So as you may or may not have known, I've been working on a project (with Lior and hopefully others soon!). The project is to reinterpret the texts of the Torah in a feminist light and make art out of it. During the seminar I shared the first installment about Adam and Eve. And I just finished the second one! This relates to the story of Hagar and Sarah, the two women who have Abraham's kids. So basically, what happens is that Sarah can't have kids, so she "gives" Abraham Hagar so they can have a kid. They have Ishmael. Once Hagar has a child Sarai gets pretty pissed off and is harsh, Hagar runs away. To convince Hagar to return God speaks to her and says that he will make a great nation out of her offspring. She returns and then Sarah is able to have a child: Isaac. So what we have here is two women with a rocky history both as the mothers of two great nations.
The way I chose to interpret the text was kind of a cautionary tale of what happens when women try to form bonds of solidarity when under the stressors of patriarchy and oppression. I choose to see Sarah and Hagars offspring as nations struggling to build each other. The women are in different positions of power, Sarah is free (not a slave) and legitimate while Hagar is not. Yet, at first Hagar has power because she is able to have children which Sarah is not. It takes a relative switch of power dynamics for Sarah and Hagar to be able to both be the life forces of great nations. But even in the face of great adversity from each other and from larger patriarchal systems, they are able to be the life force of nations. (Nations that don't necessarily have to be in a hierarchical relationship just because one is "chosen")
Aleh v'Hagshem,
Yael
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