‘The day the Temple was destroyed, prophecy was taken from prophets and given to lunatics and small children’. 1
INTRODUCTION:
The great Jewish scholar of the Prophets Abraham Joshua Heschel grappled with the issue of whether Ezekiel can be considered a prophet. His two volume work on the Prophets includes chapters on Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah and Second Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk. However no chapter on Ezekiel appears in his work. Did Heschel have a problem with Ezekiel as a prophet?
Moshe Greenberg notes a major difference between the prophecies of
Ezekiel and those of his contemporary Jeremiah; the majority of
Jeremiah’s prophecies indeed materialized while Ezekiel’s did not;
2 Yehezkel Kaufmann concured with this interpretation. 3 Rashi
notes that prophesying on foreign soil is problematical. According to
the Torah the truth of a Prophet can only be determined if his prophecy
is fulfilled (Deut. 18:22).
Ezekiel as a young child was exiled to Babylon. Ezekiel is certainly
not an unknown prophet, yet, as compared to Jeremiah we know little
about his personality and that which is known to us suggests that he
was in fact very eccentric. Jeremiah’s human side is basic to his
personality; Ezekiel is otherworldly and seemingly detached from
humanity. If one assumes a prophet speaks the words of God
Ezekiel’s use of God’s words are problematic. Perhaps he saw images in
his mind and translated them into the words of God. 4 He
prophesizes in Babylon but is transported at least in his visions to
Jerusalem several times.
Jeremiah in his Letter to the Exiles warns of false prophets who will
prophesize lies (Jer. 29:8); one can wonder whether he was referring to
Ezekiel? Some have argued that Ezekiel was a prophet more like the
older and pre-classical prophets described in 1 Kings 17 and following
into 2 Kings and thus his more extreme language. 5 Another has argued
that because he was prophesizing in the diaspora exile he had
difficulty with his authority 6 and another described his Book as a
‘spiritual diary’. 7
In Fifteen Books of prophets the name of the prophet in question appears in the first verse of the Book. Ezekiel’s name in his book is not mentioned until the third verse never to re-appear again – he is then referred to as ‘ben adam’ ‘the Son of Man’. Is this to stress the importance of the message rather than the messenger? What can one expect from such a messenger?
A book stranger than the Book of Ezekiel does not appear in the Jewish
canon. The author reports being paralyzed, ‘bound and dumb’ seven days
after his call - for 430 days or perhaps for seven and one half years
- yet, he nevertheless prophecies (3:4-6,26; 24:27; 33:22). He
eats scrolls (3:1-3) and excrement (4:15), his hair and beard cut off
by a sharp sword, into three separate parts to be burnt in three
different places (5:1-2) and he is transported from Babylon to
Jerusalem (apparently four separate times - chapters 8,11, 37 and 43).
He writes of gruesome and bloody events where human-like beings
slaughter the people of Jerusalem save those they mark on the forehead
as mourners (10:2-7). His mere look or words kill people (11:1-13).
Ezekiel’s vision of the Glory of God was severely criticized by the
Talmudic sages. He was in fact the most criticized of the canonized
prophets. They compared his vision very unfavorably with Isaiah. They
were very concerned about his audacity in writing of the merkavah
(chariot) vision. In their opinion Isaiah saw the same vision but
was discrete and did not share it with others.
Ezekiel’s description of women was also severely criticized by the
Talmudic sages. Israel’s depravity is expressed via explicit sexual
metaphors never used before. While sexual metaphors can be found in
Hosea and Jeremiah that found in Ezekiel describe Israel’s evil
have never been found before (or after). Moshe Greenberg notes Ezekiel
takes ‘the adulterous wife of Hosea and Jeremiah [and gives them] a
biography’. 8
Ezekiel is certainly the most psychoanalyzed and more broadly difficult to understand figure in the Bible. 9
PART I: THE VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD
‘Whereas for Jews, God manifested Himself through words in a divine text, for the Greeks theophany was visual, not verbal.’ 10
‘The Greek truth is visual . . . For the Hebrew the highest form of truth is perceived at the auditory level. . . . What was offensive to the Hebrews was ‘to see’ God; that is, to express His reality at the visual levels’ 11
‘And the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heavens, with
darkness, clouds and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke to you out of
the midst of the fire; you heard the voice of the words but saw no
form, only a voice. ‘You heard the voice out of the darkness and
the mountain was burning in fire . . . ‘(Deut. 4:11-12)
Ezekiel’s vision of the God was the most criticized verses in the Tnakh by the sages of the Talmud. They compared his vision very unfavorably with Isaiah 12. They were very concerned about his writing of the merkavah (chariot) vision. In their opinion Isaiah saw the same vision but was discrete in not sharing it with others.
Despite Ezekiel’s cautious image - he four times uses the term ‘the
likeness of’ and seven times the ‘appearance of’ - the Talmudists were
staunchly opposed to his use of any image of God - for them God was
imageless. They likened Isaiah to a sophisticated city man, while
Ezekiel was like an unsophisticated village man unaccustomed to
understanding or seeing the glory of God. 13 The sages stated in a
sarcastic tone that even young handmaidens saw more of the Divine glory
that Ezekiel. 14
The writers of the Talmud greatly feared the vision. Yochanan ben
Zakkai is reputed to have seen and studied the merkavah surrounded by a
heavenly fire so that no one would see it (BT Chagiga 14b). Several
accounts appear in the Talmud of people studying the merkavah and they
die; a child speculated on the chashmal (a Biblical term unknown in
ancient Hebrew other than in Ezekiel’s vision) and he died. 15
Ezekiel begins his book seeing a strange vision of God. ‘A stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, is the heart of the fire, a brilliance amber-like and within this four living creatures’ (Ez. 1:4).
This description is in Chapter 1 while Ezekiel is in Babylon, he then
sees it again as he travels to Jerusalem (chapters 8-10) and finally
chapter 43 when God and his Temple are restored to Jerusalem.
Ezekiel living in Babylon (in a village called Tel Aviv) begins with
his vision in chapter one, even prior to his call as a prophet.
Ezekiel relates seeing four living glowing creatures with four faces
and four wings. Their wings are attached to each other and they move as
a unity. Below each waist is a series of wheels covered with eyes.
Above them lies an ice-like expanse and above it is a sapphire-like
throne and the likeness of a man, fiery with rainbows above it.
Each creature had four faces; one of a man, one of a lion, one of an ox
and one of an eagle. 16 While parts of this vision can be found in
other literature, nothing like the entirety of this vision appears
elsewhere in the Bible nor in other ancient literature. The creatures
seem like mythical beings carrying a chariot throne.
Ezekiel sees the throne of sapphire comparable to Moses’ sapphire
pavement. Ezekiel’s God-like figure is more anthropomorphic than that
of Moses or Isaiah. Above the throne there is ‘a likeness of a man’
(Ez. 1:26). Moses could not see God, yet Ezekiel envisages a God-like
person. He also sees and hears voices, fire, clouds, glows and
lights. He clearly envisions God. He is raised by a holy ‘spirit’ who
proclaim in a ‘great roaring sound’ ‘Blessed is the Lord’s glory from
His place’ (3:12). Is this to confirm that he has indeed seen God’s
heavenly throne?
The third vision (the second is briefly described in chapter 3) begins
in chapter eight and continues into chapter ten; it takes place in
Jerusalem. This vision is spread over four chapters and many additional
events transpire in the interim. In the midst of these the chariot
vision appears in 8:2-4; 9:3; 10:1-22; 11:22-23 which is similar to the
first vision in 1:1-3:15.
It is worth noting that an exact date is stated ‘sixth year, sixth
month and fifth day (8:10) which is approximately 10 days short of the
430 days of Ezekiel’s laying on his side. Ezekiel is transported to
Jerusalem for this vision by the hand of God.
Ezekiel first sees a God like appearance of fire who took him by his
hair to the Temple. The man enters in a house, clearly the House of
God; the Temple. This house – defined by its inner and outer
courtyards and eastern gate reappears several times in chapter ten.
The judgment begins with six executioners carrying a weapon of
slaughter. A man girthed in linen (Ezekiel?) and a scribe goes with
them. Their mission is to ruthlessly kill with no pity, men and women,
young and old, with the exception of those marked on the foreheads as
the righteous (those who cry against the abominations) as a sign of
mourning. The massive slaughter begins at the altar, the sanctuary,
thus defiling the Temple. These men are called for the first time in
the book ‘cherubs’, presumably the holy beast of the first vision.
During this slaughter Ezekiel cries to God for pity (9:8). The last
section of the judgment (11:1-13) is most problematic. The evil ones
are in ‘the cooking pot and . . . are the meat’ (11:4). The dead
already fill the city. One of the men Ezekiel addresses Pelatiah
actually dies while Ezekiel prophesized.
The Lord’s chariot appears in the midst of the slaughter of the city,
immediately following chapter 9. The four faces are now composed of a
cherub, a man, a lion and an eagle. The cherub has replaced the ox in
the first vision. The Glory of God has departed from the Temple from
Jerusalem and Ezekiel is then returned to Babylon where he delivers his
vision to the elders.
This vision is the most commented upon section of the Bible in the
Talmud and other midrashic texts. An entire body of literature called
‘Merkavah’ or ‘Hechalot’ (Temple) was created from these visions. He
writes as if he actually saw God’s heavenly throne. It appears as an
anthropomorphic vision and was greatly feared by the more traditional
sages of the Talmud.
A major question which must be asked is: did Ezekiel – this
otherworldly prophet - see a vision of the heavenly throne or imagine a
vision? Jeremiah never describes the abominable events Ezekiel
describes in the Temple. Jeremiah’s abominations are of social and
economic injustice. In the Book of Jeremiah the kind of idolatry
described in the Temple does not occur. Jeremiah does describe some
idolatry regarding Baal (19:5), Molech (32:35) and in my house (7:30)
and again for the Queen of Heaven (7:16-20 and 44:18-19), however the
range and extent do not compare to those described by Ezekiel.
Several ancient texts of Ezekiel compare his depiction of the glory of
God to the revelation and theophany on Mount Sinai, where Moses came
close to seeing the Glory of God. During the celebration of the
festival of the Shavuot (Pentecost) the reading is of Moses’ vision,
the Haftorah (the secondary reading after the Torah reading) is
Ezekiel’s vision in chapter 1. The connection of these readings and the
public reading of this section was itself greatly debated in the Talmud
as already noted.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a great mystic and disciple of Rabbi Akiva,
lived in a cave with his son for thirteen years (during the Bar Kokhba
war) and studied the hidden secrets of the Kabbalah from Elijah.
He selected eight disciples to relate what he had learnt (according to
Jewish Kabbalistic Tradition - the Zohar). When three of his
disciples died within one year Rabbi Shimon said "is it possible that
we are being punished for revealing that which has been hidden since
Moses stood on Mount Sinai.’ 17
This fear continued as can be seen in Maimonides and his discussion of
a Mishna (the first and basic Code of Jewish Law) in his philosophical
work The Guide of the Perplexed. The Mishna states:
"One must not discuss with three students [i.e. No more than 2]
intimate relations between men and women, nor the mysteries of creation
with two students [i.e. No more than 1] nor the mysteries of the
merkavah with just one [i.e. Only alone], unless he is a sage and
understands of his own knowledge. [continuing the Mishna
says] he who contemplates four things -what is above and what is
below, what is before and what is after -would have been better if he
had never been born." (Mishna Chagiga 2:1)
Maimonides says that the mystery of creation is about the creation from
Genesis, the existence of God and the merkavah from Ezekiel about the
essence of God. Maimonides discusses this Mishna philosophically
although obliquely and metaphorically. He does it obliquely
because he takes seriously the halakhic rule not to discuss the subject
unless with a Sage. While he wrote this for his favorite student
(Joseph) he had to be oblique. This book composed in Arabic but with
Hebrew letters in order to limit the number of readers. However, even
within his lifetime it was translated into Hebrew. It was later burnt
by more traditional Jews.
PART II: EZEKIEL AND HIS DESCRIPTION OF WOMEN
In chapters 16 and chapter 23, Ezekiel specifically describes the history of the people of Israel and the abomination at the Temple via variations on metaphors of whores. In his parable of Jerusalem she is a vine useful only for fuel for burning (15:2-6).
Ezekiel proclaims that the people of Israel were depraved and evil
during their entire history. His definition of depravity defines
idolatry in sexual terms. Ezekiel sounds more like a priest or hell
bound preacher than a prophet. 18 Jeremiah, his contemporary did not
see the abominations Ezekiel described in the Temple. Ezekiel
stands in stark contrast to Jeremiah seeing the fall of Jerusalem as
inevitable. His understanding of the reason for the destruction of the
Temple was the people of Israel’s total depravity from the beginning of
its history. There was no glorious past not in the days of Moses, David
or Josiah. He edits reality and gives us a revisionist history of
Israel. Israel has rejected God from the beginning; Ezekiel sees only
unrelented idolatry. He describes history in dogmatic, black and white
terms.
In chapter 20 Ezekiel first presents his revisionist view of history.
Beginning in Egypt ‘they defied Me and refused to listen to Me’ (20:8, repeated in 13,21,24). Moshe Greenberg states the section reads as if we were expelled from Egypt perhaps against our will. 19 Ezekiel then says of his God ‘I gave them laws that were not good and rules by which they could not live (20:25). 20 Why would God give laws that were not good? Does this not contradict the idea of God? Only Paul in the Christian Bible is so negative about Israel’s laws (Romans 5:20, 7:13 and Gal. 3:19)!
Moshe Greenberg compares verses above as being comparable to God’s
hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus (4:21; 7:3;13,22; 8:11,15;
9:12,35; 10:1), that is God creating a situation where His opponent can
only due evil.21 In his commentary on Exodus Greenberg described the
hardening of the heart as following: ‘the core of his intransigence
[is] the maintenance of his sovereignty . . . that is what cannot
coexist with God’s authority’. This Pharaonic god was inaccessible,
unchanging and invulnerable. He cannot see or hear - he is a stone
idol-like god. He wishes to be a god. 22 Aviva Gottleib-Zorenberg
called the hardening of the heart as Pharaoh’s ‘catatonic silence’ and
notes this is also the Ramban’s analysis. 23 Given the comparison
Ezekiel chose to make between the Pharaoh and the Israeli people what
can he mean?
Chapter 16 presents the birth of a baby girl born of Amorite and
Hittite parents later abandoned by them and adopted by God who lavishes
beauty on her. The girl is a metaphor for Jerusalem. She trusted in her
beauty instead of in God and whored ‘spreading your legs for every
passerby’ (16:15, 25). 24 You took your beautiful things, made of the
gold and silver that I had given you, and you made phallic images and
fornicated with them (16:17). Her lust is insatiable (16:28) and
she loves Egyptians with large male genitalia (16:26).25 By
stating that the harlot did not exact payment for her services Ezekiel
suggests that Jerusalem represents nymphomania, sex for pleasure. You
prostituted yourself to your enemies even ‘the Philistines women who
are shocked by your lewd behavior’ (16:27). She is like the adulterous
wife who welcomes strangers instead of your husband (16:32). God then
states ‘I will assemble [all your lovers] against you from every
quarter, and will expose your nakedness to them . . . I will
inflict upon the punishment of women who commit adultery and murder.
They will strip you of your clothing . . . leaving you naked and bare.
Then they shall assemble a mob against you to pelt you with stones and
pierce you with their swords’ (16:37-40). ‘When I have satisfied My
fury upon you and My rage has departed from you. Then I will be
tranquil; I will be angry no more’ (16:42).
The abominations are repeated, with variations in chapter 23 which
presents the allegory of harlots in the guise of two lewd sisters,
Ohalah (Samaria - the Kingdom of Israel) and Oholibah (Jerusalem - the
Kingdom of Judea). Both names originate from the Hebrew root ‘ohel’
(tent). As Halperin points out a tent can be used as a metaphor for
female genitals.26
Playing whores ‘their breasts were squeezed and their virgin nipples
were handled’ (23:3). When Ohalah saw her sister’s ‘whoring [she
became] more debased (23:11). She lusted for concubinage with them,
whose members were like those of asses and whose organs were like those
of stallions. . . . remembering your youthful breast, when the
Egypt handled your nipples’ (23:20-21). I will direct My passion
against you . . . they shall cut off your nose and years.’ (23:25).
‘Thus said the Lord you shall drink of your sister‘s cup (blood?)
. . . and tear [off] your breasts (23:32,34). ‘And offered to
them as food the children they bore me (23:38).
At the end of chapters 16 and 23, the women are judged and condemned.
They are ‘stoned and chopped into pieces (16:40) by righteous men. They
will kill their sons and daughters’ (23:46). Women and women’s blood
are nowhere else in the Bible depicted as ‘filthy, socially disruptive,
and contaminating . . .[as] associated with death’. Men’s blood in the
rite of circumcision purifies while women’s blood contaminates. 27 Is
the God of Ezekiel justifying all these abuses of women? Is this
a God we can recognize?
Major differences exist between the marriage metaphor and the depiction of women by Ezekiel as contrasted with the words of Hosea and Jeremiah. In Hosea the metaphor is of a bridegroom with ‘righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion . . . and in faithfulness (2:21-22) as enumerated by Moses to God Ex. 34:6). The view of women is ‘impressionistic [rather] than a coherent’ view. 28 Hosea describes adultery as a means of obtaining other goods; in Ezekiel it is the good itself. In Hosea adultery is prostitution; in Ezekiel it is for a nymphomaniac. 29
In Jeremiah the verses which depict women as adulterous are never
presented as one unified statement on women but rather are interspliced
into other prophecies about Israel and Judah. Additionally there is a
romantic element ‘I will remember for you the affection of your youth,
and your love. How you followed me into the wilderness’ (Jer.
2:2). Above all Jeremiah creates the very emotional image
of a mother figure of Rachel who weeps for her children (31:14-19).
Jeremiah declares ‘For the land has created something new on earth a
woman shall ‘Tsovev’ - encompass or embrace or court or enfold - a man.
30 Can one imagine Ezekiel making such a statement. Ezekiel gives an
entire biography of women from birth to death. Ezekiel’s lurid use of
language differentiates Ezekiel from Hosea or Jeremiah. In sharp
contrast for Ezekiel the Temple is intrinsically involved with women’s
blood and must be destroyed. For Ezekiel women’s blood begins with
birth and continues with menstruation and culminates with the blood
guilt in the act of murdering her children. The woman seems to be
blamed for being born and ‘wallowing in your blood’ (16:6). After she
grows from a child to a woman she remains blood stained, one presumes
this is menstrual blood. Is she being blamed again for menstruating?
Are women being blamed for being women? ‘All women will be taught the
lesson never to commit your debauchery again’ (23:48).
Ezekiel may be described as obsessed with the pollution and impurity of
the Temple and he chooses women as the metaphor for that impurity.
Women arrive in this world with a gory birth and childhood, her love
affairs and her punishment are described in obscene descriptions as are
the sexual ‘equipment’ of her lovers. For Ezekiel woman’s perversion
seems beyond cure.
The level of horrendous and erotic definition of punishment is never
before or again seen in the Tnakh. David Halperin called these sections
as written in a ‘pornographic fury’ 31 and Cheryl Exum called them
‘Prophetic Pornography’. 32 Presumably one of the reasons we oppose
pornography is that those kind of images shape human behavior. The
writers of these texts were exclusively men and until recently the
readers were almost exclusively men. Would Miriam or Deborah have
chosen such metaphors? Would women sages have authorized such texts?
Rabbi Eliezer pronounced that these chapters should be forbidden for
reading in the synagogue. When someone nonetheless did read it he
responded why do you not ‘proclaim the abominations of your mother?’ 33
He equated Ezekiel’s description as finding the ‘female body as
defiling’, 34 and extrapolates that then even your mother was defiled.
Rabbi Eliezer was outvoted about canonizing Ezekiel but I wonder
whether those who voted against him would have chosen to read
those chapters to their mothers, wives or daughters?
CONCLUSIONS:
First Isaiah prophesized in the mid eight century before any Hebrews were exiled. Ezekiel himself was exiled with many Hebrews and the Kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed. Jeremiah writing at the same time suggested that the exile would last for a significant period of time. Ezekiel (as compared to Isaiah) was writing in a diaspora when the Temple had already been destroyed. He felt a need to write about a restoration (chapters 40-48). In the pagan diaspora where his people lived anthropomorphic visions of gods were commonplace and perhaps he felt a need to describe God in similar visual terms.
Despite the criticism Ezekiel book was canonized into the Hebrew Bible.
We need to ask why? By the time of the Talmud Sages ‘merkavah’ and
‘hekhalot’ literature was already very popular among Jewish writers and
thinkers. Many mystics tried to find a path comparable to Ezekiel’s.
This literature comes from Ezekiel’s vision. These same thinkers and
writers also wrote on the apocalypse, the end of days and the
resurrection of the dead (all of which the Christians adopted). Ezekiel
is the founder of that literature is his chapters 38-39, on Gog of
Magog and chapter 37 on the rising of the dry ancient bones of
Israelites. He also describes a Temple considered as the ultimate
Messianic Temple after the destruction of the second Temple. It
would have been difficult to reject the author of these very popular
visions.
1 BT Baba Batra, 12b.
2Greenberg, Moshe, Ezekiel, (The Anchor Bible, Doubleday, N.Y., Vol. 1,1983, Vol. 2, 1997).
3 Kaufmann, Y., The Religion of Israel (Schocken Books, N.Y., 1972) pg. 429.
4 Spinoza, Baruch, Theological Political Treatise, (Hackett, Indianopolis, 1998) pg. 13-14.
5 See Carley, K.W., Ezekiel Among the Prpohets?, SCM Press, London, 1975.
6 Davis, Ellen, F., Swallowing the Scroll, Sheffield, Almond Press, 1989.
7 Freedman, David, N., Unity of the Hebrew Bible, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1993.
8Green berg, Vol. I, pg. 299.
9 See Halperin, D.J., Seeking Ezekiel, (Pennsylvania University Press, University Park, PA, 1993) chapter 1.
10 Handelman, Susan., The Slayers of Moses, The Slayers of Moses, (SUNY, Albany, 1982) pg. 33.
11 Faur, Jose, Golden Doves with Silver Dots’ (Scholars Press, Atlanta, 1999) pg. 29-30.
12 Ezekiel’s description covers all the 28 verses of chapter 1, the first 6 verses of chapter 8, all 22 verses of chapter 10 and the first 8 verses of chapter 43. Isaiah description has only 6 verses in chapter 6.
13BT Hagigah 13b. William Blake, the mystical poet and artist of the eighteenth century and one of the very few to illustrate Ezekiel’s vision, wrote in his ‘Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ about a dinner meeting with Isaiah and Ezekiel. Blake asked them about speaking to God. Isaiah responded ‘I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discovered the infinite in everything’. Ezekiel responded ‘Israel taught that the Poetic Genius (as you now call it) was the first principle and all the others merely derivative’. Quoted by Meira Polliack, in ‘Ezekiel and its Role in Subsequent Jewish Mystical Thought and Tradition’, in European Judaism, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 1999, pg. 76.
14Mechilta to Exodus xv, 2.
15 BT Hagigah 13a
16 In an ancient pagan Temple found in modern day Syria (Ein Dara) a hybrid creature with a man, lion, ox and eagle was found from perhaps the eight century BCE. Kugel, James, L., How To Read The bible, (Free Press, N.Y., 2007, pg. 604-605.
17Zohar iii idra rabba pg. 144a.
18 Zimmerli, W. Commentary of the Book of Ezekiel, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1979, Vol. I, pg. 39, 77, see also Carley, Ezekiel Among the Prophets?
19 Greenberg, Vol. 1, pg. 384.
20 Unless stated otherwise the New JPS translation is used.
21 Greenberg, Vol. 1, pg. 369.
22 Greenberg, Moshe, Understanding Exodus (Behrman, N.Y., 1969) pg. 162.
23 Gottleib-Zorenberg, A., The Particulars of Rapture, Reflections on Exodus, Doubleday,N.Y.2001),pg. 97-98.
24Galambush, pg. 66. NJPS translates the first verse as ‘you lavished your favors at every passerby’.
25 In Hebrew ‘gidla basar’, large male genitalia is a reasonable translation; the NJPS notes that in a footnote, (pg. 1182).
26 Halperin, pg. 150-151.
27 Eilberg-Schwartz, H., The Savage in Judaism, (Indiana Press, Bloomington, 1990) pg. 174-175.
28Galambush, pg. 79.
29 Halbertal, Moshe and Margolit, Avishai, Idolatry, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1992) pg. 17.
30 The Hebrew word ‘tsovav’ has many different translations, but all seem complimentary to woman. See Bernard Anderson, ‘The Land Has Created Something New’ in CBQ, 40, No. 4, 1978.
31 Halperin, pg. 142.
32 Exum, J. Cheryl, Plotted, Shot and Painted, Sheffield University Press, Sheffield, 1996. Chapter 4.
33 Mishna, Megilla 4:10, Tosefot, Megilla 3(4):34, JT Megillah 4:12, and BT Megillah 25b,
34 Galambush, J., Jerusalem In The Book Of Ezekiel, (Scholars Press, Atlanta, GA, 1992) pg. 102.
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