Leadership Emerging from under a Palm Tree

‘Deborah Under The Palm Tree,’
by Adriene Cruz (1995)

At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgement. She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, “Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.”

Barak said to her, ‘If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.’

And she said, ‘I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.’

Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. 

Judges 4: 1-9 (NRSVA)

In her book “Unveiled”, that I have already cited a couple of times in this series, Clare Hayns, makes fleeting reference in her reflection on Deborah to a 2019 lecture at Girton College by Lady Brenda Hale, former President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (she who wore the famous diamante Spider brooch when passing judgement against Boris Johnston’s government for proroguing parliament) entitled "100 Years of Women in Law" marking the centenary of Ada Jane Summers' becoming the first British woman to preside over a trial as a magistrate. As Clare points out, women now make up over half of all magistrates, but they are still significantly under-represented in the judiciary, not just in the UK but also globally. The Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity 2012 found that “in a democratic society the judiciary should reflect the diversity of society." Brenda Hale has been a powerful advocate for better gender representation in the profession, and indeed better representation of all aspects of society – gender, class, race, religion. In her Girton College lecture she referred to a ruling of the United States Supreme Court on April 15th 1873 where they decided in the case of Bradwell v. Illinois. The Illinois Supreme court had previously denied Mrs Myra Bradwell’s application for a license to practice law on February 5th 1870, with Chief Justice Charles B. Lawrence stating that

“God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action and that it belonged to men to make, apply, and execute the laws, was regarded as an almost axiomatic truth.”

Mrs Bradwell appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in his judgement supporting the determination of the Illinois court, Justice Joseph Bradley suggested that there was no historic precedent that women had the right to engage in “any and every profession, occupation, or employment in civil life.” Instead, as he said in an infamous passage quoted in part by Baroness Hale

“The civil law, as well as nature herself, has always recognized a wide difference in the respective spheres and destinies of man and woman. Man is, or should be, woman’s protector and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life.”

By way of contrast in her lecture Baroness Hale outlined what her Supreme Court colleague Lord Hope had previously dubbed the "Brenda Agenda", as the belief that

“women are equal to men and should enjoy the same rights and freedoms that they do; but that women's lives are necessarily sometimes different from men's and the experience of leading those lives is just as valid and important in shaping the law as is the experience of men's lives.”

I suspect that Brenda Hale, Myra Bradwell and Ada Jane Summers (and Clare Hayns) are more in tune with the spirit of Deborah in the book of Judges, than the 19th century American justices and their ilk in the present day. I despair of those who side-line and denigrate women in the church and wider society, and saddened that so many men, both those who grew up in an age where male dominance was a given, and younger ones influenced by Andrew Tate and his Christian equivalents, clearly feel threatened by women in positions of authority. But if I am saddened and despairing, I cannot imagine how my female colleagues feel.

Deborah is the first person - male or female – described as a “prophet” in Israel since the time of Moses, but she was also the only woman that we know of who acted as a “judge” in early Israel. The role of a judge was to mediate disputes, give strategic advice in conflicts and impart God's will to the community. The people of Israel at this point were a loosely organised group of tribes who were learning how to live in a settled way under God's covenant in the “Promised Land” after years in the wilderness. The book of Judges chronicles a repeated cycle of deviation from God’s law into idolatry, God then becomes angry and hands them over to their enemies who oppress them; the people cry out for mercy, which God sends in the form of an inspired 'judge' who rescues them; they return to normal life for a while and then forget about God and start worshipping Baal or other gods again, and the cycle repeats.

And it is in one of those cycles that we encounter Deborah in the passage above. The subsequent verses finds that God Barak's army does defeat Jabin's, largely through a the "natural disaster" of a flash flood bogging down his "iron chariots", but his general Sisera escapes, only to meet his death at the hands of a woman, Jael, armed with a hammer and a tent peg... Enough to make insecure men wary of going camping with their girlfriends!

The chapter after this is largely made up of what is often called “The Song of Deborah” supposedly sung by Deborah and Barak in victory, retelling the story of Deborah, Barak and the tent-peg wielding Jael, as well as adding in the details of Sisera’s mother looking longingly out of her window expecting her son’s return in victory, which has led to it being called the “Song of Three Women.” Textual analysis suggests that this is actually the older of the two accounts, indeed that it is one of the oldest pieces of written Hebrew in the scriptures. It is revered in Rabbinic tradition as one of the 10 great songs of scripture, with Deborah herself held up as one of the most exemplary women in Jewish history: a righteous judge, teacher of Torah, a prophet with the same ability as Samuel, one of the seven prophetesses God raised in Israel (Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther) and referred to by at least one commentator as "redeemer of Israel" a particularly powerful title. There are a number of midrashes regarding Deborah and her husband Lappidoth, but we don’t have time to go into them here, although some suggest that Lappidoth and Barak were actually the same person...

Deborah in the passage we have read is pictured “sitting under the Palm of Deborah.” This time we can be relatively certain of what species of tree this is referring to. However, it isn’t the ornamental “Palm Trees” that are familiar in some Irish Gardens... Most of then are, technically speaking not palms at all, but Cordylines, or “Cabbage Trees” as they are called in their native Australia... The palm Deborah sat under was almost certainly the date palm (phoenix dactylifera), which, although it was not widespread in Palestine – it is a plant of the fertile, well-watered lowlands rather than the hill country (hence the palm leaves for Palm Sunday would have to have been brought up to Jerusalem from Jericho), it ultimately became symbolic of freedom, victory, peace and prosperity... the fulfilment of God’s promises to his people. The image of the date palm has been found as an ornament on pottery in the area dated from 1800BC and became the symbol for Judea to both Jews and Romans, signifying region, culture and identity.

Some Rabbis suggest that Deborah had to sit outdoors, under a palm, to teach Torah in public, because a woman would not normally be alone with men within her house, but there are other accounts of judgements being issued in the open air, eg at city gates etc

The Biblical narrative presents Deborah as an influential woman who who has the authority to summon Barak and duly give him orders which he is reluctant to carry out on his own, asking her to join him on the battlefield. There has been much debate in both Rabbinic and Christian literature as to whether Barak subjecting himself to Deborah’s authority and leadership on the battlefield, and therefore ultimately losing the credit for the victory was laudable or shameful. Regardless of whether Barak was right or wrong in his request to Deborah to join him on the battlefield, her words came true, and the ultimate credit and glory went to Deborah and Jael, two women.

Again there is a midrashic tradition that suggests that Deborah was displaying pride where she describes herself as “a mother in/of Israel” in her song in Judges 5: 7, resulting in her losing her prophetic gift... but scripture doesn’t say that... it simply says that there were 40 years of peace after this... There is little doubt that these traditions are a function of some (men) trying, after the event to put this woman back in her “proper place.”

Other traditions, in contrast, take a favourable view of the cooperation between Deborah and Barak, not just in terms of gender cooperation but also in terms of leadership... that those issuing orders should subject themselves to the same risks and rigours as those they are leading. And that people should not be afraid to hand over leadership to others appropriately gifted even if it goes against our own interests, pride or the contemporary mores of society.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• What women (alive or dead) have inspired you in your life?
• Can you think of examples of women leaders, inside the church or in wider society, being subject to commentary aimed at keeping them “in their place”?
• Do we critique women in leadership in ways that we do not critique or comment on men in a similar position? (Why did Lady Hale's spider brooch elicit so much comment?)
• What do you think makes for a good leader?
• What characteristics might women bring to a leadership situation that men tend not to?
• How might we encourage greater diversity, not just in terms of gender but in all ways, within the leadership of church and society?

PRAYER
(borrowed again from Clare Hayns, but she in turn was quoting William Temple...)
O God of righteousness, lead us, we pray, in the ways of justice and peace:
inspire us to break down all oppression and wrong,
to gain for everyone their due reward, and from everyone their due service
that each may live for all, and all may care for each,
in the name Of Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944)