The tears of Rachel the Matriarch, crying for her exiled children, always got me to cry too.
As a young Yeshiva student, I’d be sitting with the other young men at a long table for the ‘third meal’ of the sabbath, eating cold leftovers from sabbath lunch, bidding the sabbath farewell as the sun would set and we would sing sad slow songs. The one about Rachel’s tears was a must-have in the playlist and would always make me cry. Still does.
Partially this tune we grew up with had to do with it - and mostly the message - our matriarch crying for the suffering of our people - and after all these generations of exile - here we are back, rebuilding the homeland. There’s always hope.
This was Religious-Zionist indoctrination at its most successful. But underneath the ideology is, I suspect, a deeper layer of humanistic messaging - not about the homeland but about the mother - not so much about the politics - but about the power of tears, and hope.
Her tears are central to today’s optimistic-futurist prophecy by Jeremiah.
According to the narrative in Genesis, Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife and the mother of his two youngest sons, died in labor, on the road. The baby is named Benjamin, and she is buried on the road. Where is that tomb? Depends who you ask. Nowadays it is located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, barricaded and guarded, a pilgrimage site for pious Jewish women and men who implore her mercy. It’s become quite a political right-wing bastion, favored by settlers, in no small part due to the mythic role Jeremiah has assigned her in today’s verses. The location is debatable, but her mythic role is not -- Rachel has become the emblem of the mourning mother, the Hebraic maternal instinct - protecting her children, at all costs, for better, or not.
She becomes the keeper of the threshold of the land.
Chapter 31 of Jeremiah continues the thread of hopeful visions. It was likely recited by him during his early years, as King Josiah takes the throne of Judah. It’s been a century since Assyria exiled the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, but some survived the exiles from tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin - two of the tribes who consider Rachel their ancestral mother. It is to these survivors, holding on to their land, that Jeremiah dedicates part of this prophecy, honoring Ephraim - which had the largest territory - as the firstborn of Israel, and naming Rachel as the guardian of the land - and of hope:
Where is this Ramah where Rachel’s weeping can be heard?
There are variations, a mix of religious and political agendas going back more than 3,000 years.
In his helpful article, Where Was Rachel Buried? Prof.Aaron Demsky presents all the options, including the most common scholarly view - that the tomb is not where it is now but further north of Jerusalem, “in the territory of Benjamin perhaps close to the border with Ephraim.” This would make sense for Jeremiah who grew up in this area, and would also be on the route of the exiles heading to Babylon - they would be heading north from Jerusalem, not south.
So how did the matriarch's famous tomb end up near Bethlehem? Demsky suggests that it has to do with another famous weeping mother - Mary, mother of Jesus:
“The belief that Rachel’s tomb should be located near Bethlehem has its earlier appearance in Matthew 2:16, which connects Rachel’s cry in Jeremiah to the story of how Herod killed children in Bethlehem when searching out baby Jesus:
Matt 2:16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 2:17 Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
Despite debates in the rabbinic sources, the current site, just north of Bethlehem, eventually became identified as the ‘real tomb’ of Rachel, a marker for hope, right on the border, in the midst of bitter battles for land rights and dignity between Israelis and Palestinians.
Beyond the tragedy of territorial disputes - the myth of the mother endures.
The tears continue flowing for the exiles of all children, and the song I grew up singing still stings my heart and still brings consolation when the pains grow louder than the joys.
The words of Jeremiah, smeared with tears, all those generations later, echo like a mother’s hug -- don’t give up hope, don’t give up patience: You are never alone.
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Makes so much sense the connection to Mary, Thank you for making it! From inside the Bethlehem side one can just catch the tiniest glimpse that something is outside the wall but those living there know.
Makes so much sense the connection to Mary, Thank you for making it! From inside the Bethlehem side one can just catch the tiniest glimpse that something is outside the wall but those living there know.