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Hebrew text for RASHI'S DAUGHTERS covers

I've received several emails recently asking about the Hebrew on the covers of RASHI'S DAUGHTERS. Before I reveal the sources and translations, I'll share how any Hebrew got to be on the cover of BOOK I - JOHEVED. Back in Fall 2005, the deal with my cover designer was that for an initial fee, she would provide 3 draft covers. If I liked one of them, we would go with it as the basic design, and if not, I'd pay more for another 3 potential covers. I wasn't so much worried about having to pay for another set if I disliked the first three, but about how I'd decide if I really liked a draft well enough to choose it. In other words, where to draw the line between decent and mediocre - a line I hoped I wouldn't have to draw at all.

So I gave the designer a synopsis of the plot, and we discussed what elements I liked or disliked in other book covers. Then I waited a few weeks until, Hallelujah, the 3 drafts appeared in my inbox, and I actually loved one of them. Above there was the face of a serious young woman, obviously from olden times, and below was a Hebrew manuscript with a floral border that the designer had found in a medieval Haggadah. This cover gave the potential reader several important pieces of information about the novel: it was set in medieval Europe; the main character was a woman, yet the plot was not predominantly a romance, since no man shared the cover with her; the story involved Jewish texts. Hopefully that would be enough to intrigue my target audience.

Now we had a problem, for the Hebrew translated as "pour out Your wrath on the heathen nations," which I certainly didn't want on my book cover. But when I mentioned this difficulty to my designer, she chuckled and assured me that she could substitute any Hebrew text. All I needed to do was find one I wanted and send it to her as a Pdf file.

I decided to pick some Mishna from BOOK I [p. 136], which would be Hebrew, rather than some Gemara in Aramaic. At least some readers would be able to understand it. And for Book I, I chose the third Mishna from Chapter 3 of Berachot, one that underscored Joheved's basic conflict: "Women, slaves and minors are exempt from reciting the Shema and from laying tefillin. But they are obligated in prayer and in the command to attach a mezuzah."

For BOOK II, I used the epigraph [page xv and also p. 467] from the first Mishna of Chapter Four of Pirke Avot: "Ben Zoma said, 'Who is wise? One who learns from everyone. Who is strong? One who conquers his yetzer hara. Who is rich? One who is content with his portion." I saw these three replies as applying to BOOK II's central characters - Rashi learns from everyone, Judah conquers his yetzer hara, and Miriam becomes content with her portion.

BOOK III was trickier, since my precedent was to use a Mishna that summed up its plot or main conflict. It took me a while to find one I wanted [p. 194], which was the Mishna that immediately precedes the text I used for BOOK II - Mishna 23 of Chapter Three of Pirke Avot: "Rabbi Eleazar Chisma said, "The laws of bird offerings and niddah are essential halacha. Astronomy and geometry are the spices of wisdom." I thought this saying, recognizing the importance of secular studies, particularly science, along with Torah study, epitomized the difference between Ashkenaz and Sepharad in Rashi's time, and therefore the conflict between Rachel and her husband Eliezer - a conflict that modern Jews must deal with as well.

Woman arrested at Kotel for wearing tallit

Those who have followed my blog since the end of 2006 may recall that while doing a book tour in Israel, I joined Women of the Wall at the Kotel to celebrate Rosh Hodesh Tevet. I was in such a hurry to get there that I forgot my tallit, so that I had to borrow one from another woman when I was given an aliyah. One man came over from the men's side to stop our singing Hallel, but he was quickly led away by police. And when it came time to walk to Robinson's Arch with our torah, we were accompanied/guarded by several female Israeli soldiers, rifles prominently displayed.

You can imagine my shock and anger when I learned that Nofrat Frenkel, a young medical student active in the Masorti [Conservative Judaism in Israel] movement and a member of Women of the Wall, was arrested last week while wearing a tallit as the group tried to begin a Torah reading at the Kotel. Here are three first-person accounts of the events: Jewlcious, Naomi's blog, and Forward Sisterhood blog

Nofrat has since written a sensitive, moving reflection on the incident. It appears as a “Letter from Jerusalem” in the forthcoming edition of the Forward newspaper.

I am pleased to report that Nofrat’s arrest has apparently hit a nerve among Israelis, the tens of thousands who are fed up with the repressive tactics of the haredim when it comes to expressions of religious freedom in Israel. Masorti and many other organizations are sponsoring a rally to “liberate the Kotel a second time” that will take place in Jerusalem at the end of this Shabbat. The march will begin at 19:00, in Kikar Paris, and will culminate in a rally, at 20:00, in Kikar Zion.

I will be there in spirit, although I suspect that no amount of rallies will change the situation, despite the fact that mixed prayer at the Wall was the norm until 1967 [Life Magazine has many photos of men and women there together. Archeological excavations have discovered that the Wall continues on for quite a distance to the right of the current "women's" section, and now that these have been uncovered, it is obviously the same Wall. This is the area where Reform and Conservative Jews pray and hold Bnai Mitzvot, with no separation by genders. That Jews hold this part of the Wall as holy is evident by all the paper petitions stuck into its cracks, just as in the section of the Wall that the haredim control.

More Talmud limericks

I am finally home from fall book tours and ready to start blogging again. But I'm too tired to be creative tonight so I thought I would share another Talmud limerick from one of my favorite blogs by Chavatzelet Herzliya , this one originally posted Feb 8, 2008. Those who have read RASHI'S DAUGHTERS: BOOK III - RACHEL may recognize this sugia from Chapter 27.

Nedarim [20a)
If he vows "My wife's pleasure in sex
Is a Konam to me," then regrets
What he said, he can say,
"Not that wife, if you may,
I vowed just with respect to my Ex."

(20a)
If you look at a woman's bare heel.
Then your sons will go bad. That's the deal.
Resh Lakish disagrees
"Not the heel, if you please
It's That-Place-Which-I-Cannot-Reveal."

(20a)
Angels said: If you kiss in That Place
Then your sons will be lame, a disgrace.
If you talk during sex
They'll be deaf, which will vex
If you peep they'll be blind – so save face!

(20b)
Oh, the angels may do as they please
But to set human minds now at ease:
Halacha says you do
All you want, it is true,
With your wife (that is, if she agrees).

(20b)
Wailed a woman to Rabi "I set
Him a table – and look what I get!"
Rabi had to admit
That the Torah permits
Sex this way. She had no grounds to fret.

(20b)
A man should not drink from one glass
With his eyes on another. (That ass
May be nicer than this
But so what if it is?
Look at this one, for she is your lass.)

If it's Tuesday it must be Scarsdale

For those who imagine that being an author, traveling all over on book tours, is a glamorous and exciting life, here's the gritty reality.

Sunday: get up at dawn to make an 8 am flight to Oakland; give two presentations and eat lunch with the sponsors; get back to LA just in time for a late dinner.

Monday: get up before dawn to catch a 6:30 plane to Philadelphia,wait in the airport two hours for connection to New Haven, then arrive at JCC half an hour before my program. Eat my dinner, a turkey sandwich, in the car on the drive to my next destination.

Tuesday: do an AM event for Hadassah chapter in Scarsdale and a PM event for Sisterhood in Stamford, then find out there's a hurricane in Atlanta [my next destination] that has closed their airport. Go to NY airport anyway, where AirTran eventually loads us on the plane, hoping the bad weather will pass and we'll get to Atlanta that night. After sitting on tarmack for an hour, the plane leaves and I arrive at my Atlanta hotel just before midnight.

Wednesday: three events in Atlanta - book club meeting in the morning, big lecture at JCC at noon, and Hadassah chapter dinner that evening. Finally get back to my hotel, where I have a few minutes to check email and write this post before early bedtime, since I have to get up early tomorrow morning for a flight to Washington DC.

Isn't it wonderful to be an author on book tour?

Bashert art in Miami

My last speaking event in Miami was at the JCC in Davie, and having arrived early, I looked around for something to occupy myself. Turned out this was easy, since there was an art exhibit going on, not an uncommon occurrence at JCC's. I decided to check it out, especially after learning that this was opening night, so there would be a nice little reception.

The artist, Jackie Olenick, was there as well. Most of her new work appeared to be mixed media, with lots of interesting texture and color combinations that were OK but not my thing. But one piece in particular, a series of four water colors, framed together, stopped me in my tracks. The colors were a in lovely pastels, and the simple vase with minimal flowers has a zen quality that appealed to me.

I could see there was writing on them, so I came closer to read it. Imagine my surprise and pleasure to discover that each panel was a different quote from Chapter 4 of Pirke Avot [Who is wise ... who is strong ... who is rich ...] that I used for the epigraph of BOOK II - MIRIAM. I was stunned. Was this bashert or what? It was only by chance that I arrived early enough to see the art exhibit, and the only thing I liked was connected to one of my novels.

But it gets better. This being opening night, the artist was there, so I introduced myself and asked about buying the piece. Imagine my astonishment when I explained why I wanted it, and Jackie replied that she'd read RASHI'S DAUGHTERS and that my writing had inspired her. It was difficult to say which of us was more thrilled, me for find the artwork or her for knowing that I was going to be the owner.

Rashi's "feminist" commentary on Genesis 3

It is in the third chapter of Genesis, where Eve succumbs to the snake's temptation and eats the forbidden fruit, that Rashi goes against the near universal tradition of blaming Eve. He knows these very well, because in Gen 3:8 he states that he's aware of many midrash about this, including Genesis Rabbah, but he's not concerned with them - only with peshat, the plain meaning of the text. Yet Rashi regularly quotes midrash in his other Torah commentaries, so why does he need to exclude it here?

It seems to me that Rashi is deliberately ignoring the section in Genesis Rabbah that asks, "Why do women die in childbirth?" and then answers, "Because they neglect niddah, challah, kindling the (Sabbath) light. Because Eve spilled the blood of Adam, the first of men, women were given the obligation of niddah. Because she spoiled Adam, the first pure dough of the world, women were given the obligation of challah [when making bread, removing some dough for the priests]. And because she extinguished the light of Adam's soul, women were given the obligation of kindling [Shabbat] lights."

Indeed, as those who have read BOOK I - JOHEVED may recall, Rashi rejects this misogynist idea by explaining [in his Talmud commentary to Shab 31b] that death in childbirth is NOT a punishment for women who neglect certain mitzvot. Rather, childbirth is so dangerous that a woman may need divine intervention. At that time the Heavenly Court searches her deeds, naturally focusing on those mitzvot for which she is responsible, to decide if she is worthy. A woman who regularly performed these three would have more merit on her behalf than one who neglected them, hopefully enough to shift the scales of judgment in her favor.

As opposed to many Jewish [and all Christian] interpreters, Rashi doesn't blame Eve at all. He blames the snake, who saw Eve naked, desired her, and was attempting to seduce her. He also blames Adam, who told Eve neither to eat from the tree nor to touch it, though God only told Adam not to eat from it. So when the snake pushed Eve against the tree of knowledge and nothing happened, the snake easily convinced Eve that "just as there is no death in touching it, there is no death in eating from it." Then in Gen 3:12, when Adam blames Eve for giving him the fruit, Rashi accuses Adam of ingratitude for the gift of a helpmate that God gave him. Rashi states that Eve gave the fruit to Adam because she didn't want to die while he went on living with a new wife.

Finally we come to Gen 3:16, where Adam and Eve [and the snake] are punished. It seems to me that Rashi must have received input from his daughters when explaining Eve's penalty. He states that "multiplying her toil/sorrow" of childbearing refers to the burdens and worries that a mother, more so than the father, is subject to when raising children; her "pain in pregnancy" means the discomfort that pregnant women often experiences; while "anguish in childbearing" describes the painful birth pangs themselves.

So while it may go too far to describe Rashi's commentaries on Genesis as "feminist," for a man of the 11th Century, he appears to hold a more sympathetic view of women than other medieval theologians. Did his daughters influence him in this? I certainly hope so.

Rashi's "feminist" commentary on Genesis 1

This Sunday, November 8, I will be the keynote speaker at Bible by the Bay in Marin County, CA. My topic will be: "Rashi's Daughters as Torah commentators: fact, fiction or legend?" Which means I have to find some of Rashi's commentaries that show a feminist bent and teach them to my audience. I confess that I have not read all of Chumash with Rashi [shocking], nor have I memorized those parts I have studied. But I had a good idea where to start looking – Bereshit [Genesis].

In the first three chapters, Rashi had plenty of opportunity to share his thoughts on the creation of humankind, the formation of man and woman, how they came to eat from the tree of knowledge, and the punishment they received for doing so. This is where other Bible commentaries, both Jewish and Christian, show their misogynist leanings. Typically they state that women should be subordinate to men because Eve was taken from Adam's rib and, even worse, that women are cursed to this day because they brought sin into the world when Eve made Adam eat a fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge.

Rashi shows no such prejudice against women. In Gen 1:27-28, he explains that God first created one being, Adam, with both male and female faces, and then divided them into man and woman, the details of this to be found later. When God commands Adam to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it," Rashi points out that this could also be read as "subdue her," and thus the mitzvah of procreation is given only to man and not to woman. Rashi says nothing more about this, but he surely knew that Talmud uses the interpretation of this verse to allow women to practice contraception, which prevented countless women from dying in childbirth.

I'll continue with Rashi's commentary on Genesis 3 in my next post.