Summary
In The Red Tent, author Anita Diamant re-creates the popular Biblical story of Jacob by giving a voice to his only daughter, Dinah. Known as simply the object of her brothers’ wrath, Dinah serves only a minor role in the traditional tale. Here, she tells her own story.
Dinah begins her story with that of her mothers—the four daughters of Laban: Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. One day, Jacob, the man who would be Dinah’s father, comes upon Rachel at a well in Haran. He is arrested by her intense beauty and kisses her. Rachel decides that she will marry him, and after Jacob has worked for Laban for many months, he asks for her hand. But Rachel is afraid of consummating her marriage, and the sisters conspire to have Leah take Rachel’s place during the marriage ceremony. Jacob then demands from Laban dowries for both women, and he is given also Zilpah and Bilhah and a small portion of Laban’s flocks. Leah soon gives birth to her first son, Reuben, and she later gives birth to six more boys; Zilpah delivers twin boys; and Bilhah has one son who survives. Rachel, however, remains barren for many years. After spending so much time with the midwife Inna, she learns the art of midwifery. Leah again becomes pregnant. To the delight of the sisters, Rachel predicts that the baby is a girl. In her happiness, Rachel conceives. Shortly after Leah gives birth to Dinah, Rachel gives birth to Joseph.
Once his sons are old enough, Jacob takes them into the hills and tells the boys stories about his father, Isaac. Joseph shares these stories with Dinah, but soon the two drift apart as Dinah becomes consumed in the lives of the women’s circle and her days become filled with chores and stories. As time goes on, Jacob harbors a growing disgust for Laban, and he decides that he will move his family to Canaan, the land of his birth. After bitter negotiations, Laban allows Jacob to take all the possessions that are used by the four sisters, two of the bondsmen and their wives, and a portion of the flocks. Jacob and his family leave Haran and do not look back.
On the way to Canaan, Jacob is wracked by nightmares concerning his inevitable meeting with his twin brother, Esau. Surprisingly, when the two brothers meet and Jacob submits himself at the feet of his brother, Esau embraces him. The families of the two brothers join camp briefly, but the men decide to not tease past grievances and part ways. Jacob settles his family in a village named Succoth. Here, Dinah’s family prospers: her brothers take wives, the bondswomen birth many children, and the flocks multiply. Jacob’s camp is visited by a messenger requesting their presence at the home of Jacob’s mother, Rebecca. The family visits Rebecca, who interrogates each wife of Jacob and demands that Dinah be left behind for three months after the family departs. Dinah learns why her grandmother is considered an oracle, yet she fails to feel that she has learned much from Rebecca.
Jacob is once again seized by dreams of a new land, and he moves his family from Succoth to the valley of Shechem, where his sons Simon and Levi have bargained with the king Hamor for a parcel of land. Dinah’s mothers are comforted by the physical setting of their new home but they detest the ways of the Canaanite women, who show no regard for custom or tradition. When Dinah returns home, she is consumed by thoughts of her imminent womanhood,...
(This entire section contains 1394 words.)
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and she welcomes the brown smear of blood on her thigh when her menstrual cycle begins. Her mother and aunts take her into the red tent, and there they begin a ceremony to the goddess Innana. They take her into a field and use a household teraphim to spill her first blood. Now versed in the ways of women, Dinah begins accompanying Rachel as assistant midwife.
During one of the deliveries, Dinah accompanies Rachel to the palace of king Hamor and his wife, Re-nefer, and Dinah is smitten with the prince Shalem. The queen organizes Dinah’s return to the palace, and she arranges a meeting between Dinah and Shalem. The two consummate their love in the palace, and Hamor goes to Jacob bearing a large bride price for Dinah. Jacob turns the king away. During their next meeting, Jacob makes Shalem and Hamor agree to being circumcised in honor of his god, El. Even though the king and prince agree and undergo the sacrifice, Simon and Levi feel scorned by the king and they break into the castle, murder all the men including their brother-in-law, and steal Dinah away.
Dinah curses all her brothers and her father for their villainy and runs back to the gates of Shechem, where she is rescued by Re-nefer’s manservant, Nehesi. The three flee Shechem and travel to Thebes in Egypt, the land of Re-nefer’s birth. Re-nefer makes Dinah promise to never tell the full truth of their life in Canaan, and Dinah leaves behind her past, never to see her mothers again. Once in Thebes, Re-nefer begs the hospitality of her brother Nakht-re and his wife, Herya. The couple accept them into their home, and soon after Dinah realizes she is pregnant. After a difficult labor, Dinah gives birth to a son whom she names Bar-Shalem in honor of his father. But Re-nefer claims the baby as her own and renames him Re-mose. She allows Dinah to serve as wetnurse and tells her that Re-mose will know both women as “Ma.” Dinah has no choice but to consent.
Meryt, the midwife, nurses Dinah to health after the delivery, and Re-mose and Dinah spend most of their days in the garden. Nakht-re and Re-nefer decide that Re-mose will become a great scribe, and they send him to a grand school in the south. With Re-mose gone, Dinah must earn her place in the house, and she begins to accompany Meryt to births. Dinah’s glorified reputation earns her much respect. When the time comes that she must leave the home of Nakht-re, Meryt’s son, Menna, and his wife, Shif-re, accept her into their home in the Valley of the Kings.
Here, Dinah is revered as a skilled midwife, and she and Meryt find comfort in their new home. Dinah’s fortunes become even greater when Meryt invites Benia, a woodcarver whom the women met at the marketplace in Thebes, to their house. Benia and Dinah fall in love, and Dinah goes to live with Benia as his wife.
One evening, Re-mose comes to visit his mother to beg her to attend the birth of his master’s wife. When Dinah returns to Thebes, she realizes that Re-mose’s master, the vizier Zafenat Paneh-ah, is actually her brother Joseph, who was sold into slavery by their brothers Simon and Levi. Re-mose thus learns the truth of his birth and threatens Joseph’s life to avenge the death of his father, Shalem. To spare Joseph’s life, Dinah orders Re-mose to relocate north and take a new master. She knows that she will never see him again.
Dinah returns to the Valley of the Kings to the comfort of her family, but soon Meryt dies of old age, which prompts Dinah to dream of her four mothers. Years pass. One day, Joseph arrives at Dinah and Benia’s home. He begs his sister to accompany him to see their father, Jacob, who is dying and wants to bless Joseph’s two sons. Reluctantly, Dinah agrees and when they arrive in Jacob’s camp, no one distinguishes her from among Joseph’s servants. On his deathbed, Jacob blesses each of his sons and asks for their forgiveness, but about Dinah he says nothing. After a conversation with one of her unsuspecting nieces, Dinah learns that although she has been forgotten by her father, her name still lives in the stories of the women.
Dinah and Benia return home and live out their years peacefully. Dinah passes away surrounded by Meryt’s family and Benia. Her mothers and all the women who have been in her life welcome her into heaven, and Dinah thanks the reader for having shared her journey.
