues. Queenmaker introduces in unforgettable detail the characters of one of the greatest periods in Biblical history--their public deeds and private thoughts--and gives us the court of the kings as only a woman could see it. Magdalene by Angela Elwell Hunt The controversial woman with a past only one Man could forgive. A true love story that changed the face of history. “I was Miryam of Magdala, seller of fine fabrics and wife of Yaakov the fisherman. With my husband and son, I held a place of honor among my countrymen until a company of rogue soldiers took everything from me. I might not be Roman, but I knew injustice when I saw it. And I had been most grievously wronged.” In an era when women are sequestered and silenced, Miryam of Magdala lives a contended life until her son’s careless gesture evokes a hostile action that shatters her serenity. With no hope of justice, Miryam commits and unthinkable acts and descends into depths of darkness that threaten her life and her sanity. Unveiled by Francine Rivers Unveiled is the story of Tamar, one of the women in the lineage of Jesus. Francine brings the story to life in her trademark style, showing the grace of God in the life of Tamar and her father-in-law, Judah. Unveiled is the first in the Lineage of Grace series of five novellas covering the stories of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Sources: Novelist and Barnes&Noble.com 9