After Abel and Other Stories

ADVANCE PRAISE

“Michal Lemberger is a wonderful writer—empathetic and heartbreaking, generous and fierce. The searing beauty of these stories is matched only by the passion and intelligence of the women who inhabit these pages.
After Abel
is a stunning book.”

—
M
OLLY
A
NTOPOL
, author of
The UnAmericans

“Through intuition and art, Lemberger opens our hearts to the powerful women of the Bible. They come alive in her magical prose, and their wisdom, long stifled and marginalized, echoes across the millennia to warm our hearts and to illumine our turbulent age. They teach us not only how to survive, but how to thrive.”

—R
ABBI
B
RADLEY
S
HAVIT
A
RTSON
, Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University and author of
God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology

“What struck me most about these stories is their clear, assured confidence—as if Michal had pulled apart some of the lines in the old story, spied a new story tucked in there way off in a corner, shimmied in a fishhook and pulled it out. They make their cases very convincingly.”

—A
IMEE
B
ENDER
, author of
The Color Master
and
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

“
After Abel
brings biblical women from the sidelines to the center of the story, in a compelling narrative reminiscent of Anita Diamant's
The Red Tent
. These beautifully written stories feel like meeting Eve, Lot's wife, and many other compelling characters for the first time. Michal Lemberger—more, please!”

—L
AUREL
C
ORONA
, author of
The Mapmaker's Daughter, Finding Emilie,
and
Penelope's Daughter

“The Bible is predominantly a set of books by and about men, with women usually mentioned only peripherally. In
After Abel,
Lemberger portrays biblical women in a way that makes them come alive as real people, with perspectives, concerns, and emotions of their own. Her modern midrash is true to all the biblical stories but enhances them in a way that I never thought possible. This may not have been how these biblical women actually thought and felt, but it probably was!”

—R
ABBI
E
LLIOT
D
ORFF
, Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the American Jewish University and author of
The Unfolding Tradition: Philosophies of Jewish Law

“This is a beautiful book of modern midrash—the ancient Jewish tradition of telling the stories between the Hebrew Bible's lines. The women I thought I knew have come alive in these gorgeous and captivating stories, and they are unlike anything I expected. Their bravery and radiance remained in my mind long after I finished reading.”

—D
ARA
H
ORN
, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and author of
A Guide for the Perplexed
and
The World to Come

“This is such an unusual book—how shall we begin to think of women behind the stentorian voices of the men who rule the scriptures—to think of them cooking slaughtered animals and caring for the children, to think of them being instructed constantly about how to behave, to live, to obey…who can possibly guess now what their real-time lives were like? Lemberger does a heroic job. What she gives us is an idea of what real women—women not unlike us—might have felt and thought in those times.”

—M
ERRILL
J
OAN
G
ERBER
, author of
The Hysterectomy Waltz
and
The Kingdom of Brooklyn

“Lemberger deepens our understanding of the stories we have heard many times and thought we knew. The women of the Bible come alive in all of their vulnerability and power. The stories in this book are a work of modern midrash—so necessary and so beautifully done. Bravo, Michal Lemberger, and may your stories inspire many more.”

—R
ABBI
S
USAN
G
OLDBERG
, Wilshire Boulevard Temple

“Lemberger's stories are marvelous compounds of scholarship, imagination, and empathy. Brought to life with rich historical detail, these biblical women, sidelined and silenced for centuries, prove to be audacious, utterly relatable, and spellbinding companions.”

—M
ICHELLE
H
UNEVEN
, author of
Blame
and
Off Course

“Imaginative leaps, the stories in
After Abel
transport the reader into fully realized biblical landscapes where we discover the experiences of characters whose shadowy presence in Hebrew scriptures inspire Lemberger's creative speculation. Like the classical midrashist, she elaborates the spaces between the text's choices, and by giving fullness of life to female presences merely hinted at in the Bible, she participates in the contemporary enterprise of bringing gender balance to the world of our mythic origins.”

—L
ORI
L
EFKOVITZ
, Ruderman Professor of Jewish Studies, Northeastern University

“These short stories about biblical women are moving, often ingenious, and even gripping. Lemberger combines an insightful knowledge of biblical women and their stories with an acute ability to more fully imagine their lives in ways that feel true to the biblical text. She answers many of the questions readers have long wanted to know. What did Lot's wife think about her husband's plan to offer his daughters to the men of Sodom? What about Haman's wife? Lemberger writes extremely well, with a touch of humor and plenty of compassion. This is a great read and the perfect choice for book groups and sisterhoods of all sorts.”

—A
DRIANE
L
EVEEN
, Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and author of
Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers

“A gorgeous book of inspired reimaginings, full of heartbreak and courage and piercing beauty.”

—B
EN
L
OORY
, author of
Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

“With a delightful play of the imagination, Lemberger has brought to life biblical characters and episodes that the Bible authors never dreamed of, while remaining gracefully faithful to the cultural ‘atmosphere' of biblical times.”

—O
SCAR
M
ANDEL
, California Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus of Literature and author of
Otherwise Fables

“The Hebrew Bible tells only the outline of most of its stories, and over the centuries many have filled in the white spaces with their own notions of back stories and behind-the-scenes drama. Yet rarely have those voices included those of women. In Lemberger's book, these blank spaces are filled in by the stories of women: brave, frightened, loving, and taking extreme measures to protect their children. The women are real, their stories are heartbreaking, their courage undeniable.
After Abel and Other Stories
is a truly welcome addition to understanding what the Bible could mean by looking at a side of the story rarely considered: the story of women.”

—T
AMMI
J. S
CHNEIDER
, Professor of Religion and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Claremont Graduate University and author of
An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion

“
After Abel and Other Stories
is a gem. For readers who enjoy the Bible as literature and compelling storytelling, Lemberger's exploration of the biblical women who are mentioned but then left without their own narratives is welcome and deeply engaging.”

—S
USAN
S
TRAIGHT
, author of
Between Heaven and Here
and
Highwire Moon

“Lemberger liberates the voices that are trapped beneath the text. A reimagining of the biblical tales done with artistry and erudition.”

—R
ABBI
D
AVID
W
OLPE
, Rabbi of Sinai Temple and author of
David: The Divided Heart
and
Why Faith Matters

Copyright © 2015 by Michal Lemberger

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lemberger, Michal.

 
[Short stories. Selections]

 
After Abel & other stories / Michal Lemberger ; foreword by Jonathan Kirsch. -- First edition.

     
pages cm

 
ISBN 978-1-938849-48-0

1.
  
Women in the Bible--Fiction.
  
I. Title. II. Title: After Abel and other stories.