Rachel S. Havrelock. River : The Mythology of a Dividing Line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. xiii + 320 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-226-31957-5.

Reviewed by Harold Brodsky

Published on H-Judaic (June, 2012)

Commissioned by Jason Kalman (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion)

The Jordan was a bountiful river in biblical Sea--a distance only about ninety miles as the times but useless for agriculture or commerce. crow fies. From the Kinneret to the Salt Sea not a Any attempt by to grow crops on its single city was located on its banks. (, an banks would have been frustrated by fooding. oasis, is several miles from the Jordan and de‐ One can sense the disappointment: “The Jordan pends on a spring for its water supply--not the Jor‐ overfows all its banks during the harvest season” ). The Israelites needed a in order to ( 3:15). Unfortunately, the technological cross from one side of this river to the other when means of lifting water from this river to higher frst entering the Land. Unlike the in , ground for irrigation had not yet been invented. or the Tigris and Euphrates in , the Think of it--all that fresh water--the only major Jordan was never, nor could it ever be, the basis river in the land, fowing worthlessly into an for civilization. Yet the Jordan was not without in‐ acrid sea. Prosperity in The Land of was al‐ fuence, especially in myth, both in biblical times most entirely dependent on rainfall and therefore and to this day. subject to drought. Havrelock in her book River Jordan: Moreover, not only was the Jordan useless for The Mythology of a Dividing Line explores the ef‐ agriculture, it was also a barrier that impeded fect the Jordan had on biblical narratives, and east-west travel. A good part of the year the Jor‐ also the way this river is viewed now, both politi‐ dan was dangerously swift, frigid, and too deep to cally and religiously. The book is therefore both a ford. Even during autumn low fow there were commentary on selected texts of the and a few places for crossings. Nor was the river naviga‐ look at the Jordan in current Israeli-Palestinian af‐ ble. It so much that it needs to fow fairs. over a path of two hundred miles from its head‐ waters near Mt. Hermon to its outlet at the Salt H-Net Reviews

She begins with an examination of the two ir‐ the way. However, these boundaries are still in reconcilable boundary descriptions of the the Good Book and thus continue to have inter‐ . On the one hand, Numbers 34 preters. In 1988, , then chairman of and seem to favor the Jordan as a ri‐ the Liberation Organization, claimed parian for the , but on the that an Israeli coin showed a map of “Greater Is‐ other hand, Genesis 15 and Exodus 23 seem to ex‐ rael” reaching to the Euphrates, which to him rep‐ tend its territories to the Euphrates River. Why resented Zionist expansionist goals.[2] two maps? Numerous explanations have been of‐ If the of the Jordan was Israel fered for these difering territorial descriptions. proper, then according to the Bible, the east bank Rabbi Schwarz, in his book on the geogra‐ consisted of peoples and nations related to Israel, phy of Palestine published in English in 1850 but evidently deviant from it. East bankers lived (available online), piously suggested that territory on the “other side of the tracks,” so to speak. Were extending to the Euphrates was only held out as the people of Sodom condemned in the biblical reward should the Israelites “live according to the narrative because of sexual perversity? Havrelock will and commandments of God,” which was argues that the principle defect of Sodom was clearly unattainable in biblical times, and pre‐ greed. When Joshua crosses over the Jordan all sumably in modern times as well.[1] the tribes go with him, but then the two and a half Havrelock sees merit in a study by Moshe We‐ return to the east bank, becoming, as Havrelock infeld suggesting that these boundary diferences suggests, the earliest example of Diaspora Jewry. have their basis in difering textual sources. A The region of across the Jordan is both part narrow non-inclusive Priestly source may have of biblical Israel, and a site of uncertainty and rejected the east bank of the Jordan as legitimate tension. The narrative of at the Jabbok fts Israelite territory, while a more open and expan‐ this characterization. sionary Deuteronomistic school may have pre‐ What was so appealing--but also degrading-- ferred to see boundaries extended to the Eu‐ about Moabite daughters? And given the condem‐ phrates. nation of Moab, how are we to understand the Alternatively, Havrelock ofers her own idea that story of Ruth, the Moabite? Havrelock sees the these difering mappings may represent a verbal Book of Ruth as revolutionary. For the narrative “strategy of resistance.” The map with Jordan as a suggests that foreigners can become part of Israel, boundary confgured the outer limits of the Land and that there is a place for “women in the poli‐ of as held at various times by the imperial tics and economy of land ownership” (p. 63). ambitions of Egypt, while the map from the Eu‐ The Jordan also becomes the site of prophetic phrates south confgured the imperial ambitions successions. At the Jordan departs and of Mesopotamian empires, mostly Babylon. It is as Joshua becomes his successor. is taken up if the biblical authors were thumbing their noses and becomes his successor. And in the New at Egypt and its ambitions over the Land of Testament gives way to . The Canaan (with the Jordan as a boundary), while Jordan is subject to two difering religious inter‐ also rejecting Babylonian infuence south of the pretations: a crossing of the Jordan as redemp‐ Euphrates, since this land was promised to Abra‐ tion, in Jewish thought; and immersion in its wa‐ ham. ters as rebirth, in Christian thought. The issue of Not much these days is said about the Christian is raised in the narrative of Promised Land of Israel extending to the Eu‐ and Elisha, where the waters of the Jor‐ phrates--what with Iraq, Lebanon, and in dan have a healing, and renewal, aspect. Havre‐

2 H-Net Reviews lock searches out diferences in interpretations of an ecological wonder, or disaster. Any one of this narrative by the fathers of the early church, these themes could have been the one and only and the rabbis of the Talmud. theme of a book. Unfortunately, together they do In the chapter titled “Two Maps,” the author not make a coherent whole. Biblical scholars will, refers to two texts in the Talmud, one (Berekoth I think, be mostly interested in the frst part of 55a) concerns a disagreement among the rabbis this book, on boundaries, on the story of and about the Jordan as a boundary. Is the Jordan lim‐ Sodom, on Jacob and his relation as to Esau, on ited to the area downstream from Jericho to the Moab and the Book of Ruth, on Elisha and Elijah. Salt Sea? Or is the Jordan a river that descends The author elicits new views about these familiar from Mt. Hermon and crosses two seas before en‐ narratives. But this is not an easy book to read, as tering the Salt Sea? The second text of the Talmud Havrelock ofers subtle distinctions. Like the Jor‐ (Baba Bathra 74b) ofers a charming story about dan, some of her suggestions are difcult to tra‐ the waters of the Jordan descending into the verse, but elsewhere her views are refreshing. mouth of the . This story suggested a Notes colorful explanation of why the Salt Sea did not [1]. Joseph Schwartz, A Descriptive Geography increase in size, since it had no apparent way of and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, trans. I. absorbing the Jordan waters other than the myth‐ Leeser (Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1850), 18. ical Leviathan. Another story links the waters of [2]. On the “Ten Agorot Controversy” see, for the Jordan with universal waters that encircle the example, Daniel Pipes, “Imperial Israel: The Nile- earth and emanate from the four rivers of the to-Euphrates Calumny,” Quarterly Garden of Eden. Clearly the rabbis were given to (March 1994), available at http:// fantasy about the Jordan. www.danielpipes.org/247/imperial-israel-the-nile- The last two chapters in this book deal with to-euphrates-calumny. the river as a border in Israeli and Palestinian na‐ tional mythology, beginning with a discussion of the administrative districts of the Ottoman Em‐ pire and ending with transitions at the bridge over the river Jordan as it exists now. The book concludes with a discussion of “The Baptism Busi‐ ness,” the efort of three diferent sites to capture the interest of Christians who want to experience baptism in the Jordan. Will the Jordan ever be‐ come the bases for an international peace park, as has been proposed? The author has in essence written two books. The frst 217 pages function as a commentary on selected biblical texts loosely threaded together by myths about the Jordan. The following 70 pages deal with contemporary issues on bound‐ ary determination and baptismal tourism. Collec‐ tively, these successfully demonstrate that the Jor‐ dan can be a border, a place of spiritual transi‐ tion, a divisive barrier, a subject of fantasy, and

3 H-Net Reviews

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-judaic

Citation: Harold Brodsky. Review of Havrelock, Rachel S. River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. June, 2012.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=35086

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

4