Most epics involve heroic men leaving women to pursue adventure, victory, and conquest. Odysseus leaves his wife Penelope and the enchantress Circe, Aeneas leaves Dido, Homerâ??s Iliad is set in motion first by the theft of a woman, Helen, and then by an argument over the female spoils of war that erupts between the warlord Agamemnon and his mercenary Achilles, the poemâ??s hero.
But what does any of this have to do with Torah? It has to do with the haftarah for this weekâ??s portion of Beshalah (Exodus 13:17 â?? 17:16), which concerns the military exploits of the prophetess Deborah. The story appears in the biblical book of Judges, a peculiar work that I often think of as a collection of absurdist parables. But this particular reading (Judges 4:4 â?? 5:31) is different. It strikes me as a mock-epic, and it never ceases to amaze me with its command of that formâ??and with its fine savagery.
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