Annual Reading Schedule - Torah Given Through Mosheh - Week 9 - Dinah Defiled & Yitschaq Dies (Genesis 32:19-37:2)

In Genesis 35:21, as well as other places I was reminded of when studying this portion, the Ancient Hebrew Research Center Mechanical Translation points out that the translation should read "her tent". This apparently happens in multiple places, not just this verse. Jeff Benner of the Ancient Hebrew Research Center shared his view with me once that in the modern day Bedouin culture, which he says is very similar to that of Avraham's in the days of Avraham, has it to where the tents are actually culturally considered the wives', and that is why it is referred to as "her tent". Genesis 24:67 does say Yitschaq brought Rivqah into his Mother Sarah's tent, not his tent. However, I don't necessarily view all the details or things the same as Jeff.

One day as I was researching about the Bedouins I found information stating that all women are have their own tent to live in because it is how they deal with a man having more than one wife. One website said each woman does with her tent as she desires, storing her belongings there, and uses it also for raising her children; with the husband visiting each wife's tent as he desires to do so. This may have decreased situations of rivalry to an extent, the website claimed.

I later then also re-read Genesis 31:33 which clearly shows that, YES, all wives did have their own tents (even the female servants who were wives). However, Genesis 31:33 also shows that Ya'aqov had HIS own tent. So while yes, the wives had their own tents, so did the husband. So it appears everyone had their own tents. This makes sense because what if the women's cycles of their monthly period were going at the same time and the man needed to be separated from them? Or what if he needed alone space to pray to Yahweh? So it makes sense that the husband and also each wife would have had their own separate space and their own separate tent, and the children would likely mainly reside in the tent of their Mother.

Perhaps Yitschaq did bring Rivqah into his Mother Sarah's tent because Rivqah was essentially inheriting Sarah's tent (in a sense) to be hers. However, who is to say Yitschaq had only one tent?!?!? After all, he was very well off, wasn't he? Perhaps he was dwelling in his father Avraham's tent and Sarah's tent was empty until Rivqah came. And, perhaps, once Rivqah came, she ‘inherited' Sarah's tent while Yitschaq could have continued still with his own tent as well. This is yet another way to speculate about the situation and why it is written the way it is. To think that someone as well-off as Yitschaq only had one tent is probably not accurate. We can see his son Ya'aqov had multiple tents, one for himself and one for each of his wives, so he could have as well.

Also, the website I found online said the Bedouin women are mostly responsible for creating and upkeep of the tent materials including the goats hair and possibly the accompanying ropes. It said the women weave squares of goats hair together to make the tent material. I'm not quite sure how the ropes were made though. Maybe this was another process of weaving of some type.

I did some basic research and confirmed it does appear there are two different spellings for "his tent" אָהֳל֑וֹ and "her tent" אָהֳלֹֽה – so unless there is an explanation as to why both of these spellings would be "his tent", I would have to agree they appear to be distinct and that one means "his tent" while another means "her tent". If this is correct – then it appears most translations and grammatical tools ignore this and just put "his tent" in both cases – maybe unable to mentally reconcile "her tent" making sense? Or do they have information to explain why "his tent" could be spelled two different ways? I don't have a problem thinking that a man goes into his wife's tent or pitches his wife's tent for her – that doesn't mean he didn't also have his own tent and pitch his own tent as well. Genesis 31:33 is the key verse to show that men and women both had their own tents.