Hannah rose after eating and drinking at Shiloh while Eli the priest was sitting at the entrance to God’s sanctuary, Her spirit was greatly pained and she prayed to God, weeping profusely. . . . As she continued praying to God, Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart; her lips moved, but she uttered no sound; and Eli took her for a drunkard. Eli said to her, “How long will you go on behaving like a drunkard! Put away your wine!” Then Hannah replied, saying, “No, my lord, I am a woman in anguish, and I have had neither wine nor liquor, but have been pouring my heart out before God. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking all this time out of the greatness of my concern and out of my vexation. (1 Samuel 1:9-10, 12-16).
“Hannah replied, saying, ‘No, my lord.’” Some say that she said to him: “You are no person of authority, nor is the Shekhinah or the Spirit-of-Holiness with you, since you have presumed me guilty rather than innocent. Are you not aware that I am a woman on anguish? (Talmud, B’rakhot 31b).
Hannah eventually became mother to one of the great prophets of the bible, Samuel. At first, though, the Bible deems her a person of holiness and integrity, but someone plagued by suffering and distress. She could not conceive and dearly wanted a baby. Her co-wife did have children. Her husband was clueless and could not understand her pain. And Eli, a priest, a man of God, a holy figure supposed to have deep insight into the human condition, could not recognize a woman in need. Instead, he questions her integrity and accuses her of indecency.
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We are reminded at times like this that Feminism only works if all of us, and particularly those of us in positions of power, regularly work to ensure equality, fairness, and dignity for all those in our midst. In the first account of Creation, God created human-kind, male and female, in God’s image. May there be a day where Hannah’s experience stops being so awfully familiar, where we recognize and honor all human beings for exactly who they are— glimpses of God.
Published in the November 2017 issue of Temple Emanu-El’s Kolaynu newsletter.
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