In a very interesting article hot off the press, Dr. Yael Shemesh, Professor at Bar-Ilan University, considers acts of mourning and how different ancient cultures—especially in the Ancient Near East and the Bible—process grief.
In the Ancient Near Eastern literature, “wandering about” was a way that various literary characters and gods expressed mourning.1 This even occurs in the Bible. For example, in the horrific story of the sacrifice (murder?) of Jephthah’s daughter, she asks her father if she “may go and wander on the mountains” (Judg 11:37). Job bemoans that he “wanders about gloomy without sunlight” (Job 30:28). This motif of wandering and mourning can be found in other places as well (e.g., Jer 49:3; possibly Gen 24:63).
Dr. Shemesh draws our attention to wandering and mourning in the book of Ezra. In Ezra 9-10, the scribe learns of a serious problem facing the exiles who have returned to the land. They have married foreign women. When Ezra learns about these he weeps (10:1), rips his clothes, hair, and beard (9:3), and fasts (9:5). Shockingly, Ezra commands the people to send away their foreign families, both wives and children. After this, in Ezra 10:6, Ezra heads to the son of the high priest’s chamber, Jehohanan: he “went to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, and went/walked there, neither eating bread nor drinking water; for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles” (Translation by Shemesh).2
What is strange is the extra expression that Ezra “went/walked there.” Dr. Shemesh proposes that rather than being redundant, this expression describes the nature of Ezra’s “wandering around” in Jehohanan’s chamber. He’s pacing to and fro. This sign of mourning is not a public spectacle. As Shemesh puts it: “His ‘wandering about’ was a manifestation of his severe distress and grief upon discovering the extent of intermarriage by the men of Judah.”3
When my daughter was one year old I began sleep training her through the night. Rather than doing a “cry-it-out” method (i.e. letting her cry until she passes out from exhaustion), we did a gradual retreat method, which was where I sat in the room with her and verbally comforted her until she went to sleep. It sounds easy but it wasn’t. My daughter would scream and cry and press her face into the side of the cot to reach out to me. Night after night I would comfort her and move slowly from the side of her cot to the door then outside her room. It was a really hard thing. My wife would sit in the living room with headphones on crying. The first three to four days were the hardest. And I remember after my daughter eventually fell asleep (usually within 30-40 minutes), I would go out and just wander. At the time we were living in Oxford on a busy street and I would just walk into shops, into the grocery store, or just up and down the road. Completely aimless and completely traumatized. I don’t know how or why but the wandering seemed to help (and thank God my daughter learned to go to sleep herself).
These are hard days. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or are mourning or are at your limit, it might be a time to wander.
Shemesh draws on the work of Michael Barré, “‘Wandering About’ as a Topos of Depression in Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Bible.” JNES 60 (2001): 177–187.
Shemesh 2021, 5.
Shemesh 2021, 8.
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Very interesting article, Isaac! I have a tendency to go walking and I find it very therapeutic. I think it's a way of not only giving oneself space, but also allowing others space to process whatever they are going through. Peace be with you!