Dear Friends,
As you saw with last week’s midrash about Miriam , I’m exploring new modes of commentary. I’ve been reading Judith Plaskow’s Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective for the first time and wow. I’m rethinking so so much about what it means to reclaim queer voices and women’s voices (and all the ways those overlap and don’t) in Torah. What can it look like and sound like and feel like to give these characters a voice – to image what their story might have been? Enjoy!
Love, Meg
Have you heard of Huldah (khool-daw')? I hadn’t either until I did. There isn’t a ton of text about her (almost all of it is compiled below). And now I can’t stop thinking about her. She was a prophet and the prophet to advise King Josiah after he was brought the Book of Deuteronomy – the book found in the Temple walls. She was a teacher and the evidence that indicates that she was fairly unimpressed with authority makes me think we would have been fast and close friends. So please, enjoy learning about this dramatically unsung leader and then enjoy some midrash. Huldah, this one’s for you.
2 Kings 22:8-20
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of God.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of God and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: “Go and inquire of God for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is God’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter. She said to them, “This is what God, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, ‘This is what God says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of God, ‘This is what God, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares God. Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’” So they took her answer back to the king.
We read a very similar narrative in 2 Chronicles 34. And then, we get the Talmud.
Megillah 14b:5-6
Huldah was a prophetess, as it is written: “So Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess” (II Kings 22:14) as emissaries of King Josiah. The Gemara asks: But if Jeremiah was found there, how could she prophesy? Out of respect for Jeremiah, who was her superior, it would have been fitting that she not prophesy in his presence. The Sages of the school of Rav say in the name of Rav: Huldah was a close relative of Jeremiah, and he did not object to her prophesying in his presence. The Gemara asks: But how could Josiah himself ignore Jeremiah and send emissaries to Huldah? The Sages of the school of Rabbi Sheila say: Because women are more compassionate, and he hoped that what she would tell them would not be overly harsh.
Megillah 14b:10
An additional point is mentioned with regard to the prophetesses. Rav Naḥman said: Haughtiness is not befitting a woman. And a proof to this is that there were two haughty women, whose names were identical to the names of loathsome creatures. One, Deborah, was called a hornet, as her Hebrew name, Devorah, means hornet; and one, Huldah, was called a marten [similar to a weasel], as her name is the Hebrew term for that creature. From where is it known that they were haughty? With regard to Deborah, the hornet, it is written: “And she sent and called Barak” (Judges 4:6), but she herself did not go to him. And with regard to Huldah, the marten, it is written: “Say to the man that sent you to me” (II Kings 22:15), but she did not say: Say to the king.
Finally, the last piece before the midrash is a paragraph by Rabbi Neal Gold on the prophet.
Most remarkably, the rabbis saw her as an important teacher of Torah in her day. According to Targum Yonatan, an early translation of the Prophets into Aramaic, she regularly taught at the ulpana, or Hebrew school, of her neighborhood. Furthermore, a set of gates in the southern wall of Jerusalem leading to the Temple Mount were known as the “Huldah Gates,” which, although sealed shut for centuries, can still be seen on a tour of Jerusalem today. We may imagine that these were the gates at which Huldah herself once sat, teaching Torah to her disciples.
While we have a few glimpses into who this prophet was, they surround only one event in her life – is that enough to be life-defining? Who really was Huldah? What will proceed is an original midrash attempting an answer.
It was my aba who named me but my ima who taught me to read. His grandmother used to tell stories about the magical power of weasels – how people thought they were sneaky but really, they lived lives in the in between spaces. They would come and go from the spiritual and physical worlds and bring messages. Some thought they were good omens. Some thought they were wicked. Probably a little of both, I imagine. Is anything one way? And they were fiercely protective of their families. So, as soon as I was born – twilight on Rosh Chodesh Elul – Huldah I would be. Hooly for short.
But like I said, it was my mother who taught me to read. As early as I can remember she was showing me letters – prompting me to repeat their sounds. “Chet” lived deep in my throat. Ima came from a tradition of scribes and was determined to prepare me for her legacy.
Everything changed when I turned seven years old. It started small. I’d wake up in the morning, do my chores, help make breakfast for my sisters, and then I’d hear it. No one else did. It was sort of like the rustling of pages and it sounded like it was coming from outside our kitchen window. I figured it was the wind or a neighbor crystalizing a new routine. But as the weeks went on it got louder and louder until finally, I couldn’t ignore it. So I followed it.
Shoes tied, I headed out into the limestone city, following this sound. Following, following, following until I came all the way to the Temple. It was a market day and people and animals were swarming about like the chaos before creation. But the sound was louder and louder still. It that now had morphed into a sound of a rapids on a river – as I had imaged they’d sound.
I followed it right up until the gate and then it stopped. My nose and toes were touching the stone. I put my hands on the temple to feel the heartbeat and felt it all the way down in my stomach. Suddenly, words were flashing through my mind so fast I could barely keep up. The universe was filling me with its secrets as if it had been holding them in for years and only now had a chance to release – like falling into bed after a long day.
It took years before I could make sense of what I could receive. To be honest, I never fully understood it. All I know is people started treating me differently. Averting their eyes. No longer asking to play. Calling me things. I never understood it – being too impressed. Weren’t we all passing through this lifetime fairly quickly anyway? If there was anything to revere it was the way, generation after generation, words remained.
Sources Cited:
Gold, Rabbi Neal. Huldah the Prophetess. MyJewishLearning.com. accessed July 7, 2022.