A Midrashic Look at Red Lipstick

I started writing this post a few weeks ago when this article was published in Lilith. In it Dasi Frucher writes about her daily morning ritual which makes her feel, “all at once powerful, beautiful and uniquely feminine.” With the simple act of smearing red lipstick on her lips she is reminded of her potential and strength and urges herself to be her best. But, if her red lipstick is an acceptable component of her professional life in which she studies non-profit management in NYU, it has become a matter of debate in her religious studies in Yeshivat Maharat. During a lunch break she and a colleague were discussing tzniut:

Considering the controversial space the Yeshiva already occupies in a broader global Orthodox context, we agreed that though our clothing choices should not completely hide our the fact that we are, in fact, sexual beings, that anything too provocative was inappropriate.
I paused for a moment and gestured towards my lips.
“What about my lipstick,?” I asked nervously, almost unwilling to hear her response.
She paused.
“Maybe pick a different color,” she said.

There’s a seemingly innocuous passuk in Parshat Vayakhel which is made pregnant with meaning by the Midrash Tanhuma.

וַיַּעַשׂ אֵת הַכִּיּוֹר נְחֹשֶׁת וְאֵת כַּנּוֹ נְחֹשֶׁת בְּמַרְאֹת הַצֹּבְאֹת אֲשֶׁר צָבְאוּ פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד:

And he made the sink (of the Tabernacle) out of brass and its base out of brass from the mirrors of the legions who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Although the verse lends itself easily to a simple interpretation, the Midrash Tanhuma saw fit to expand upon the word “legions.” If elsewhere in the Biblical narrative of the departure from Egypt the word “legions” is seen as an indication of the large mass of people who left Egypt (as opposed to the small family which arrived there), then here too it could have a similar meaning. Therefore, the passuk is reinterpreted to mean not “the mirrors of the legion,” but, “the mirrors which caused the legions.” While obviously this reading is not the original intent, it allows for an intriguing narrative that “fills in the blanks” to give us more information on the connection between mirrors and population change.

אתה מוצא בשעה שהיו ישראל בעבודת פרך במצרים גזר עליהם פרעה שלא יהיו ישנים בבתיהן שלא יהיו משמשין מטותיהן, אמר רבי שמעון בר חלפתא מהו היו בנות ישראל עושות יורדות לשאוב מים מן היאור והקב"ה היה מזמין להם דגים קטנים בתוך כדיהן והן מוכרות ומבשלות מהן ולוקחות מהן יין והולכות לשדה ומאכילות את בעליהן שם שנא' (שמות א) בכל עבודה בשדה, משהיו אוכלין ושותין נוטלות המראות ומביטות בהן עם בעליהן זאת אומרת אני נאה ממך וזה אומר אני נאה ממך ומתוך כך היו מרגילין עצמן לידי תאוה ופרין ורבין... בזכות אותן המראות שהיו מראות לבעליהן ומרגילות אותן לידי תאוה מתוך הפרך העמידו כל הצבאות שנאמר (שם /שמות/ יב) יצאו כל צבאות ה' מארץ מצרים ואומר הוציא ה' את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים על צבאותם (שם /שמות י"ב/), כיון שאמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה לעשות את המשכן עמדו כל ישראל ונתנדבו... הביאו בזריזות הכל, אמרו הנשים מה יש לנו ליתן בנדבת המשכן, עמדו והביאו את המראות והלכו להן אצל משה, כשראה משה אותן המראות זעף בהן, אמר להם לישראל טולו מקלות ושברו שוקיהן של אלו, המראות למה הן צריכין, א"ל הקב"ה למשה משה על אלו אתה מבזה, המראות האלו הן העמידו כל הצבאות הללו במצרים טול מהן ועשה מהן כיור נחשת וכנו לכהנים שממנו יהיו מתקדשין הכהנים...

When Yisrael were performing labor in Egypt, Pharoh decreed that they (i.e. the men) should not sleep at home so that they should not sleep with their wives. Rabbi Shimon b. Halafta said, What did the Bnot Yisrael do? They would go down to the Nile and draw water and God would cause little fish to go into their pails and they would sell and cook them and buy with the money earned from them wine. And they would go out to the fields and feed their husbands there, as it says, “in all the work of the fields.” And when they were eating and drinking they would take out their mirrors and look at them with their husbands and she would say, “I’m prettier than you” and he would say, “I’m prettier than you.” And thus they would awaken their desire and multiply... In the merit of those mirrors that they would show their husbands and awaken their desire despite the labor they created all the legions, as it says, “all the legions of God went out from Egypt” and it says, “God took Bnei Yisrael from the land of Egypt as legions.” When God told Moshe to make the Tabernacle all of Yisrael came and donated... they brought everything hastily, and the women said, “What do we have to give for a donation to the Tabernacle?” They got up and they brought their mirrors and took them to Moshe, and when Moshe saw their mirrors he was angry with them and he told Yisrael, “Get rods and break the legs of these [women], for why do they need mirrors?” God said to Moshe, “These you are disgracing?! These mirrors created all these legions in Egypt. Take them and make with them a sink and its base for the Priests and from it the Priests will make themselves holy.

Although this story has become a popular one, largely due to its inclusion in the commentary of Rashi, I think it is often only given a cursory perusal without any real concern for its meaning.

One important note is the primary role of the woman as an accomplice to Yisrael. In other words, the male population is considered the “real” nation - they are the laborers, the ones who cannot sleep in their homes, and they are the ones who left en masse from Egypt - and “Bnot Yisrael” play a supporting rule - enticing and birthing them. This becomes very obvious as we approach the main elements of the plot, the women wonder to themselves what they have to donate, supporting characters don’t have any physical belongings. Finally, in the first organized Religious Feminist campaign they band together and donate their relatively valueless brass (compared to the gold, silver, and gems being donated by their men) mirrors.

Not unlike Religious Feminists today, however, these women are forced to prove the worth of their actions to a suspicious leadership. Moshe tells the men to beat their wives, after all there is no place for vanity and self-beautification in the holy camps of Israel. However, God himself intervenes and explains the significance of these mirrors. The evil inclination was not the driving force in these women’s grooming, they were using them to entice their husbands. In other words, even within this independent attempt to be included in the building of the Tabernacle, the women are once again relegated to their role as supporting characters. This story makes it crystal clear: The Women of Israel cannot be sexual beings unless it’s what the Men of Israel need.

A topic I’ve thought a lot about over the years is the relationship between sexuality and gender identity in the context of Judaism. When I was in seminary (and really even already in high school) the desire to be a Torah scholar translated into a weird attempt to “masculanize” myself. My primary models of great scholars were men and therefore emulation became, unwittingly, a submission of my female-ness to the cause. I called it being “tzanua,” but it was really more a point of view which assumed that my sexuality was inherently problematic (not unlike the voice of Moshe in the Tanhuma) and which extended far beyond what modesty required of me. When I stopped being religious I discovered lipstick, fashion, and an array of other things which I had previously belittled as feminine trifles. This may have been my own unique experience, but when I look back at the people with whom I was surrounded I think it was something that was shared by many of us, if not our teachers as well.

As a secular Feminist too, the relationship to sexuality is complex. Is there such a thing as sexuality outside the context of The Other? Can my desire to groom myself, to dress a certain way, etc. be divorced from the reality of the admiration I might glean from the opposite gender? The balance is difficult to strike and seems to be a lifelong battle between embracing one’s femininity without inviting or engaging objectification. As per usual, I don’t have answers, only an avalanche of questions that assault me every time I look in the mirror.