Rebeccah and Cyclamen

Imahot: Rage of the Matriarchs Rebeccah: Cyclamen 2021 14” x 20”The matriarchs of the Bible had contemporary rage. They suffered from infertility, jealousy, isolation and were unappreciated. They were traded, humiliated and ignored. As seen through a modern lens, we can relate to them as examples of fortitude. Even in the Shmita year, these women continued to feed the family, keep the boys from fighting, help with the livestock and gather whatever was to be had in the fallow land. Although Shmita was viewed as a holistic healing for the land, the women were not excused from working. While the land was to get tranquility and by context humans were supposed to feel a divine rest and communion with that break, women of the Torah had no such holiday.Standing in for the sky, is an embroidery patterns common in the region, for when she is resting, she is sewing. Each matriarch also gets a flower from Israel to mitigate her rage, which represents her inner soul, colorful and still blooming with beauty. In this panel from a series of six, I conjure Rebeccah in the year of shmita, her silent husband, Isaac is sitting around the house even more than usual. The twins are up to more shenanigans since they have less responsibility in the fields. She is separating the fighting twins, slapping Esau and caressing Jacob’ head. She has plenty of work preparing meals from a limited garden and tending to the livestock, she bitterly notes her husband sitting in deep religious contemplation and her rage is blossoming. The cyclamen’s nodding head is giving consent to Rebeccah’s anger.Although the earth should belong to each Jew equally every seven years, in the practical sense, the women got no Shmita. The burden of their labor remained unchanged.