The Red Tent

The Red Tent is an American television miniseries produced by Paula Weinstein and directed by Roger Young. The first two-hour episode premiered on Lifetime on December 7, 2014; the second and final episode aired the next day. The series is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Anita Diamant. Plot It is the time of the Old Testament patriarchs of the Book of Genesis. Dinah, the only daughter of Leah and Jacob, chronicles her story from youth through adulthood. She narrates her relationship with her parents, aunts, and eleven older brothers. She often focuses on the significance of the Red Tent, occupied by the women of her tribe (including Jacob's other three wives Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah) during their time of menstruation. The women have kept alive their old traditions of goddess-worship unbeknownst to their Israelite husbands, managing to keep this secret since men are not allowed in the Red Tent. In the backstory, Jacob arrives at his uncle Laban's settlement to escape from his older brother Esau, and falls in love at first sight with his cousin Rachel. She reciprocates his feelings, as, secretly, does her sister Leah. Jacob asks Laban for permission to marry Rachel, offering his service to Laban in exchange. Rachel, fearing the consummation of the marriage, switches places with her sister at the wedding. Jacob and Leah share a passionate bridal night. The next morning, he pretends to be upset, informs Laban of the trick, and demands the right to marry Rachel, now upping the stakes by claiming Bilhah and Zilpah as compensation. Over the next several years, Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah give birth to several sons. Rachel remains childless, until she finally has a son, Joseph, who becomes Jacob's favorite. Soon after, Dinah is born to Leah, and is doted on by her family as the only girl. The tension between Jacob and Laban reaches its climax following the suicide of Laban's abused wife. Jacob takes his wives, children, and livestock, and departs to establish a new settlement. They encounter his estranged older brother, Esau, and the matriarch, Rebekah. Dinah finds her grandmother testy and ruthless towards lower-class civilians. Rachel is a talented midwife and takes her niece as apprentice. In an altercation and power struggle, Jacob barges into the Red Tent, and seizes and destroys the teraphim, the women's goddess figurines.