Contemporary midrashim are often the province of women writing about women. One capable practitioner of the art is Michal Lemberger, a nonfiction writer, poet, and journalist, as well as a teacher of Tanakh as literature.
Inspired by the Book of Ruth— which, among biblical books, is unusual for the centrality of female characters and its happy ending—she has crafted compelling, beautifully written stories about biblical women we’ve heard of but may know rela – tively little about. One such woman is famous but nameless—Lot’s wife.
A few reviewers have stated inaccurately that Lem – berger chose obscure characters, but she writes that she imagined herself into “characters and situations that are well known, but from an angle that, I suspect, most have never considered.”
Lemberger asks why these women did what they did and what might have been if they had made other choices. In short, how much power did they have over the events surrounding them? She asks, for example, how Eve feels after the murder of Abel—hence the title of the short-story collection. She envisions how Lot’s wife tries to prevent her husband’s reckless offer of his daughters to the mob in Sodom and how Miriam interacts with Pha – raoh’s daughter, who saves the baby Moses.
Three stories are particularly intriguing. The one about Hagar reinterprets why she decides to return to her mis – tress, Sarah, beyond the angel’s command. The story of Michal is particularly lyrical. David abandons his first wife when escaping from her father, Saul. Eventually he comes back for her, but only after she has found appar – ent happiness in a second (if not halakhic) marriage with Palti. The lovelorn Palti is one of the few male characters in the collection.
Then there is Lemberger’s new interpretation of the motivation of Zeresh, Haman’s wife. Without wanting to give away anything, I would say it concerns another female character in the Book of Esther.
The book’s only flaw is its somewhat monotonic qual – ity. There are fewer dramatic highs and lows than one might expect, given the material.
No matter how imaginative a journey Lemberger has taken with these midrashim, she declares herself commit – ted to ending the stories in the same way they ended in the Tanakh, so as to be true to the characters and the biblical narratives. Thus, the stories are feminist, but not radically so.
Lemberger does the reader an added service by enclosing the biblical verses connected to each story. Zil gemor. Go and learn.