Abi Doukhan

Genesis 3:16b has traditionally been interpreted as proof of woman’s inferiority, her nefarious powers of seduction, and as a license for men to rule and master her. Such an interpretation seems to have a much greater affinity with the Hellenistic context from which it arose than with its immediate Hebraic and Ancient Near Eastern context. If we are to remain faithful to this context—where woman was held in high esteem—we need more than ever to approach Genesis 3:16b with a lens that does not do violence to the woman. A new exegetical lens on Genesis 3:16b is needed, one that is redemptive rather than punitive. This will entail that the two key concepts “rule” (mashal) and “loving intention” (teshuqah) be re-interpreted from a Hebrew inter-textual perspective rather than through a Greek philosophical lens, as well as read in light of the immediate context of God’s words to the serpent and to the man, which frame the woman’s “curse.” This Special Issue is a compilation of audacious, imaginative, and courageous readings of this text by scholars coming from very different worlds. In this Special Issue, traditional approaches to the text coexist with critical ones, Jewish interpreters grapple alongside Christian ones, and male commentators are in dialogue with female ones, giving rise to a rich and complex tapestry of significations of the ancient “curse” of woman, and breaking new ground in the understanding of woman, of man, and of gender relations.

Ever since the sexual revolution when it was determined that woman would no longer passively submit to the rigid and degrading roles inflicted upon her by patriarchy, woman has been searching for new ways to express herself and individuate as a woman. Womanhood has been in the making since then and the exploration of the endless possibilities that are open for a woman to express herself as a woman has been exhilarating. This introduction situates the book in this movement of exploration as well as explores the genre of wisdom literature to which the Song of Songs belongs.

This chapter develops a sense of self which is indissociable from its intrinsic generosity and responsibility toward the other. This section attempts a commentary on the metaphor of the “vineyard” which, in the Song of Songs, refers to the woman’s sexuality. I show how this metaphor is used in a subversive way in our text so as to describe a novel form of freedom as consisting in being-for the other, but not in a way that is submissive or alienating, rather one that is in tune with the Shulamite’s deepest longings and desires. I conclude with a reflection on virginity as a gift of self rather than as a state of being that can be altered/taken/marred by someone else.

Having explored the implications of experiencing one’s femininity as a form of generosity of self, a gift of self that is whole-hearted and generous, I then explore, in this chapter, the structure of this gift. There is an art of giving of oneself that must be rediscovered. This is the art form that is implied in the Shulamite’s repeated warning to the daughters of Jerusalem to “not arouse or awaken love until it is ready.” This warning constitutes a sharp contrast with the generally sensual and reckless lovemaking of the Song. From this contrast, I show that two voices of wisdom are to be heard in our text: That of sensuality and that of discretion, and that the art of seduction hangs precisely on the ability to protect the delicate balance between these two voices.

The rediscovery of the voice of discretion then leads to a discussion on patience in this chapter. This section is a commentary on what constitutes the heart of the book, the failed rendez-vous between the man and the woman described in chapter five. One wonders why a failed encounter would be placed at the center of our text. Yet, there is wisdom to be gathered from this failure too, the first of which is the realization of the essential differences between the woman and the man’s timing. One of the partners is inexorably slower than the other. In our text this difference in timing leads to a failed encounter, but it need not be so in real life. The hidden lesson of our text is one of patience.

A reading of the Song which does not include a note on its traditional mystical interpretation would not be complete. And so, in this chapter, I suggest an alternative mystical reading of our Song. While traditional mystical readings have interpreted our Song as playing out the deeper drama of a romance between God (the man) and his people (the woman), I suggest in this chapter that God is better embodied by the woman of our Song than by the man. Doing this, however, reveals a whole new facet of the persona of God. No more endowed with the traditional male traits of aggressivity, power and control, we meet, through the traits of this African woman, a passionate, reckless, yet shy God.

This chapter is attentive to the teachings on sexuality whispered between the lines uttered by the lovers to each other. There is a genuine art of sex to be discovered in the Song of Songs and it is this art that I shall attempt to unveil in this chapter. I show, moreover, that in the Song, pleasure is inseparable from ethics and love. Indeed, the more ethical and loving the sexual behavior, the more pleasure is to be experienced by the lovers. As such, this section on sexuality constitutes more than a mere how-to guide for pleasuring the other. A whole ethics of sex can be extracted from these passages which will serve to neutralize any misguided conception of the Song as a text condoning promiscuity or free love in the sense that it is understood today.

This chapter is a reflection on grace in the Song of Songs. What is striking about the Song is that the lovers endure, and this in spite of their essential differences, their irrecuperable mistakes, the depth of their betrayals and their continuous recklessness. In the end, love is said to triumph even over death! There is thus a quality of love which escapes human understanding and effort; it is a sacred flame that burns on in the heart of God even when the lovers find that their love for each other has cooled down. Our text thus seems to imply that the source of love lies beyond the lovers themselves and that it is thus that their love has been found to endure in spite of their mistakes. There is therefore an element of grace to love that is often forgotten.

The notion of patience is, however, inseparable from the virtue of trust which every proficient lover must learn to cultivate. This chapter constitutes a commentary on the metaphor of the “lilies” which can be read as hinting to the other women that the man cannot help noticing and desiring. Yet, accompanying this reference is the woman’s three-fold faithful affirmation: “My lover is mine and I am his.” This statement occurs twice accompanying the reference to lilies, but the third time the lilies are gone: The man seems to have committed. What made the difference? What happened for the man to commit? The key, I argue, lies in the formulation of the woman, “My lover is mine and I am his.” Therein lies her secret! This whole chapter constitutes, as such, a meditation on trust and its power to inspire love and commitment.

Traditional philosophizing has generally depended upon reason as its primary access to truth. Subjective experiences such as feelings, the passions, and emotions have typically been viewed as secondary to reason, untrustworthy, or both. The Religious Existentialists and the Redemption of Feeling revisits how the movement of existentialism, via the religious existentialists, has contributed to a rethinking of the role of subjective experience, in contrast to the rationalist and idealist traditions, thus reframing the importance of feelings in general for the philosophical enterprise as a whole. Through the considerations of a variety of thinkers, this collection provides a fresh look at the contributions of twentieth-century existentialists, thereby re-contextualizing the very notion of existentialism, offering a powerful and genuine re-evaluation of the significance of subjectivity, and underscoring the continued relevance of the religious existentialists.

Genesis 3:16b has traditionally been interpreted as proof of woman’s inferiority, her nefarious powers of seduction, and as a license for men to rule and master her. Such an interpretation seems to have a much greater affinity with the Hellenistic context from which it arose than with its immediate Hebraic and Ancient Near Eastern context. If we are to remain faithful to this context—where woman was held in high esteem—we need more than ever to approach Genesis 3:16b with a lens that does not do violence to the woman. This article seeks to offer a new exegetical lens on Genesis 3:16b, as a redemptive rather than a punitive moment. This will entail that the two key concepts “rule” (mashal) and “loving intention” (teshuqah) be re-interpreted, in the light of its Ancient Near Eastern context, as containing vestiges of the sacred marriage trope figuring in Sumerian cultic texts, notably the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi. The parallels between our story and the Courtship will reveal some stunning parallels, enabling us to illuminate a radically new understanding of Genesis 3:16b as a sacred marriage scene, with the woman enabling the uplifting of man, inaugurating his reign as the king of the land, rather than finding herself dominated by him and a victim of his power over her.

In light of the recent developments featuring women around the world reclaiming their autonomy and self-respect in the face of male domination, it is becoming increasingly urgent to rethink the ancient “curse” on woman and the way that it has not only allowed but condoned male oppression and domination over women throughout the centuries. Rather than read the text through the traditional Aristotelian lens used by Church fathers to describe woman as the seductress and man as the legitimate authority over woman’s corrupt nature, this paper proposes a radical re-reading of the “curse” of Genesis 3:16 as a redemptive rather than a punitive moment wherein the woman is given back her power as the ezer kenegdo of man, and man is given back his kingdom lost and his reign over the whole of Creation, or mashal, through the woman’s love, or teshuqah. This will entail that the two key concepts mashal and teshuqah be profoundly re-interpreted from a Hebrew inter-textual perspective rather than through a Greek philosophical lens.

Traditional philosophizing has generally depended upon reason as its primary access to truth. Subjective experiences such as feelings, the passions, and emotions have typically been viewed as secondary to reason, untrustworthy, or both. The Religious Existentialists and the Redemption of Feeling revisits how the movement of existentialism, via the religious existentialists, has contributed to a rethinking of the role of subjective experience, in contrast to the rationalist and idealist traditions, thus reframing the importance of feelings in general for the philosophical enterprise as a whole. Through the considerations of a variety of thinkers, this collection provides a fresh look at the contributions of twentieth-century existentialists, thereby re-contextualizing the very notion of existentialism, offering a powerful and genuine re-evaluation of the significance of subjectivity, and underscoring the continued relevance of the religious existentialists.

This essay proposes to interpret the significance of the so-called immigration crisis in the light of the ancient story of Cain and Abel. Much more than a mere conflict between brothers, this essay will argue that the story of Cain and Abel presents two archetypal ways of dwelling in the world: the sedentary and the nomadic. As such, the story sheds a shocking new light on our present crisis, deeply problematizing the sedentary and revealing in an amazing tour de force, the hidden potentialities of the nomadic and the powerful rejuvenating force that comes with its inclusion and welcoming in the sedentary landscape that characterizes our Western societies.

Exile constitutes one of the most central experiences in the Bible, notably in the book of Genesis. The question has rarely been asked however as to why exile plays such an important role in the lives of Biblical characters. Biblical Portraits of Exile proposes a philosophical reading largely inspired by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas of the experience of exile in the book of Genesis. Focusing on the 8 central figures of exile Adam, Eve, Cain, the sons of Shem, Abraham, Rebekah, Jacob and the sons of Levy the book draws out the ethical and redemptive implications of exile and thereby paves the way for a renewed description of the human subject, one that situates ethics at its very core.

In one of the sections of Of God Who Comes to Mind, Levinas expressly mentions the need to go “beyond intentionality” as far as the description of the ethical rapport goes. Such language on the part of Levinas has compelled certain commentators to maintain that Levinas “has gone beyond the notion of intentionality.” This abandonment of phenomenological description brings to the fore, however, a number of problems. Indeed, if the other does not allow herself to be reduced to a phenomenological description, how then are we to account for that other? This essay will attempt to respond to these questions and show that, while Levinas does rework phenomenological conceptuality, he does not abandon phenomenological discourse in his descriptions of the ethical encounter. Our demonstration will focus more precisely on the concept of intentionality which, we shall show, is never abandoned by Levinas. Rather, it is reworked by Levinas in order to account for the other in a way that respects her alterity, thereby allowing for an ethical Sinngebung to take place.