Motherhood and nation: The voice of women artists in Israel's bereavement and memorial discourse

This article offers an interpretive reading of current works of art by women that indicate the paradoxical place of the woman artist as a mother in the cycle of militarism and attitudes toward the discourse of bereavement and commemoration. My hypothesis is that the arts herald or anticipate the trauma by seeking to express something that may be called “pre- and counter-commemoration.” This interpretation of these artists' stance expands on insights arising from the notion of “counter-memory” to discuss a paradoxical form of commemoration that refuses to acquiesce in the cycle of militarism and memorialization. The article offers an integrated examination of theory and practices in the historical context of motherhood and nationalism and, specifically, of women artists in Israel in recent decades in the “discourse of bereavement” as opposed to the “discourse of the bereaved.”     

MEASURE FOR MEASURE IN THE DAVID STORIES*

Abstract

This article briefly surveys the direct and indirect ways in which the principal of measure for measure is manifested in biblical narrative. It proceeds to examine how it is applied in the David cycle, where it is particularly prominent. David, more than any other human character in the Bible, refers to this principle both in his words and his deeds. His motives are both theological and political. He rewards and punishes measure for measure, but is himself punished according to the same principle. The article examines the different levels on which “measure for measure” works in the David stories: the human plane (David and the human characters around him), the divine plane (between David and the Lord), and the interaction between these two.