The First Ten Days

MMXXVI has started off with a bang, as I think most of us expect these days…but also with a steady slowness that provides hope for anchoring amidst the chaos of the world (especially after a non-stop December). This year I’ve found my parsha-ness sitting outside the Torah cycle and steadily repeating through the narratives of Genesis (to the surprise of basically no one). This week as I prepare for an upcoming lesson to a congregation, as well as delve more into a laser focus on my next dissertation chapter, I feel as though I’ve climbed back up the diving board & jumped into the endless wonderings and wanderings of the writers and compilers of Torah and midrash.

Today, the eleventh one of this Gregorian year, I can say that I hope the rest of January adds knowledge, insight, questions, and a more expansive grasp of characters to my understanding of Hagar and Keturah. As I turn over the facets of a lesson first taught on Yom Kippur 5785 and visited a couple times since, I want to discover new texts and traditions. While I write and read and swim in the literature and references, I hope to continue shaping my understanding of Keturah and Hagar as characters, mothers/matriarchs, (secondary) wives, and “national” ancestors.

A statue in one of the gardens at the Vizcaya