Motherhood is complicated.  The Torah teaches us this.  It is filled with women whose mothers are absent, who struggle to become mothers, struggle to raise their children, and endure physical and emotional losses along the way.  

Chava (Eve) loses a child to fratricide when her son Cain kills his brother Hevel (Abel). 

Sarah struggles to conceive for decades and is so desperate to have a child that she encourages her husband, Abraham, to take another wife and carry on his legacy through another woman.

Rivka (Rebecca) also struggles to become pregnant, and when she does, experiences such a difficult pregnancy that she bemoans, “Why me?!” Then, as they age, her sons grow to hate each other, and she is forced to choose between them.

Rachel also struggles to grow her family and dies during childbirth as her son Binyamin (Benjamin) enters the world.  

And the list goes on.  

There are women whose children we never hear about, like Queen Esther, perhaps they were not mothers, and there are many women whose mothers are never mentioned. Were they alive? Were they estranged? Was their role in their daughter’s life not significant enough to warrant mentioning? 

As I reflect upon these snapshots of motherhood in the Torah, I am so grateful to see that the Torah does not present us with the flawless image, the Hallmark card version of mothers and mothering. The Torah makes space for all those who struggle with the loss of their mother, family estrangement, fertility struggles, and the loss of a child to be reflected in its text—to be seen and to be heard.  

Each year as Mother’s........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)