I just looked back at my blog and realized that it's been just less than a year since my first entry. At that time I was almost done with the first draft of Miriam, and the the big editing and revising jobs were still in the future. I'm amazed to realized that I finished 4 more drafts, including the completed manuscript, in 9 months. Considering that I've written 8 pages of Book Three - RACHEL, I guess there's hope yet that I'll have it out in Fall 2009.
So what's with the Happy Birthday Rashi? According to legends, Rashi's parents couldn't decide on a name for him. Even on the day of his Brit Milah, when his new name was to be announced with the blessing, he was still nameless. Well, it was Shabbat Trumah (each Sabbath is name after the Torah portion read that week) and they were reading the section from Prophets for that Shabbat, which was 1 Kings: Ch 5. They got to line 26, which starts, "God gave Solomon wisdom," and voila, Rashi's father, obviously hoping for a wise son, decided to name him Solomon.
So if Rashi's brit was on Shabbat Trumah, he had to be born 8 days earlier. A quick look at a perpetual Hebrew calendar showed me that in 4800/1040 CE, his birthday must have been the 29th of Shevat (February 22), which was yesterday. So happy birthday, Solomon ben Isaac - wherever you are, I hope you enjoyed it.
Tuesday morning was my grandson's brit milah, and to follow in the
footsteps of French medieval Jewish women, I volunteered to be his
sandeket and hold him in my lap for the procedure. I'm proud to say I
didn't close my eyes at all. Watching his circumcision was important
for me because one of Miriam's big problems in Book Two is her
decision to train to become a mohelet (female mohel), which causes
great controversy in the Troyes Jewish community. Unlike studying
Talmud or wearing tefillin, performing a brit milah is a public act,
making her a target for those who think that men's mitzvot should be
done by men, and only men.