SPECIAL  PERMISSIONHOME | BOOKFACE | NOTES| MUSIC | POETRY|GALLERYRainbow Logo by Cynthia AdamsBooks1st.comOur online 1st Editions Bookstore will be openinghereFROM THE SHELFUNCLE JOHN'S NIGHTSTAND A Novel byANITA DIAMANTThe Red TentReview by Uncle JohnPart 1Anita Diamant gives us this wonderful narrative. This is told in the first person by Dinah from the Bible. This is her story. She is not just a footnote in the Bible but an important bridge between God and man. Dinah is born to Leah, her last child and Jacob’s first daughter and eleventh child. People familiar with the Genesis story know who Jacob and Rachel and Leah and Joseph are, but are not familiar with Dinah’s story told so eloquently here, true to her Biblical character. Unlike the "Noah" movie, The Lifetime TV series recently presenting “The Red Tent” stays true to the Biblical narrative. Anita’s book is called a novel because she uses the original narrative, fills in the blanks and unfolds the continuing story in logical sequence.  She takes few liberties that are different from the Bible’s version, like calling Issa & Tali twins, but Naphtali was birthed by Bilhah and Issachar by Leah. Tali’s name means “my struggle” which referred specifically to a struggle between sisters Rachel and Leah because Rachel could not bear any children. Rachel prayed in vain as Leah bore Jacob seven children. When Dinah was born, the Bible says “God remembered Rachel” and opened her womb and she became pregnant with Joseph, a bridge to destiny. Dinah and Joseph were close in age, and as she had no sisters, she found much in common with him who was different from her other brothers.One of the important themes of this book is forgiveness, the key to every door of understanding. The stubbornness of their hardened hearts is what kept them repeatedly from opening this door and the consequences of their attitudes and actions unfolded the drama in their lives.In the ancient Hebrew the Bible was written in, tent is “a tabernacle, a covering, and dwelling place”. Red in Hebrew can mean rosy, or “chaklîyl” as Jacob used the word in a blessing to Judah, one of Dinah’s blood brothers, and means “darkly flashing eyes, in a good sense, brilliant as stimulated by wine”. It can also refer to the blood connection here, blood relatives gathering in the female tent where menstruation and birthing took place, blood here being the color of life. It was the place where only women gather, to talk about first love or breast feeding, to sing songs together and tell stories to one another. It shows the importance of all four mothers of Jacob’s children, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah,  and the role they played in their children's destiny. Chapter 34 in Genesis is a violent recount of Biblical characters centered around Dinah and the consequence of her actions of not following family traditions. This was a time and age where family and tribal cultures made all the rules. This was before God gave the commandments to