In class Prof. Sexson paraphrased an essay he had written on the subject of Jacob's wrestling match with the mysterious being at Peniel. This being is traditionally identified as an angel, but the Revised Standard simply has it as "a man". A man? He obviously has some sort of power, evidenced by busting Jacob's thigh out of its socket *ouch* and by conveying the Blessing upon Jacob at daybreak--his name being changed to Isreal--. It obviously isn't a dualistic presentation of a divine being here, where good and evil exist in seperate categories. It rather is a combination of the two. It is simultaneously benign and terrifying. This is how we have been asked to consider the terms of "taboo" and "sublime". Something may be forbidden for one reason or another(abomination or holiness) but it is also extremely powerful, and in what way can this power be yielded?

And also the question of who gets the Blessing. In Genesis the Blessing doesn't necessarily go to those who are patient and righteous(who conventional wisdom seems to dictate should recieve it) but rather to those who are heroic vitalists, to employ Bloom's term for describing King David. It foes to who is most vital and heroic, like Herakles defeating the river god and recieving the cornucopia.
Interesting consideration.

I have heard of but never read The Red Tent; I am now a bit tempted to. Sounds like an imaginative interpretation of the baffling story of the Rape of Dinah. Was she actually raped? Or was there consent? There is contradiction and lacunae aplenty, here. As well as circumscion, which the J text leaves out of the story, which leads me to speculate on the possiblity of this element being included as a commentary on ancient tribal relations and the attempts of these various tribes to seperate themselves from one another, and to prevent integration from happening.

I don't know if that last sentance made any sense or not. But I hope it did. Somehow.