Why is Little Red Riding Hood hanging out with Isaiah today? It’s about the questions. And the color red.
In Isaiah’s menu of mythic metaphors Jerusalem represents the sacred center of the world - while the neighboring nation of Edom represents the perennial other - the bad guys. Edom, present day Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, first shows up in the Hebraic story in Genesis, when the twins Jacob and Esau are born. Esau, the original firstborn, is identified as the ancestor of Edom - red, ruddy, hairy and wild. The linguistic pun is on Edom and Adom - the color red is the indication of hunter and foe, blood and passion - woven through the Bible and in some ways even still shows up in our contemporary culture, MAGA hats and all. This cultural construction of depicting Edom as evil but of shared origin didn’t happen overnight and reflects several important, and disturbing, historical choices.
So what’s Edom doing in this chapter of continued visions for the future, and what are we to do with the persistent powerful urge for ruthless revenge against our enemies? How do we define and refine this deep primal human desire for the blood of our worst enemies - especially the truly terrible ones?
And what’s Little Red Riding Hood has to do with this?
In that famous fairy tale the most chilling moment is when the little girl mistakes the big bad wolf for her grandmother and asks a series of questions that reveal the terrible truth.
Isaiah inserts a conversation with a similar question as he imagines the following scene in today’s futuristic chapter.
The bridegroom shows up for his wedding day with Jerusalem, his bride. He appears from the southeast, from the territory of Edom, and his fancy clothes are stained with red stains, and it’s a terrible sight.
The prophet - or someone - sees this vision and asks, as Little Riding Hood asks the wolf:
מַדּ֥וּעַ אָדֹ֖ם לִלְבוּשֶׁ֑ךָ וּבְגָדֶ֖יךָ כְּדֹרֵ֥ךְ בְּגַֽת׃
Why are your clothes so red,
Your garments like those of someone who treads grapes?
Isaiah 63:2
The word for ‘red’ is the same as the word for ‘Edom’ in the previous sentence and the connection is made even more clear in the next line in which the one wearing red-stained clothing, wolf-like, explains that it is not the result of stamping grapes into wine but rather the aftermath of spilling the blood of Edom - life blood splattered all over the wedding clothes. The groom explains his motives - “For I had planned a day of vengeance, my time of redemption has arrived.”
What did Edom do to become the holder of prophetic wrath, the evil ones in our story?
For the third Isaiah, the Edomites represent the nemesis of the Judeans who were trying to establish their city and culture again, post exile. According to historians, the Babylonian exile encouraged many of the nearby Edomites to take over some of the lands vacated by the Judeans. And by the time the Judeans come back the Edomites are not too eager to give that land up. It’s a territorial dispute. That old story.. Sounds familiar?
The prophetic vision of revenge is terrible as it imagines what it meant to his contemporary listeners - eager for security and safety, watching their ancestral lands occupied by others. That old story. Sounds familiar yet? And yet at least in that historical moment it was a fantasy, a fairy tale - the Judeans rebuilding Jerusalem were there as one among other minorities and did not have the power nor arms to reclaim their previous powerful position of authority. They had to deal with the Edomites and others, and figure out a way to co-exist.
What’s even more interesting and disturbing here is that Edom is not just the brother turned other but according to some scholars represents the very origin of the Hebrew god - and Hebrew people.
Important scholars now suggest that the very origin of our species is from the lands and lore of Edom. And if Edom is indeed our original brother, that would explain the heat and wrath. On some level it’s about hiding our origin.
Already in the Torah there are allusions to the fact that YHWH emerges from Edom, and our origin stem from that region. Later, in the Book of Judges, the poem of Deborah the Prophet described YHWH as also rising from Edom:
“ O YHWH, You came forth from Seir, Advanced from the country of Edom..” Judges 5:4
Israel Knohl, the contemporary biblical scholars, made several claims to the original source of YHWH and the Hebrew people as coming from Edom, which at some point also became identified as Midyan.
For Isaiah and the people of Jerusalem, regardless of what history they knew or ignored, Edom is the enemy and YHWH is the long awaited for avenger, stained with the blood of the bad guys.
The God of Vengeance, as a national metaphor, as a longed for superman who’ll save his suffering people, is a trope we will encounter again and again. It’s complicated.
As we wrap up the book of Isaiah and the generations of prophetic voices that speak for his name it’s important to note that even some of his most violent visions are juxtaposed by the more radical visions for total peace in the world.
In a recent inspiring post published in Tikkun Magazine, and presented this week at the UNESCO Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin, Professor Steven Shankman and Raimy Khalife-Hamdan offer a vision for a United Nations’ program called “SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES” at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Echoing Isaiah’s words from his famous second chapter this program envisions recruiting U.N. member nations to diminish their military budgets by an initial mere 1% and to deposit those funds into a U.N. Peace building Fund.
Inspired by this vision, we give voice to Isaiah’s highest aspirations, and to ours too.
Perhaps we take this vision of a deity whose clothes are stained red and imagine not warfare but a harvest, dancing in the vineyards, stains of grapes turn white clothes red with life as wine is made, and love, and questions asked with childlike innocence: how can we fear less and love more?
THIS THURSDAY: OUR NEXT BELOW THE BIBLE BELT ZOOM TALK:
Goodbye Isaiah, Hello Jeremiah
Please join me on Zoom for our next Monthly Conversation, as we wrap up the Book of Isaiah, venture into Jeremiah’s world and explore what these ancient prophets have to offer our inner and political lives - just in time for a new Jewish year and continued political challenges - everywhere.
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Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
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Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.
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this is fantastic, my dear...you're really letting yourself think deeply and draw upon the wisdom of your heart to lift the text into an interpretation that is threaded with your Jewish and spirit of hope--- of "turn it again and again, for everything is in it." This is the hermeneutic of the prophet in our own time.
You are in hochmah country, my friend. An early bird. Of course.
Edom and Adam---any connection?