Friday, June 29, 2007 at 1:01am
The matriarch vs. the fashion queen
Column: Outing the Goddess Within
At first, when I heard that there are men who sing poetry to their woman every Friday night, praising her for her many virtues, entrepreneurial capabilities, wisdom, modesty, and on and on, I thought, "What kind of goddess faith is this? I WANT IN!"
But Judy Gruen, author of the very funny, stress-reducing, health-enhancing (and all this between two cardboard covers) "The Women's Daily Irony Supplement," soon set me straight.
"The men sing Jewish Proverbs known as the Aishet Chayil ("Woman of Valor")," she says. "It's a timeless Jewish tradition to praise his woman each Friday night at the Sabbath meal. The Proverb is based on the matriarch Sarah and all she achieved."
No, not the Sarah (as in Jessica Parker), but Sarah-wife-of-Abraham who makes up one quarter of the Four Jewish Matriarchs — Rebecca, Rachel and Leah being the other three (no, not DeMornay, Griffiths or Remini, but the wives of Isaac and Jacob). Oy vey, so much to learn!
According to the website Ask Moses, "Sarah was exceptionally beautiful, and all other women, by comparison with her, looked like monkeys."
Ha! What else was Sarah exceptional at? I delved deeper, and found a remarkable comparison between the Sarah in my life and the Sarah in Judy's. So grab a cup of coffee (make sure you ask for cup number 238 if you're at Starbucks — the one with Judy's quote on it) and let's play Sare-Compare.
Sarah-Wife-Of-Abraham (SWOA): was a princess to her people, then she became a princess to the whole world (Berachot 13a).
Sarah-Jessica Parker (SJP): was an icon for sexy singletons, then she became the queen of the fashion world.
SWOA: lived to 127 and didn't change.
SJP: changed 15 times during the 2000 MTV Movie Awards alone.
SWOA: has her story told in the Book of Genesis.
SJP: has her story told on IMDB, countless fan sites and syndicated columns around the world.
SWOA: has a special name — sarah translated in Hebrew indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess."
SJP: has a name that translates to box-office millions.
SWOA: was wooed by the Pharaoh — Egyptian royalty
SJP: was wooed by John F Kennedy Jr. — American royalty
SWOA: had sex for countless years without conception.
SJP: had sex in the city countless times, with contraception.
SWOA: God said to Abraham, "Whatever Sarah says to you, do."
SJP: God said the same thing to her husband, Matthew Broderick.
SWOA: had a high degree of prophesy (Sh'mos Rabba 1:1)
SJP: has no degree at all.
SWOA: All the proselytes and the God-fearing people in the world descended from those who suckled Sarah's milk (Pesikta Rabbati 42:23).
SJP: um ...
Errrm, on that note, let's get back to Judy and her Starbucks coffee cups. (Milk and sugar, anyone?) Judy is, after all, the whole reason I got onto the matriarchal Sarah in the first place — that's what I get for asking a Jewish humorist if she has an inner goddess.
"I've only got an inner Julianne Moore, and I wish I could find that set of keys (they're around here somewhere) that would allow me to unlock her," says Judy. "I also have an outer Jewish mother, who is predominant around here, but when she is at her very best, she is also beautiful, spiritual, nurturing, and always ready to offer seconds."
Sounds like Judy is harnessing the energy of the Jewish matriarchs: beautiful inside and out. They struggled with timeless human dilemmas, for example, just as Judy is struggling with chain email letters that threaten bodily harm if you don't forward them to at least 100 people in five minutes. The matriarchs revealed essential truths to their husbands, families, and to humanity, just as Judy is doing in teaching her kids to go to another room to honk their noses into a tissue.
And the matriarchs taught us how to harness some of the untapped spiritual potential that is within us all. For Judy, this means, "have some fun while we are living, loving and learning in life."
— — —
Anita Ryan-Revel is the creatrix of Goddess.com.au, a content-rich website aimed at helping you connect with your beautiful, sassy, intuitive, lovable, sacred and authentic self. She has incorporated her journey into hundreds of articles, countless websites and numerous books, one of which is "The Goddess Guide to Chakra Vitality." You can read more of her columns here. © copyright 2007 by Anita Ryan-Revel.
But Judy Gruen, author of the very funny, stress-reducing, health-enhancing (and all this between two cardboard covers) "The Women's Daily Irony Supplement," soon set me straight.
"The men sing Jewish Proverbs known as the Aishet Chayil ("Woman of Valor")," she says. "It's a timeless Jewish tradition to praise his woman each Friday night at the Sabbath meal. The Proverb is based on the matriarch Sarah and all she achieved."
No, not the Sarah (as in Jessica Parker), but Sarah-wife-of-Abraham who makes up one quarter of the Four Jewish Matriarchs — Rebecca, Rachel and Leah being the other three (no, not DeMornay, Griffiths or Remini, but the wives of Isaac and Jacob). Oy vey, so much to learn!
According to the website Ask Moses, "Sarah was exceptionally beautiful, and all other women, by comparison with her, looked like monkeys."
Ha! What else was Sarah exceptional at? I delved deeper, and found a remarkable comparison between the Sarah in my life and the Sarah in Judy's. So grab a cup of coffee (make sure you ask for cup number 238 if you're at Starbucks — the one with Judy's quote on it) and let's play Sare-Compare.
Sarah-Wife-Of-Abraham (SWOA): was a princess to her people, then she became a princess to the whole world (Berachot 13a).
Sarah-Jessica Parker (SJP): was an icon for sexy singletons, then she became the queen of the fashion world.
SWOA: lived to 127 and didn't change.
SJP: changed 15 times during the 2000 MTV Movie Awards alone.
SWOA: has her story told in the Book of Genesis.
SJP: has her story told on IMDB, countless fan sites and syndicated columns around the world.
SWOA: has a special name — sarah translated in Hebrew indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess."
SJP: has a name that translates to box-office millions.
SWOA: was wooed by the Pharaoh — Egyptian royalty
SJP: was wooed by John F Kennedy Jr. — American royalty
SWOA: had sex for countless years without conception.
SJP: had sex in the city countless times, with contraception.
SWOA: God said to Abraham, "Whatever Sarah says to you, do."
SJP: God said the same thing to her husband, Matthew Broderick.
SWOA: had a high degree of prophesy (Sh'mos Rabba 1:1)
SJP: has no degree at all.
SWOA: All the proselytes and the God-fearing people in the world descended from those who suckled Sarah's milk (Pesikta Rabbati 42:23).
SJP: um ...
Errrm, on that note, let's get back to Judy and her Starbucks coffee cups. (Milk and sugar, anyone?) Judy is, after all, the whole reason I got onto the matriarchal Sarah in the first place — that's what I get for asking a Jewish humorist if she has an inner goddess.
"I've only got an inner Julianne Moore, and I wish I could find that set of keys (they're around here somewhere) that would allow me to unlock her," says Judy. "I also have an outer Jewish mother, who is predominant around here, but when she is at her very best, she is also beautiful, spiritual, nurturing, and always ready to offer seconds."
Sounds like Judy is harnessing the energy of the Jewish matriarchs: beautiful inside and out. They struggled with timeless human dilemmas, for example, just as Judy is struggling with chain email letters that threaten bodily harm if you don't forward them to at least 100 people in five minutes. The matriarchs revealed essential truths to their husbands, families, and to humanity, just as Judy is doing in teaching her kids to go to another room to honk their noses into a tissue.
And the matriarchs taught us how to harness some of the untapped spiritual potential that is within us all. For Judy, this means, "have some fun while we are living, loving and learning in life."
— — —
Anita Ryan-Revel is the creatrix of Goddess.com.au, a content-rich website aimed at helping you connect with your beautiful, sassy, intuitive, lovable, sacred and authentic self. She has incorporated her journey into hundreds of articles, countless websites and numerous books, one of which is "The Goddess Guide to Chakra Vitality." You can read more of her columns here. © copyright 2007 by Anita Ryan-Revel.