The Red Tent

Re-Mose prospers in his apprenticeship, but Dinah fears that when he returns, they will be strangers. She lives in a garden shed and feels she might have disappeared if not for Meryt. The midwife consults her for herbal remedies, and she feels she is at last putting her mothers’ wisdom to good use. Meryt asks Dinah to assist a pregnant woman named Hatnuf. Dinah knows Hatnuf’s baby is dead; however, there is a second baby, a twin. Hatnuf dies after the delivery, and Dinah fears she will be blamed. However, Meryt praises her for saving the surviving twin, and soon, the two women are known as the midwives of the neighborhood.

Dinah is paid in goods for delivering healthy babies and decides she needs a box to store them. Meryt accompanies her to the market, and they visit the stall of a carpenter offering an expensive ebony box. Dinah is drawn to the gentle carpenter, Benia, who has a soft voice and gnarled hands. He has no wife and will be moving to the village for men working in the Valley of the Kings. Benia accepts a small payment for the box and agrees to have it delivered.

Eventually, Re-Mose returns. He has been circumcised—as per Egyptian custom for teenagers—and looks like his father. As Dinah feared, he is a stranger, though he is courteous. There is a feast for Re-Mose, featuring a blind singer. Dinah approaches the singer and recognizes her as Werenro. She lifts her veil to reveal her scarred face: While returning to Mamre, she was attacked by three Canaanite men who sexually assaulted and tortured her. A shepherd boy found her, and his mother nursed her back to health. Werenro wanted Rebecca to believe she was dead, so sent back her cloak and sheep bones. She traveled to Tyre, learned to play the sistrum, and joined a group of musicians, but still feels empty. Dinah tells Werenro her own story, and weeps upon recalling her mothers’ deaths. Werenro reassures her that the story of her life is not yet finished.

Benia’s ebony box is delivered, but Dinah does not try to see him again, as she does not believe the life of a wife is for her. Months pass, and Dinah’s skill and reputation as a midwife grow. She curses a priest who threatens her when his concubine, a girl too young to be a mother, dies giving birth. Eventually, Re-nefer dies, and Dinah dreams that her soul is not at rest. Nakht-re then dies, and his house is given to a new scribe. Meryt decides to move in with one of her two sons, Menna, who lives in the village in the Valley of Kings; she invites Dinah to join them. When Dinah meets the new master of the house, “a narrow-minded tyrant with a temper that sometimes broke upon the backs of his servants” (261), she agrees to go. Menna and his wife, Shif-re, welcome Dinah. She says goodbye to the house in Thebes with no regret and takes her ebony box with her.

The village is crowded and dusty. Dinah feels out of place, but Meryt speaks highly of her to Menna and Shif-re. She is bored and eventually encounters a pregnant woman at the family well, telling the woman to call her when she enters labor. The birth goes well, and Dinah earns a reputation as a skilled midwife again. Re-Mose writes to say he is living in the house of the vizier, Zafenat Paneh-ah, as a scribe. Benia comes to visit, and Dinah agrees to be his wife.

Dinah adores Benia and keeping her own house, though she does not know how to cook. Benia shares memories of his father, of how he tried and failed to become a sculptor, of his wife and children who died of river fever. Dinah tells him of her son and previous husband’s murder. The couple enjoys their life together.

Re-Mose comes to ask Dinah to help the vizier’s pregnant wife, As-naat. She feels a gulf between them but agrees to help. The vizier is a foreigner, said to be a diviner who reads dreams, but is illiterate and depends on Re-Mose. Re-Mose feels the vizier is a “barbarian.” Dinah helps As-naat give birth to a son. Dinah then falls ill and is allowed to stay at the vizier’s house to recover. A servant, Shery, gossips about the vizier—framing him as an arrogant, handsome Canaanite man who likes to boast of his lowly beginnings. His brothers sold him to enslavers, and he was eventually sold to Po-ti-far, a palace guard. Po-ti-far’s wife had an affair with the future vizier, and he was sent to prison. He befriended the warden and interpreted the dreams of prisoners with such success that the king called upon him. When the man correctly interpreted a dream for the king, he was made his second-in-command. He demanded to circumcise his infant son, and Dinah assumes the vizier is her brother Joseph.

Re-Mose calls the vizier Joseph and asks if he knows a woman named Dinah. Joseph reveals Dinah went to Shechem as a bride, and Joseph’s brothers slaughtered all the men. Re-Mose is shocked to learn how his father died. Joseph says Dinah cursed their family and in return, her name “was blotted out, as though she had never drawn breath” (290). Re-Mose reveals Dinah is his mother and accuses Joseph of robbing him of his father, grandfather, birthright, and position in the king’s eyes. He declares he will kill Joseph, and Joseph puts him under guard.

Dinah confronts Joseph and demands to know what will happen to Re-Mose. Joseph says he will send him away. Dinah realizes her once-beloved brother has changed into a schemer. She does not want to see him again, but he insists she attend his wife’s next childbirth. She says goodbye to Re-Mose and reveals his father’s name was Shalem and that they loved each other. Dinah tells Re-Mose that his birth name is Bar-Shalem, and hopes he will forgive her someday. Re-Mose is silent, and she leaves.

Dinah is happy to be home with her friends and husband Benia. At last, she tells Meryt her full story. Meryt comforts her, saying Dinah is like her daughter. Dinah now spends her days “without the weight of the past crushing my heart” (299). Joseph’s wife bears a second son, and he sends Dinah a gift. When Benia wonders why she is receiving gifts from the vizier, Dinah tells him her history. Her past now feels like a story to her, while Benia is her reality. Eventually, Meryt ages and falls ill, and Dinah sits with her as she dies, whispering to fear not. The nights after, Dinah dreams of Meryt, Bilhah, Zilpah, and Rachel. Finally, when she reaches menopause, Leah embraces her in a dream and says Dinah is the old one now, the grandmother giving wisdom.

One day, Joseph comes to Dinah’s door. Jacob is dying, and Joseph wants her to accompany him to his deathbed. Joseph reveals their brothers came to the vizier, starving and seeking refuge, and he himself punished them. Jacob wants to give Joseph’s sons his blessing, but Joseph fears it will instead be a curse. Dinah tries and fails to see her beloved brother in the self-absorbed man before her. Joseph reminds Dinah that this trip is her chance to see the fruits of her mothers’ wombs. She and Benia agree to go. They sail on the king’s ship, and Benia teaches Dinah how to swim.

Dinah is shocked to find that Jacob’s encampment is the size of a small town. Her and Joseph’s brother Judah greets their procession. He says there is no undoing the wrongs of the past, but Joseph can give their father Jacob peace. Dinah is both furious and relieved that none of her brothers recognize her. Joseph meets with Jacob, who blesses his sons but does not speak of Dinah. As the family waits for Jacob to die, a girl approaches Dinah. She is Gera, the daughter of her brother Benjamin. Gera reveals the fates of their family: Reuben was never forgiven by Jacob; Simon and Levi were murdered in Tanis by a trader they tried to cheat; and Judah is the clan leader now. She names all the wives, children, and grandchildren. She then relates what she knows of what happened in Shechem: Simon took a wife from the town, but when their son learned what his father did, he drowned himself. Gera says the family does not know what happened to Dinah. Dinah reflects that at least her story is not forgotten.

Jacob dies and is buried. As Dinah and Joseph prepare to leave, Judah approaches Dinah with a gift that Leah left her: Rachel’s lapis ring. Dinah says goodbye to Joseph and returns home. Her last years are good ones, and when she dies, she sees the women of her family gathered around her. Her soul lingers to watch Benia die and Re-Mose have many children. Dinah thinks that, like the lotus, people who are loved never die, and she blesses her listener.