Tears for Fears: The Dynamics and Politics of a Performative Midrash about Rachel the Matriarch

This article examines the development of a ritual of weeping within the vernacular religion of Jews living in Palestine, centred on the veneration of the biblical saint Rachel the Matriarch. The ritual functions as a performative midrash—that is, an embodied enactment of a narrative interpretation surrounding the biblical figure of Rachel. This interpretation, incorporated into a medieval midrashic compilation, introduced the idea that Rachel’s tears possess magical power—the ability to alter reality. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, ethnographic sources document ritual practices intended to provoke the saint’s weeping. At the heart of the article is an exploration of the political functions of this performative midrash in the folklore surrounding Rachel the Matriarch in recent decades in Israel.