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at The 92nd Street Y, New York. Supported by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Apr 07, 2011
Professor Wiesel seeks to draw lessons from the portion of the Prophets that contains the story of the judge Deborah, which he always chants on the shabbat before his Yahrzeit for his father. Since little is known of Deborah, Professor Wiesel situates her in place and time and also within the context of women in Jewish biblical history. Deborah’s story involves three other personae: the hesitant Jewish General Barak; the gigantic enemy, the Canaanite commander Sisera, and another heroine, the Kenite beauty, Yael. Deborah united the people, transmitted God’s orders to Barak to go to war and joined Barak at the front. The Talmud compares the song of the crossing of the Red Sea with the Song of Deborah. In both instances, God performed miracles to save the Jews. Professor Wiesel tells us that the drama “reads like a classical movie, with at the center, not James Bond but, listen...” Professor Wiesel reads how Yael enticed Sisera into her tent, gave him milk to drink so that he would sleep, and then hammered a peg into his temple. Professor Wiesel informs us that each time he chants this haftarah and he reaches the climax of Sisera’s mother anguishing over her son, he is overcome by melancholy. Questioning what Sisera’s mother had done to deserve such punishment, Professor Wiesel posits that this is a story of warfare and bloodshed that invisibly and imperceptibly links one mother to another, one human being to all others.
Explore The Book of Judges, 4-5 on Sefaria, a living library of Torah.
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