Here’s some good news! At long last, my YA prequel to Book I – JOHEVED, “Rashi’s Daughter: Secret Scholar,” is now available on Amazon and through the publisher, JPS', website. In my opinion YA doesn’t mean young adult, but actually more like a preteen, age 10-15. In other words, this book is a G-rated reworking of Book I with some extra material at the beginning [it starts a year earlier], and all the R-rated scenes deleted. Much of the complicated Talmud discussions are gone, but not all of them, as well as the subplots involving Catharina, Baruch and Anna. Essentially “Secret Scholar” stops at the wedding, with no wedding night, and then jumps to the finale with Joheved about to give birth.
Please tell everyone that this is NOT Book III, which should be out next fall. I don’t want my readers to be disappointed. Of course my website is now updated with more material about “Secret Scholar,” so you may want to check it out. And for those of you who do read my new book, perhaps out of curiosity, don’t forget to post a glowing review on Amazon.com.
Again my personal life and my characters’ lives (as I write them) are intersecting. My stepmom, Eileen Anton, married to my dad for almost 20 years, died suddenly (as well as mysteriously and tragically) last Thursday night. I received a late-night call from paramedics and drove up to Santa Barbara early the next morning to be with my 90-year-old father. He just got out of the hospital the previous week after having a pacemaker installed, so this has been a total & horrible shock to everyone.
We're still waiting on news from the coroner, but Eileen wished cremation and a small non-religious memorial to scatter the ashes, so I'm not even sure when I would begin official Jewish mourning. I didn’t leave my dad’s house until Monday, but I’ll be at shul this Shabbat to say Kaddish [a Jew mourns with anyone in mourning for whom they would mourn themselves; i.e. I would mourn for my father, and he for his wife, so I mourn for her too, for his sake].
All this impacts Book III, which I’m close to completing, because it concludes with Rashi’s death. Rashi also died suddenly, right in the middle of dictating his Talmud commentary to son-in-law Judah, so his daughters and grandchildren would be greatly shocked and saddened. The same feelings I’m experiencing now. So when you eventually read that scene, know that his family’s pain was mine
Some of you may recall that when I was in Jerusalem in Dec 2006, I celebrated Rosh Hodesh Tevet with "Women at the Wall" and was honored with an aliyah. I just learned about a new documentary on the group and wanted to share it with you. For those in LA, it's playing this Sunday [June 15] and on the following Monday [June 23].
SNEAK PREVIEW SCREENING AT THE ISRAEL FILM FEST
PRAYING IN HER OWN VOICE
A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR YAEL KATZIR
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY RAVIT MARKUS AND DAN KAZTIR
FOLLOWED BY A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH RABBIS
LISA EDWARDS, NAOMI LEVY, AND LYNN BRODY
Sunday June 15th at 3pm
Sunset 5 in West Hollywood
Have a look at the trailer online.
The documentary Praying in her own Voice is a fascinating piece about Judaism, Feminism and Israel. It depicts the struggle of the Women of the Wall in the last few years for the right to pray, wear a talit and read from the Torah at the Western Wall. It includes commentary from some of the prominent women rabbis in LA: Rabbi Laura Geller, Rabbi Naomi Levy, Rabbi Lynn Brody, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rabbi Denise Eger and Rabbi Lisa Edwards.
Rabbi Levy, Rabbi Edwards, and Executive Producers Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus will attend a panel discussion after the film, moderated by Rabbi Brody. The film was directed by award winning director Yael Katzir and is an hour long, Hebrew and English, with English sub-titles.
I’m finally back to actual writing after an exhausting week of book business at BEA/Book Expo America, which met in my home town of Los Angeles for the first time in several years, instead of on the east coast. With my new YA novel, “Rashi’s Daughters: Secret Scholar,” coming out in late July, II spent much of my time at the JPS booth promoting it to visitors. I was also busy taking classes, visiting other booths of all sorts of interesting booksellers, plus meeting with my publisher, my agent, my editor and lots of folks in the Jewish book world. I was also interviewed for a podcast on a Jewish blog, but that’s another post.
At the JPS booth I picked up a copy of a book that might be of interest to my readers, “Swimming in the Sea of Talmud” by Michael Katz and Gershon Schwartz . The book is a good introduction to Talmud study and includes over 100 sugia (passages), including some I put in my books. A few are:
Berachot 60a – how loving your God with all your heart (from the Shema) means with both your inclinations, your yetzer tov and yetzer hara.
Shabbat 21b – debate between Shammai and Hillel over lighting the Hanukkah menorah
Pesachim 112a – R. Akiva says that when it comes to teaching Torah, the cow wants to nurse more than the calf wants to suckle.
Yevamot 63b – regarding procreation, Ben Azzai is accused of preaching well but not practicing well because he would rather study Torah than procreate.
Niddah 16b – a discussion of how “using the bed” in the daytime affects the child conceived.
I hope this whets your appetite for Torah study just in time for Shavuot. For those in the Los Angeles area, I will be drashing on Rashi, the Ten Commandments, and Creation at midnight on Sunday, June 8, at Beth Chayim Chadashim, 6000 W. Pico Blvd.