Tzivia University
When I stopped wringing my hands over the degrees I lack, I remembered that Sarah's story belongs to us all. Plus I'm trying my hand at translation, and offering new classes.
🙋🏻♀️ Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined. Keep reading for this week’s poem, and opportunities to learn and write together. This newsletter is free. But when you upgrade to the paid version you receive bonus content, including a signed copy of my book, Dreaming on the Page.
Hello Friend,
When I started this online publication last year, I did a lot of handwringing over whether I was qualified to write about Sarah’s story.
After all, my formal Jewish education ended with 6th Grade Hebrew School. And although I studied the Holocaust (specifically Jewish women’s resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto) in college, I am no expert in modern or ancient Jewish History.
I lack any scholarly credentials in Archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, or Theology, all topics that might earn me the “right” to write about Sarah.
I was so focused on the expertise I lacked that I almost gave up.
Then I remembered:
These stories were never intended for academics and scholars. The archetypal energy, ancient knowledge, and earth-based feminine wisdom they contain belong to me and you as well as to priests and rabbis. The Jewish tradition even encourages us to interpret them for ourselves.
That’s empowering!
At the same time, I’m also humbled by all that there is to learn. And I’m deeply grateful for the seriousness and care with which our ancestors have studied, interpreted, preserved, and protected them so these wisdom-packed stories could reach us today.
Now I’m taking yet another step forward with humility and courage: I’m offering a course about what I’m learning so you can come along on this journey with me.
Last call to join
This brand-new writing workshop where you can find your meaning in Sarah’s story starts next week!
🫅🏽Want to turn traditional texts inside out to find the feminine wisdom that was there all along?
👩🏻💻 Are you curious about how to use poetry to reimagine Sarah’s story (or that of any of the biblical Matriarchs)?
📝 Want to write your way into a new and updated perspective on ancient stories?
🙋🏻♀️ Join me and find your place in the ancient texts.
😇 Everyone is welcome, no matter your faith tradition, experience with poetry, or knowledge of Sarah’s story.
In this 4-week course, we reclaim the stories of Sarah and the Hebrew matriarchs through poetic writing.
Word of the week and this week’s poem
It’s been almost 30 years since I earned my last formal degree. Since then I’ve earned three certifications: Certified Dreamwork Professional, Reiki Master Teacher, and Certified Proprioceptive Writing Instructor
And in the last couple of years, since starting The Life of H I’ve also taken online courses on topics including:
The Hebrew Goddess
Jewish Mysticism
Jewish Poetic Forms
Plus I’ve joined peer study groups on the weekly Torah Portion, the stories in Genesis, writing from a Jewish perspective, and more.
Most recently I enrolled in a 4-level Biblical Hebrew Certificate Course through the Jewish Theological Seminary.
My goal is to learn to translate Sarah’s story for myself. (Wish me luck! Learning languages has never been my strong suit.)
It will be some time before I can competently translate Sarah’s story. So, to write this week’s poem I chose two lines of text and compared 26 different translations. The lines I used from Genesis 12 read:
“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.”
By incorporating repetition and slight alterations in word choice from the diverse translations, this week’s poem invites you to pause and consider how meaning shifts and changes.
Listen to the poem
“Translations” ©️ Copyright Tzivia Gover, Third House Moon, LLC, all Rights Reserved.
I’m dreaming with you,
PS: If dreams and writing are your thing, you might also be interested in a new series of mini-workshops I’m offering through my other online publication, This Dream is a Poem.
