The Red Tent

How should humans, women especially, deal with jealousy and possessiveness? Especially ones that last half of their lifetime?

I read “The Red Tent” full of wonderful expectations and Anita Diamant, its author, never failed to meet those. Jacob’s wives, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, were captured vividly in Dinah’s eyes. Miss Diamant has my utmost respect and admiration.

What surprised me was the utter disregard for women’s need for exclusive affection and devotion. What awed me was Jacob’s time management. What struck me was Zilpah’s disdain towards sharing a husband with her three sisters.

The Red Tent can hardly be thought of as FICTION. Leah has the strongest mind; Rachel, the most stunning looks; Bilhah, the gift of sensitivity; Zilpah, the unspeakable stubbornness; and Dinah, the keenest observation.

Speaking of Fidelity or monogamy, the Boundless Soul has crafted two cogent questions, which had me thinking: Do all men think like he does? I haven’t commented on his post yet, the answers to the queries of a well-experienced man should take time.

1) How can one be free while holding another bound? Does that not fly in the face of karmic law: if I sow jealous and possessive seed, then I will reap the same, and bind myself not free myself thus so.

2) How can I commit to having certain loving feelings in the future? I can only know what I feel now, and to bind myself to feeling something in the future is a guarantee that I will need to deny what is when it happens. People somehow overlook these details when they “fall in love” and bind their mate in a contractual arrangement of exclusive partnership.

You may skip pondering these questions and directly delve into the realm of The Red Tent, a rare masterpiece of domestic life and womanhood back in Jacob’s time.