Listen to Her Voice: Women of the Hebrew Bible

by Miki Raver

Eve, Sarah, Rachel, Delilah, Ruth-their names live on, but their ancient stories have long been obscured. In this sumptuously illustrated retelling of the lives of 18 women in the Hebrew Bible, we are reunited with Deborah, the warrior prophetess, Tamar, the sacred prostitute, Esther, the harem girl turned savior queen, and many other remarkable female figures. Author Miki Raver pairs each of these vibrant and daring tales with an eloquent meditation on their meaning for modern women. Beautiful reproductions of classic biblical art from such masters as Rubens, Blake, Brueghel, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Chagall illustrate these powerful women's dramatic stories. Including a foreword by Lynn Gottlieb, this rich marriage of art, literature, and spirituality offers substantive and entertaining reading, as well as a fresh entry into traditional faith. The perfect Chanukah or Bat Mitzvah present, Listen to Her Voice is a provocative book to treasure and share.

Genres: Jewish, Judaism, Nonfiction, History, Religion

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Holly Kaplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in chapters over a log time. I found the format to be very helpful as you read the actual Torah/Tanak and the you read Raver’s comments. The commentaries really varied in quality with Raver finding her own voice with the later stories. I found the piece on the Queen of Sheba and the essay on Esther to be very interesting and well written. Art work is splendid. I am glad I grabbed this off of my “to read” shelf.

[Jenni Paulsen Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regardless of your religion, spirituality, or lack thereof, Raver's "Listen to Her Voice" is a riveting, rebellious exploration of the feminine passages of the Hebrew Bible. She takes all of our assumptions about our patriarchal roots and turns them upside-down. While you may be tempted to say "I'm not Jewish", "I haven't read the Bible", or "Religion doesn't really interest me", many of these passages form the very foundation of our culture and our social mores thousands of years back, we owe it to ourselves and to our children to contemplate & question them again and again.

Raver's critical discussion of these passages is not only intelligent and thought-provoking, it's beautiful. Raver is a lovely writer, and the artwork chosen to go with each passage is stunning. The fact that these passages have been interpreted SO differently by various visual artists over the years reminds us that there is no one way to read them, and that each new interpretation gives us a more complete picture, and makes the stories--and the characters in them--all the more vibrant and rich.

Read this book and you will never look at the Bible, religion, history OR modern society quite the same again.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neat book about women in the Bible