The Red Tent

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is the story of Dinah, a tragic (and relatively obscure) character in the bible. Through Diamant's writing, the story of Dinah is made accessible and strangely familiar to a modern audience. The Red Tent is more than a resting place for menstruating women. The Red Tent is about renewal of the body and spirit. It is a celebration of womanhood. Biblically, a woman's cycle is attributed to the lunar calendar. We are indeed creatures of the moon. We wax and wane. Some days we feel uplifted, others we feel deflated. It accounts for the spectrum of emotions that defines what it is to be female. It is interesting that in a religion very much grounded on the actions and words of men, lineage is traced through the women. Diamant refers to the coy actions of women in the Bible (particularly Sarah and Rebecca's influence in determining which son should receive the blessing of his father,) as markers that significantly shaped the Jewish story. They say that behind every strong man, there is an even stronger woman. I think those words still hold both merit and truth in our reality. 

I will end with how Diamant beautifully closed the book (major spoiler alert):

"In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither but the perfume lasted. Fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the lotus had blossomed. Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved. Thus can something as insignificant as a name-two syllables, one high, one sweet- summon up the innumerable smiles and tears, sighs and dreams of a human life.

If you sit on the bank of a river, you see only a small part of its surface. And yet, the water before your eyes is proof of the unknowable depths. My heart brims with thanks for the kindness you have showed me by sitting on the bank of the river, by visiting the echoes of my name. Blessings on your eyes and on your children. Blessings on the ground beneath you. Whereever you walk, I go with you. Selah."

I've recommended this book to everyone in my life. I will be giving it to my mother for that convenient Hallmark holiday that is two weeks away. And I promise my next blog will not be so feminist in prose.