Twenty years ago, when my husband had his Adult Bar Mitzvah, I wanted to buy him a tallit. But several friends warned me to take him with me when I shopped because the Orthodox Judaica stores with the best selection would refuse to sell one to a woman. The store we ended up in had a full-bearded man behind the counter, and behind him were shelves filled with boxes of tallitot. You can imagine my astonishment when, after my husband finally chose the one he wanted, the proprietor turned to me and asked, "And for you?" As if I were the next customer.
I was shocked speechless. I had never imagined wearing a tallit myself, but if this Orthodox man wanted to sell me one, then I could at least try some on. To my astonishment, I found a wool one in my favorite autumn colors, not your typical blue and white. Even more amazing, when I tried it on, I was immediately enveloped in a feeling of holiness, right there in the store. Of course I bought it, and now I owe three. The original wool for winter, another in silk for summer, and a white one for High Holy Days.
And yes, I used this experience as the basis for the scene in “Book I – JOHEVED” where she puts on tefillin for the first time.
I just learned that "Rashis Daughters I and II" are featured in the B&N Mothers Day Gift Guide promotion. I think that means they are 40% off. Here are the links:
Book I - Joheved and Book II - Miriam
It also looks like we have Barnes and Noble to thank for moving up the on-sale date of "Book III - Rachel" to early August to possibly get it on a pre-High Holidays table (when they will promote all three books). Wow! Less than 4 months to go.
As both an expert on genetic diseases [18 years in Kaiser Permanentes Genetics Lab] and medieval Ashkenazi Jews [18 years researching Rashis Daughers], I am in a unique position to challenge much of the Los Angeles Times article Saturday on how genetic mutations that make Ashkenazi Jews susceptible to many inherited diseases may also make them smarter.
Ashkenazi Jews have accumulated their many genetic defects because of two actions: the founder effect and the bottleneck effect. The former refers to an early ancestor with the original mutation, the founder, whose descendants tend to intermarry and pass it on. The later refers to a population that is regularly decimated, thus magnifying the defects of the survivors. Ashkenazi Jews clearly fit both parameters. Moreover, the mutations in the Times article that affect sphingolipid metabolism are but four of many genetic defects that predominate in this group. Most Jewish prenatal screening panels test for 13 of the most common mutations, the majority of which have nothing to do with brain function. And these do not include other mutations common in this population [i.e. BrCA, which predisposes to breast cancer] that have no possible link to intelligence.
Even if I accept the hypothesis that Askenazi Jews are smarter, this can be explained by the genetic effect known as selective advantage. For example, a peacocks large colorful tail attracts more peahens, and thus this trait is passed on to more progeny. So too medieval Jewish scholars, especially those whose prodigious memories allowed them to memorize the entire Talmud and whose dialectic skills won them a high status in the Jewish community, would attract the daughters of other scholars and of wealthy men. In other words, the smartest men married the richest [and often the smartest as well] women. And thus their children would likely be more numerous and intelligent than the rest of the population.
I must take issue with one statement in particular. The prosperity of Ashkenazi Jews in 1100 resulted not from money lending to Christians [Jews were not restricted to this livelihood until much later], but on their monopoly of long-distance trade between Europe and the Levant, trade that often involved very complicated credit arrangements between several Jewish partners. In all my research, I have never seen any local registry of Jewish occupations as she mentions, and I would greatly like to know where she found such a document.
For all my friends and fans in the Bay Area, I will be speaking in several Jewish venues next week, all open to the public:
Brandeis Women Author Brunch in Sunnyvale on April 22, 11 am
Berkeley Hillel on April 22, 7 pm
KOH Library at Mosaic Law Synagogue in Sacramento on April 23, 7 pm
Bnai Shalom Synagogue in Walnut Creek on April 26, 3 pm
I hope that I will see you there. For exact addresses, see my website events schedule . I hope you all had a good Pesach.
A couple of weeks before Passover, I woke up in the morning with part of a childhood song stuck in my head [scientists call this an earworm]. It was a Yiddish folktune about freedom, and it took me a while to recall enough of the words to find it on the internet . The song is Die Gedanken Sind Frei, and amazingly, the words I knew were popularized by Pete Seeger, who probably learned it from Yiddish folklorist Ruth Rubin in the late 1950s when they performed together.
When I asked my sister if she remembered it, she promptly sang a verse and told me that we used to sing it at our family Passover seders when we were little. Of course I introduced it to my family and guests at our seder this year, and here is the link and a couple of verses for you.
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts freely flower,
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts give me power.
No scholar can map them,
No hunter can trap them,
No man can deny
Die Gedanken sind frei
I think as I please
And this gives me pleasure,
My conscience decrees,
This right I must treasure;
My thoughts will not cater
To duke or dictator,
No man can deny
Die Gedanken sind frei
Here's a provocative article about Passover food prohibitions. I agree that it's about time we started finding ways to permit, not forbid. As Rashi said, "Any idiot can forbid out of ignorance, but it takes a true talmid chacham to permit." By the way, Rashi permitted rice for Passover too.