In this highly readable volume, Sandra Rapoport retells and explores six biblical episodes in which the sexuality of the female characters is “used or abused.” The women in the stories vary, but all have, in the author’s words, “stepped outside their expected roles.” The stories are those of Lot and his daughters, Dinah and Shechem, Judah and Tamar, David and Batsheva, Amnon and Tamar, and Ruth and Boaz. The book is a fascinating weave of traditional commentary— incorporating Talmudic and midrashic sources—and modern scholarship. Rapoport suggests that there is a group of women in Tanakh who engage in sexually audacious behavior—including aggressive seduction, incest, and/or adultery—who are not condemned in the biblical text, but are actually rewarded with sons who are prophets and kings, who continue the Davidic dynasty and who become forebears of the Messiah.
But Rapoport does not ignore the nuances of each case. In a searching and detailed exploration of the episode involving Batsheva, for instance, Rapoport carefully considers the view suggested by some that Batsheva initiated her own seduction or at least was partially responsible for it; she then dismisses the theory as not supported by the text and lays the blame totally on the king. In discussing the story of Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Rapoport underlines how Tamar, unlike precious victims of abduction, spoke to her attacker and tried to deflect him from his actions. In addition to offering a deep reading of the sources, the narratives are enriched by Rapoport’s background as an attorney specializing in sexual harassment cases.