How do we deal with the aspects of wickedness or evil that are within us and our world? What do we do with the ways our own traditions are responsible for so much damage and hurt?
Like others before him and since, Zachariah imagines a total banishment of the wicked - across the border, far away.. As if that ever works.
Unfortunately, also like other misogynists , he links this wickedness to women - or more specifically - the feminine divine. Or at least that’s what seems to be happening in his fifth vision. This chapter contains one of the most compelling cases for the existence and importance of a Hebrew goddess in the ancient days of Judan and Israel, even into the early Second Temple days. It includes the reminder of how brutal her erasure was - but not fully successful. Despite their attempts, the patriarchal authors of the Jewish story could not banish the goddess from our literature, hearts and minds.
She lives on in many different aspects. One of them is celebrated and remembered on these very days of the Jewish calendar - she may be the the face behind the mask of the complicated character of Queen Esther, the Judean Empress of Persia, who is also the heroine of today’s fast day, just before the holiday of Purim.
Zachariah, who lived more or less at the same time as Esther’s rise to Persian glory (if that ever really happened), saw wild visions (that may have really happened) that translated into proclamations and sometimes became public policy.
In his attempt to support the hesitant restoration of the Judean establishment in Jerusalem under Persian rule he was also resisting the foreign elements that his people had adopted and preferred - including the popular worship of other gods and goddesses.
Halfway through this chapter he is shown a basket or tub of some sort, flying in the air, and in it is a figure of a woman.
It gets weirder and worse:
וְהִנֵּ֛ה כִּכַּ֥ר עֹפֶ֖רֶת נִשֵּׂ֑את וְזֹאת֙ אִשָּׁ֣ה אַחַ֔ת יוֹשֶׁ֖בֶת בְּת֥וֹךְ הָאֵיפָֽה׃ וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ זֹ֣את הָרִשְׁעָ֔ה וַיַּשְׁלֵ֥ךְ אֹתָ֖הּ אֶל־תּ֣וֹךְ הָֽאֵיפָ֑ה וַיַּשְׁלֵ֛ךְ אֶת־אֶ֥בֶן הָעוֹפֶ֖רֶת אֶל־פִּֽיהָ׃
וָאֶשָּׂ֨א עֵינַ֜י וָאֵ֗רֶא וְהִנֵּה֩ שְׁתַּ֨יִם נָשִׁ֤ים יֽוֹצְאוֹת֙ וְר֣וּחַ בְּכַנְפֵיהֶ֔ם וְלָהֵ֥נָּה כְנָפַ֖יִם כְּכַנְפֵ֣י הַחֲסִידָ֑ה וַתִּשֶּׂ֙אנָה֙ אֶת־הָ֣אֵיפָ֔ה בֵּ֥ין הָאָ֖רֶץ וּבֵ֥ין הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃ וָאֹמַ֕ר אֶל־הַמַּלְאָ֖ךְ הַדֹּבֵ֣ר בִּ֑י אָ֛נָה הֵ֥מָּה מֽוֹלִכ֖וֹת אֶת־הָאֵיפָֽה׃ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֔י לִבְנֽוֹת־לָ֥הֿ בַ֖יִת בְּאֶ֣רֶץ שִׁנְעָ֑ר וְהוּכַ֛ן וְהֻנִּ֥יחָה שָּׁ֖ם עַל־מְכֻנָתָֽהּ
And behold, a disk of lead was lifted, revealing a female figure seated inside the basket.
“That,” the angel said, “is Wickedness”; and, thrusting her back inside the basket, he pressed the leaden weight into her mouth.
I looked up again and saw two female figures come soaring with the wind in their wings—they had wings like those of a stork—and carried off the basket between earth and sky.
“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who talked with me.
And he answered, “To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar; a stand shall be erected for it, and it shall be set down there upon the stand.”
Zechariah 5:7-11
Who is this woman that’s called ‘wickedness’, why is she silenced and where are the two female creatures leading her to??
Biblical scholar Johannes Schnocks unpacks some of this:
“The vision would then be the most important instance of an early post-exilic argument on the veneration of goddesses in Judah, perhaps even in the newly-to-be-built temple of Jerusalem. It would express the expulsion of a goddess and testify to a monotheistic revolution…Zechariah as a representative of those returned from exile would be distinctly furthering the position that there is no room for a goddess in post-exilic Jerusalem. The woman, and with her every kind of idolatry, is to be taken to Babylonia safely locked up. There her cult may be continued in a specially built temple and on her own cult stand.”
For the rabbis of the Talmud, this strange story is not about the attempted banishment of the ancient goddess but about the attempt to banish the evil inclination itself -- in the form of a lion made of fire. This strange legend quotes Zechariah and appears in The Babylonian Talmud’s Tractate Yoma 69.
The legend describes the people of Jerusalem who lament the existence of evil within them and fasted for three days in order to banish their evil inclination and conquer it, proclaiming that “It is the inclination for evil idolatry which destroyed the Temple, burnt the Sanctuary, killed all the righteous and exiled Israel from our land, and it is still dancing among us.”
After three days their prayers were answered and the evil inclination emerged from the temple, in the form of a lion made of fire. This proved what the prophet Zachariah meant when he said - ‘This is wickedness’. What should be done with this lion who now roamed around them roaring?
Zechariah shows up in this legend — and said to them: "Cast it into a pot of lead and close its opening with lead — for lead muffles the sound — as it is written, "he pressed the leaden weight unto her mouth.” And so it was.
The Great Mother Goddess Ishtar, ancient deity of the near east, like other great goddesses, was often depicted riding a lion.
It’s safe to say that whatever this complex legend is about, just as Zachariah’s vision - banishing the shadow side of who we are, or trying to repress the feminine, the animalistic, and the embodied part of what we are about will bound to fail though not without a long trail of abuse and violent repression.
Though the goddess was dethroned and silenced in our ancient cult, to the degree that her existence seems to many as outlandish legend - who she was and what she means to many of us still today continues to be an important source of sacred inspiration. In her many guises, still somewhat underground, but less so — she is not gagged or banished, ignored or forgotten - anymore.
On this day, Jews worldwide fast the ‘Fast of Esther’ - the only religious day on our calendar that bears the name of a queen, who is actually an ancient goddess - the Mother of Life, also known as Ishtar.
The fast day is alluded to by Zachariah later in the book and is just one reminder of the lore we’ve lost, the legends we are still recovering, and the silenced stories of heroines and heroes that are finally starting to be heard.
We know better than to blame the other for our own human complexities, not silence of banish but own, confront, deal and heal the rifts and inclinations towards violence as a way to build a better world for all of us.
For those of us fasting today, in solidarity with sorrow, and protesting the violence of these difficult days, may our hunger elevate our empathy and raise our awareness of all the ways with which we can sustain real hunger, solve more of the world’s sorrows with intention, and lift up every sacred story with awareness, respect and love.
Wishing us all a meaningful holiday of purim, with masks off to reveal the hidden and reconnect to the sacred essence that unites us all beyond fears and divisions.
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