This week I've been jumping from one frying pan to the next. Last
Sunday afternoon I spoke to a Hadassah group in Santa Clarita, where
the Agua Dulce fire had just broken out. With all the reddish smoke
billowing in the air and flames on the hillsides, I felt like I was
driving into hell. But there was still a good turnout and everyone
appreciated that I'd come up there to speak.
Tuesday I drove down to San Diego with my daughter and grandson, and
when we arrived at our hotel the smoke was so thick that we couldn't
see anything of our ocean view. Many of the hotel guests were
evacuees, and it was pretty amazing to see people walking dogs through
the lobby and others with animal carriers in their arms. Of course
with the baby, everyone assumed we were refugees as well (actually my
daughter was attending a conference) and I knew no one would complain
about him crying at night.
While we were in town I got a chance to see the Dead Sea Scrolls
exhibit, which was quite amazing. Pieces of parchment with the Ten
Commandments, Isaiah, Samuel and Psalms on them, as well as other
texts that never made it into our canon. The ancient scribes had a
special way of writing God's name, almost like hieroglyphics, that was
quite unlike the other Hebrew words. Psalms were the most popular,
with more of them than anything else; incredibly there were some
psalms that were out of order compared to the bible and others that
weren't even in our bible. I had to wonder why these psalms were
chosen and those not.
As if I didn't have enough of the fire areas, my train home had to
turn off the ventilation as we passed through Camp Pendleton and I'm
speaking at a women's retreat this weekend in Malibu.
When I'm having writer's block, I sometimes google myself to find the latest reviews (or to see which shul's book group is reading Rashi's Daughters). Sometimes I find something that impresses me, so I want to share with you the following two reviews, from quite different sources.
1.Kolel.org is an interesting site, reviewing Book I and II together. My favorite part starts the third paragraph with "Lovers of erotica (and Judaism) may be thrilled to read of the marriage night between Joheved and her beloved groom, which is one of the most beautifully and voluptuously depicted sex scenes ever captured in print." And I certainly don't mind being compared to James Michener rather than Phillip Roth or Saul Bellow.
2. The other review, from Forbidden Fruit, is my first from a queer magazine, rather than a Jewish one. The reviewer, who isn't Jewish and didn't read Book I, certainly put a lot of thought into it and I like how she got more into MIRIAM as she read it.