5. My husband’s words found their
mark, and I recalled something that Zilpah had told me when I was
a child in the red tent, and far too young to understand her meaning.
“We are all born of the same mother,” she said. After a lifetime,
I knew that to be true.
This quote is from Dinah’s narration
at the very end of the novel in Part Three, Chapter Five. Dinah
has just returned home from visiting her family’s camp with Joseph
after many years away. There she encountered Judah, who gave her
Rachel’s ring, a gift passed on from Leah. Ever since she received
the ring, Dinah has tried to understand why Leah would leave her
a token of Jacob’s love for Rachel. Benia believes it is because
Leah found peace with sharing her husband. Leah wanted Dinah to
know that, despite the conflicts between the sisters, they loved
one another and especially loved Dinah. Dinah understands that as
women they are connected to one another as derivations of the great
goddess, a fact that supersedes individual wants and needs. Dinah
is as much Rachel’s daughter as she is Leah’s and Zilpah’s and Bilhah’s,
because they all share the same relationship with the goddesses
and the Earth. In Meryt, Dinah has been lucky enough to find yet
another mother during her life. Dinah realizes that their love indeed
unites them and makes them all one.
