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Who is the Mother of Israel?

In the Hebrew Bible, God’s love is maternal.
©grandfailure/stock.adobe.com
©grandfailure/stock.adobe.com
Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich is a Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She is the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and the director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016), and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018), which received the 2019 AJL Judaica Reference

“Jewish identity is often understood through the lens of rituals that were developed and practiced primarily by men. This understanding risks placing women on the margins of Jewish life. Narratives in the Hebrew Bible, however, align the central experiences of the people of Israel with female experiences. These experiences are often the primary lens through which God, nationhood, and teaching all are understood. A closer look at these narratives can radically shift our understanding of what it means to be an observant Jew.”

Read he full article in The Christian Century.

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