AR03 Sarah & Abraham

This will be a continuation of the seminar “First Mothers, First Fathers.” The focus will be on the first Hebrew parents: Sarah and Abraham. How these momentous personalities parented, not just children, but legacies which are alive today, will be examined through their stories in the Book of Genesis, as well as the rabbinic lens (midrashim, perushim) through which the biblical text is read by Jews. What is a Jewish mother? What is a Jewish father? How does the archetypical “family drama” of the Jews compare to the drama as played out in Attic tragedy, which served Sigmud Freud as the basis of psychoanalysis? How does the reality of the Divine Father stand in relation to the human, all-too-human reality of fathers of flesh and blood? How is the human mother likewise an incarnation of the Divine Mother or Shekhinah? These and like questions will accompany our close and intimate examination of Genesis 12-25.