Ah. Writing on Shabbat–that is, the Jewish Sabbath. That is a serious sin. Yet I have been negligent so long in working on the sales-side of this book. There are some things which may interest the reader of The Bible According to Eve, my book–assuming such a reader exists. I wrote my book believing that though the real Hebrew Bible is always relevant, perhaps in today’s society we have forgotten why. After all, the Talmud says that God speaks to each generation according to how they can hear God. One generation receives the Bible, another generation receives the Mishna, another the Talmud, and so on. And God speaks to each generation a little differently. Of course, I do not pretend that God spoke directly to me. Only that I wanted to say something unique about God.
One of my favorite philosophical books is Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. It says–among other things–that God is Pure Spirit, and that when we hear such words as ‘a savory smell unto the Lord’ we are not to read it literally. However, I believe that without being obsolete, Maimonides is no longer at the cutting edge of Jewish philosophy–if such a thing be allowed to exist–but that while Jewish thinkers like Heschel speak, they speak in the Prophetic vein–very motivated by the morality of the Prophets, but less interested in preserving a place for the sceptics in the hearts of those who do not already believe.
Now, I do not claim that “The Bible According to Eve” has any evidence for the doubting soul about God’s existence. Yet it seeks to answer a question equally deep: what is the place of Womankind in God’s Word–if the Bible may be called that? Many feminists–or even women who simply work for a living–wonder what God can mean to them. They see God as Patriarchal, and yet they do not want to say that “there is nobody out there” or “there is no transcendence.” This book is for them. This book tries to find God in the Women’s stories of Scripture. However unfair the writers of the Bible appear at time towards Women, Women were relevant to the Biblical Writers. And perhaps in that the Bible is still relevant to Women, even feminists, today. Women pray as much as Men. They deserve to be honored as much.
This is a re-published piece because I have finally gotten my author’s page and my blog in line so one had the other on it.