Bethanne Andersen

“This is a book of midrash: four stories about women from biblical and ancient times who are not well known. Almost no one remembers them, not even their names. These stories imagine and remember.” (page 6)

Based on passing references about women, most of them unnamed in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, Rabbi Sasso’s stories imagine the women who are remembered by God, but have been forgotten by men: Adam’s first wife before Eve, Pharaoh’s daughter who rescues the baby Moses from the river, the daughter of Jacob, who soothes the old patriarch, so he won’t rage at the sons that sold his favorite Joseph into slavery in Egypt, and the almost disinherited daughters of Zelophehad, who reclaimed their birthright by a direct appeal to the Almighty. These are stories filled with wisdom to inspire justice and truth.… (mer)