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Reading The Text: Samuel I, Chapter 1: III: Peninah & Hannah |
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Written by Michael Linetsky
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 The Foundation Stone is honored and thrilled to present this new series Reading The Text by Michael Linetsky: The purpose of this column is to explore the literary art of the
Scripture. The Biblical narrative says much more than what its explicit words express. An entire subliminal story runs in parallel with the superficial story line. Unlike the latter, the former can only been read by listening, not to what the text say, but what it could have said and did not, as well. In this column we intend to bring to the fore some of the hidden story in the Scripture.
Reading The Text I: Peninah and Hannah (v.2)
Elkanah has two wives at this stage in his life: Hannah and Peninah. The two women are presented along with his genealogy and his origin as mere attributes of the man. They are not women with a self-sufficient existence but wives of Elkanah. As silent and as vague as Elkanah maybe as a persona in the narrative the women of his household still retain their immutable status in the Patriarchal hierarchy and are therefore expressed in relation to him.
We recall Ruth, another well known woman in the Bible, in a very similar situation. Ruth’s husband Elimelech dies right at the outset of the story. (Ruth 1:2) She is the obvious protagonist while Elimelech is
questionably even a character in the story. Still, the Book of Ruth, adhering to the principles of the Patriarchal hierarchy, presents her in relation to her husband.
According to Pesikta Rabbathi Hannah was Elkanah’s first wife. However, the narrative itself does not necessarily disclose the order of the wives’ matrimony. The listing of the women starts with the cardinal number ‘one’ (‘ehad’) and is followed by the ordinal ‘second’ (‘shenith’). This type of listing is used when no order is intended. Pharaoh’s Hebrew midwives are listed in a similar fashion: “the name of the first (‘ahath’) Shiphra and the name of the second (‘shenith’) Pu’ah” (Ex. 1:15).
There is simply no reason to believe that one of the midwives precedes the other in any manner. The listing of the midwives should simply be understood as “One was named Shiphra and the other was named Pu’ah” without any sense of sequence.
About The Author :
Michael Linetsky, attended YU, has studied and written numerous articles on the philosophy of Rav Saadiah Gaon, Ibn Ezra and Medieval Judaeo-Arabic biblical exegesis. His books: "Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Creation", and "Rabbi Saadiah Gaon's commentary on Genesis" was published by Jason Aronson. He is currently working on the Jerusalem Talmud and Halachic Midrashim in order to investigate its phenomenology. He is married to Sharona Glecer and has three children Yossi, Shmuel and Devorah.
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