Solomon's wisdom. And Sarah's

This translation proves that a pronoun can be more powerful than a sword in restoring dignity to the tale of two misunderstood mothers.

Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined. This week I continue my tightrope walk: translating Sarah’s story from the biblical Hebrew, verse by verse, in public view. Last time we opened our eyes to a new perspective on Sarah’s actions when she made a difficult and controversial decision. This week we’ll discover the power of a pronoun. (In this case a demonstrative, not a gender, pronoun will strengthen our mission of restoring the power of the feminine to this story.)

But first!

Here’s an update on my translation journey:

As those who’ve been following along already know, I began this translation project about a year ago as a woman of a certain age who has the Hebrew prowess of a 6th Grade Hebrew School dropout.

Meaning: I took a deep dive into a subject despite possessing precious few of the necessary language skills.

But what I lack in that respect, I make up for in persistence and enthusiasm. Which seems to be paying off — because as of this week I am now a student in the fourth and final level of my Biblical Hebrew year-long certification course with the Jewish Theological Seminary.

I am still in waters way over my head, but I continue swimming along through the verses.

(If you’re imagining me executing a graceful glide through the sea, I am duty-bound to disabuse you of that image. Instead, picture a lot of graceless splashing about as I struggle through pronunciation and vocabulary and make my way, word-by-word, toward the shore!)

Nonetheless, I am overjoyed to have made it this far thanks to having a patient and generous rabbi as my teacher and a class full of students whose dedication and knowledge inspire me to keep going!

For some context on how and why I’m translating Sarah’s story from biblical Hebrew into poetic English, start here.

And now for today’s installment.

This, that, and the other:

notes on ‘That woman’ aka Hagar, the other mother (Gen. 21:10)

To review: We are in the part of the story where Sarah tells Abraham to send Hagar and her son away, thus casting them out into the desert, and a very precarious future. You can read the previous installment my translation of this story here.

וַתֹּ֙אמֶר֙ לְאַבְרָהָ֔ם גָּרֵ֛שׁ הָאָמָ֥ה הַזֹּ֖את וְאֶת־בְּנָ֑הּ כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יִירַשׁ֙ בֶּן־הָאָמָ֣ה הַזֹּ֔את עִם־בְּנִ֖י עִם־יִצְחָֽק׃ Gen. 21:10

And she said to Avraham, “Send away that slave woman and her son because the son of that slave will not inherit with my son, with Yitzhak.” Gen. 21:10, Tzivia’s direct translation

My poetic translation:

And she cried, “Avraham, you must send her away!

Hagar, our maid, and her boy. Both must be cast out.

Don’t you see? Her child cannot inherit with my son

My son, Yitzhak.

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Two tales of two mothers

A single word, a pronoun, turns out to be more powerful than a sword. (Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash)

‎In translating this verse I hovered over the phrase h’amah hazot, commonly translated as this slave, or this bondwoman.

I’ll explore each of these words and explain my reasons for the choices I made in my restorative translation in today’s post, and in another post next time.

That’s right! I’m writing two posts to explain a handful of words. Why? Because within these few words I discovered a world of possibility for the relationship between Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham; possibilities that have the power to uncover new layers of complexity, humanity, and a path toward increased humanity in this contentious moment when Sarah exiles Hagar and Ishmael to the dangerous desert wilderness.

Today, we’ll explore the power of a single pronoun.

Why do I put part of my posts behind a paywall? Because I hope one day to publish this work, and if I share it now with all 2,100+ of you, my cherished subscribers, it will be considered ‘previously published’ and this work will have a harder time finding its way into the wider world. PLUS: What I’m doing here is difficult, time consuming (and joyful and groundbreaking!) work. As a paid subscriber you help to support this project.