My Mother was a Wandering Aramaean

Abstract

This chapter explores the applicability of Rosi Braidotti’s theory of nomadic becoming to the Hebrew Bible by way of two examples: Lot’s unfortunate wife, and Ruth, the Moabite who became an Israelite. Nomadic theory is distinguished from most current feminist and postcolonial approaches by its dynamic understanding of identity and its emphasis on change and affirmation rather than oppression and loss. Framed as instances of ‘nomadic becoming’, Ruth and Lot’s wife can be seen to effectively undermine conventional approaches to (Israelite) identity as fixed and opposed to various ‘others’. Read as ‘nomadic figurations’, they prove Braidotti’s claim that minorities—in this case, women and ethnic outsiders—must lead the way towards an ethics that has overcome the opposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’.