Unscrolled : 54 Writers and Artists Wrestle With the Torah (9780761178743)
Page 6
Once they hit the road, Rachel experiences a difficult labor and dies while delivering a baby boy named Benjamin. She is buried on the road, and Jacob builds a pillar on the grave.
Soon after, Jacob returns to his father, Isaac, who passes away at the age of 180. Esau and Jacob bury him together.
Esau’s line is described all the way to the ruthless clan of the Amalek. His wives are Canaanite. He moves away from Jacob, because the land can’t support both their households.
Michaela Watkins
THE RAPE OF DINAH IF TOLD BY MY MOTHER
EXT. TRADER JOE’S PARKING LOT/INT. MY CAR––DAY
A cell phone rings.
ME
Hello?
MOM (O.C.)
What’s new?
ME
Not much. You?
MOM (O.C.)
Oy. I can’t get dug out here. I just paid a Wellesley College student to come move some boxes around the basement. I can’t lift them. Do you need an ice cream maker?
ME
No.
MOM (O.C.)
Any of these editions of Trivial Pursuit?
ME
No.
MOM (O.C.)
What about Mom-Mom’s gravy boat that goes with the dishes with the purple flowers from Berck-Plage?
ME
Definitely no.
MOM (O.C.)
Oy. She got raped. Or something.
ME
WHO? Mom-Mom?!
MOM (O.C.)
Fiona.
ME
. . . Who is Fiona?
MOM (O.C.)
The girl. The Wellesley College girl who moved the boxes around the basement with me, trying to get me dug out.
ME
Good segue. What the hell happened?
MOM (O.C.)
Who knows. Some clod from Mass Bay Community College. What’s his name––Seth, Sean. Something. One of the Hammer kids.
ME
What Hammer kids?
MOM (O.C.)
. . . Of ”Hammer Pool and“––whatsit––”Tile“ over in Lynn. Remember? We were there when you thought you were dying and it turns out you were. Mono.
ME
What a horrible thing! The rape.
MOM (O.C.)
When I went to Wellesley, this didn’t happen. One foot on the floor at all times. And we had to keep the door open.
ME
Is she okay?
MOM (O.C.)
Meh. She has a baby from it. So much for Akin’s theory. What a nudnick. It turned into a real mess. It was in all the papers. You don’t know about this? That’s the problem with you. You don’t read. How can you know what’s going on in the world if you don’t read? It was all anyone was talking about here. She has two brothers, Simon and the other one . . . Lewis? Uh––Vinny . . . Levi. It’s Levi. They live in Swampscott, and they were mad as hell. Oy. My foot, my peripheral neuropathy is inflamed. I go to the Fancy Hands place now.
Guess how much they charge for a foot massage. Guess. Okay––twenty-five dollars for twenty-eight minutes. She knows just where to push to make me go ”ahhhhhhh.“ What’s new?
ME
MOM––what did her brothers do?
MOM (O.C.)
They were going to go to court and prosecute him, Hammer boy stalked her, asked her to marry him, thought he was in love with her, meshugana, I guess they thought he would get off on insanity charges, so they decided to go to his neighborhood--apparently he was part of a gang. A real loser pothead. From Lynn, Mass. ”Lynn Lynn, City of Sin, You never go out the way you came in.“
ME
Mom.
MOM (O.C.)
That’s what we used to sing. Now it’s really awful. Cambodian gangs and drugs and whatever else. Uch, it’s a real problem. His father is a big to-do there, but the kid was spoiled. His father was very successful for an immigrant. Second generation. Like me. I’ve done pretty well for myself, considering. Did you know Pop-Pop lied about his age and was born in Poland? That makes me second generation. I need a cat sitter--
ME
Mom does this story have an ending?
MOM (O.C.)
Stop yelling at me. Fiona’s brothers went to Lynn with a bunch of their Irish buddies and who-knows-who and they beat the sneakers out of him and all his friends. They were in some club where they were drunk and drugged up and couldn’t fight back very well--NEVER mix pills and alcohol, do you hear me? Never. Did you know you can’t eat grapefruits if you take Lipitor?
ME
Mom! I don’t take Lipitor. I’ve never taken Lipitor. What are you even talking about? What happened with Sean? Or Seth or whatever??
MOM (O.C.)
Nothing. Next thing you know, most of them are in the hospital and the Hammer kid was in a coma. They just unplugged him. The others were so out of it, they couldn’t identify who did it, but anyone who knows anyone will tell you it was Fiona’s brothers. They play football at BC. No one was going to tattle on them, and the school is silent about it.
ME
This is the woman who helped you move boxes around your basement??
MOM (O.C.)
See? Think I don’t know famous people, too?
ME
God, what did her parents do?
MOM (O.C.)
They sat silent on the whole thing. You know how it is with some people. You get pregnant, you get pregnant. That’s that. Not me, though. Not with my daughters. I’d never sit silent--
ME
No. I don’t see that happening. Ever.
[Beat.]
ME (CONT’D)
I will take the gravy boat. That was a good summer in Berck-Plage. I was only eight, but I remember Mom-Mom putting the chocolate inside the baguette and handing the pieces out as snacks.
MOM (O.C.)
I knew you’d want it. This is why I don’t throw anything away. I hold on to everything.
“About three months later, Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot; in fact, she is with child by harlotry.’” —Genesis 38:24
VA-YEISHEV (“And he dwelt”)
Genesis 37:1–40:23
Envy is a killer: after jacob returns to the land of Canaan, he makes no attempt to conceal the fact that Joseph, his seventeen-year-old firstborn son with his favorite wife, Rachel, is his favorite child. This reality doesn’t sit well with his eleven other sons, who are further irritated when Joseph tattles to their father about their sloppy shepherding work ethic.
Familial relations are further frayed by Jacob’s decision to give Joseph an extravagantly colored robe. Stung by this visible snub, the brothers find it almost impossible to share a kind word with him.
Joseph worsens matters by deciding to share two dreams with the entire family. In the first, the brothers are in the fields binding sheaths of wheat. Joseph’s sheath suddenly stands tall, and those of his brothers bow down to it. In the second, the moon, sun, and stars kowtow to him. Unsurprisingly, these images are not well received within the family. The brothers are repulsed and infuriated by the suggestion that they will one day be subservient to their younger brother; even Jacob is disappointed enough to rebuke Joseph.
The family friction boils over when Joseph journeys down to check in on his brothers, who are shepherding their flocks in the pasture. As he approaches, the jealous bunch hatches an impulsive plan to murder him, believing they can dispose of their brother’s body in a nearby pit and cover over their crime by claiming a wild animal has killed him.
One of the brothers, Reuben, suggests they can avoid killing Joseph and simply toss him into a pit. He has a vague hope that he might somehow rescue Joseph later. The brothers agree, but once Joseph is in the pit, Judah broaches the notion of selling him to some Egypt-bound Ishmaelite traders they encounter. But before they can act
on this plan, a group of wandering Midianites yank Joseph out of the hole and sell him to the Ishmaelites themselves.
The brothers panic and execute a cover-up. After ripping the colored tunic they stripped from Joseph and dipping it in animal blood, they present it to their father. Jacob concludes that an animal has devoured his favorite son, and begins to wail inconsolably in mourning.
As his father grieves, Joseph arrives in Egypt, where he is sold as a slave to Potiphar, a captain serving in the Pharaoh’s palace guard.
Two weddings and two funerals
The tale shifts back to Judah in Canaan. He fathers three sons with a Canaanite wife, and names them Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er is married off to a young woman named Tamar, but he annoys God, who takes his life. Judah instructs Onan to follow the local custom of marrying his brother’s widow. However, Onan does not fulfill his duties as a husband, aware that any children the two produce will be perceived by local custom as his deceased brother’s and not his own. God is again displeased and kills Onan, too.
Having mourned for two of his children, Judah attempts to protect the third by telling Tamar that she should let Shelah mature before marrying him. Sensing a diversionary tactic, Tamar goes to extraordinary lengths to take control of the issue. After disguising herself as a prostitute, she ensnares Judah, who trades his staff, cord, and seal for sex and unwittingly impregnates her.
Back at the homestead, Judah learns that Tamar is pregnant and assumes she has committed adultery; he threatens to apply the standard punishment for such a sin: death by burning. Tamar saves herself by producing the staff, cord, and seal that prove Judah is the father of her child, causing him to recognize that his actions are to blame for her whole predicament. Tamar proceeds to bear twins.
Joseph in the Big House
Back in Egypt, where God definitely has his back, Joseph’s career is blossoming. His work is peerless among the servants. An impressed Potiphar promotes Joseph to run his entire household. Despite his professional success, interpersonal challenges continue to pose problems for Joseph. Potiphar’s wife is attracted to his build and repeatedly attempts to seduce him. Joseph resists her advances out of respect for Potiphar and because he is a godly man.
Matters come to a head when the eager woman attempts to grab Joseph. The servant manages to extricate himself from her clutches and effects a hasty escape, only to leave his clothing in her grasp. Potiphar’s cunning wife uses the clothing as proof that Joseph was the aggressor, claiming he tried to rape her. A furious Potiphar throws his servant into prison. Luckily for Joseph, God is with him and he quickly rises to the pinnacle of the prison hierarchy, gaining the favor of the chief jailer.
Joseph’s uncanny ability to decipher dreams comes to the fore once more when he encounters Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, who have been imprisoned after falling afoul of the king. Both men experience visions that Joseph proceeds to explain. He tells the cupbearer he will be restored to his former glory within three days, but the baker’s fortune is bleaker. Joseph believes he will be executed and left to rot on a spike as birds peck away his flesh. Both predictions come true. And while Joseph hopes the cupbearer will remember his favor once he is freed, his hopes are dashed as the servant quickly puts him out of mind.
David Auburn
TAMAR stands before JUDAH. Her wrists are bound. They are surrounded by members of JUDAH’S HOUSEHOLD. The effect is of a trial or hearing.
JUDAH
Do you know the reason you are here?
TAMAR
You sent for me.
JUDAH
Do you know why?
TAMAR
Yes.
[Beat.]
JUDAH
Do you know what must happen to you?
TAMAR
I know what will happen.
JUDAH
Say it, then.
TAMAR
I am to be killed.
JUDAH
Yes. Say as well how.
TAMAR
By burning.
JUDAH
And say why this must be.
TAMAR
I cannot say why it MUST be. Only what you will say is the reason.
JUDAH
Do you dispute this reason?
TAMAR
I cannot.
JUDAH
Then say it now.
TAMAR
The reason is my pregnancy.
[Beat.]
JUDAH
How many months?
TAMAR
Three.
JUDAH
Do you have a husband?
TAMAR
You know I do not.
JUDAH
Everyone must hear. Do you have a husband?
TAMAR
No.
JUDAH
How did you come to be with child?
TAMAR
I put on a veil and stood by the side of the road.
JUDAH
By harlotry, then.
TAMAR
Yes, by harlotry.
JUDAH
This is what I was told. I hoped with all my heart the reports were false.
TAMAR
They were not false.
[Beat.]
JUDAH
You married my son.
TAMAR
Yes.
JUDAH
He died.
TAMAR
He was killed, yes.
JUDAH
He died by fever.
TAMAR
The Lord saw that he was evil and killed him.
JUDAH
This is what you have always said. I won’t dispute it again with you now.
TAMAR
You did not want to see it. But it was so. You took me into your household for your son and never saw what he was. But the Lord saw, and I saw.
JUDAH
This is not why we are here. To resume. One son being dead, I gave you to my second son.
TAMAR
Now we come to him.
JUDAH
He too died.
TAMAR
Was killed.
JUDAH
Oh? And was my second son also evil?
TAMAR
No. But there were other issues with Onan.
JUDAH
Tell us, please. What were they?
TAMAR
I don’t think this is the place.
JUDAH
What better place? We’re all listening.
TAMAR
Let us just say there were issues and leave it at that. Or rather, the issues were the issues. The Lord, let us just say, was not pleased.
JUDAH
Two marriages leaving you twice a widow. Two brothers dead. No children.
TAMAR
That would appear to be the tally.
JUDAH
What are we to think?
TAMAR
Whatever you choose.
JUDAH
No children; two of my sons dead. Still, did I blame you? No. I did not. I sent you to your father’s house. Did you stay there? No. The next we learn, you are veiled by the side of the road.
TAMAR
I do not deny it.
JUDAH
And now everyone has heard.
TAMAR
Yes. Everyone has heard.
[Beat.]
But there is something you have not said.
JUDAH
Say it now.
TAMAR
Your third son.
JUDAH
Yes.
TAMAR
Promised to me when he came of age. Did you make this promise?
JUDAH
I did.
TAMAR
Yet I stayed in my father’s house. I was not given to your third son. Do you deny it
?
JUDAH
I cannot.
TAMAR
Did you fulfill this obligation to me?
JUDAH
I did not.
TAMAR
Now everyone has heard.
JUDAH
Two brothers married to you, leaving you twice a widow. No children. Two of my sons dead. Who here would condemn me for sparing a third?
[Silence.]
So. We are left only with the question of your conceiving a child by harlotry. Which you do not deny.
TAMAR
I cannot.
JUDAH
Then what else can be said?
TAMAR
Only this.
[To a HOUSEHOLD MEMBER]
Bring me the things that I gave to you to keep.
JUDAH
What is this?
TAMAR
You will see. Everyone will see.
[The HOUSEHOLD MEMBER brings Tamar a staff, a cord, and a seal. She puts them on the ground in front of Judah.]
Whose things are these?
[Beat.]
JUDAH
They are mine.
TAMAR
You do not deny it.
JUDAH
I cannot.
TAMAR
They are your cord, your seal, and your staff.
JUDAH
Where did you get them?
TAMAR
Where did you give them up?
[Beat.]
JUDAH
I gave them to a woman.
TAMAR
Who?
JUDAH
A woman I met on the road. I do not know her name.