I promised an example of Talmud study from my first draft of RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER, so here it is. Fyi - Rami bar Chama and Abba bar Josef [later known as Rava] will both end up married to my heroine, who narrates this scene. Happy New Year.
Father was teaching from Tractate Bava Batra, the section of Mishna that dealt with torts, damages, and other complicated subjects like that. We had just gotten to the part about whether those who share a courtyard may restrict the other residents' professions. I girded myself for what I feared would be a difficult topic.
First he quoted the Mishna: "No one can prevent another by claiming 'I cannot sleep because of his noisy hammer, his noisy millstones, or his noisy children.'"
The Mishna was in Hebrew, but everyone in Babylonia spoke Aramaic, so as usual, Father paused to see if a student needed any words translated. This time I understood the Hebrew, since all the words were also in the Torah, but I wouldn't have asked for help in any case. Girls were exempt from Torah study, and I had no intention of drawing attention to my presence.
When nobody had a question, Father sat back, placed his hands on his stout belly, and asked, "What occupation might the Mishna mean by noisy children?"
Rami spoke first, which he did often. "A teacher, and the noisy children are his students."
"But our Sages taught in a Baraita: If a courtyard resident wants to become a mohel, a bloodletter, or a teacher of children, the other residents can prevent him." My brother Nachman challenged Rami. "So the Mishna's noisy children can't be a teacher's students or it will conflict with this Baraita."
Like the Mishna, a Baraita was in Hebrew. Both were taught by Rabbis from Palestine, and thus had the same authority. Again I understood all the words, but I also knew, in spite of my being a girl and the youngest in class, that a Baraita was not supposed to contradict the Mishna. This was the part of Father’s lessons I liked best: when he and his students worked to resolve the seeming contradictions.
Abba's hand shot up in protest. "But our Sages mandated that every town must provide teachers for children over the age of six. So how can anyone in the courtyard object to a teacher?"
Father's warm brown eyes twinkled with pleasure at his students' vigorous arguments. "Rami is correct. We are indeed discussing teachers here. Nachman has quoted a teaching from our Sages that allows a courtyard to prevent teachers, while Abba has pointed out that the Sages also require Jewish teachers in every town," he explained. "It is a Torah student's job to resolve all such apparent conflicts so the law is clear."
Sure that Father would solve the problem, I waited eagerly to see how this would happen.
"Perhaps the Baraita deals with Persian children, students of the Magi." Abba defended his opinion. "Not Jewish children."
Rami's smile was confident. "Yet another Baraita teaches: One who owns a house in a courtyard may not rent it to a mohel, a bloodletter, a Jewish teacher, or a non-Jewish teacher."
Father held up his hand. "That is an excellent teaching." He paused as Rami beamed at being praised. "However it refers to the head Jewish teacher of the town, who will have many people - children, parents, other teachers - going in and out of the courtyard. Not a regular Jewish teacher."
Abba clearly wanted to state the conclusion that he had championed, but Father called on my brother Mari, who explained, "So the noisy children in our Mishna are students of a Jewish teacher, while in Nachman's Baraita it is a Persian or pagan who may be prevented from teaching in the courtyard."
I was still trying to understand how this interpretation made the Mishna agree with both Rami and Nachman's Baraitot, when I realized that Father hadn't dismissed the class.
So much for thinking I was done with my Penguin submission for RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER. My literary agent found all sorts of things for me to change, all for the better of course, and there went last week. I'm getting pretty tired of reading and rereading the first four chapters, but that's life in the book biz.
But none of that has kept me from studying Talmud. I meet with my hevruta Henry every Friday afternoon, and by now we're almost done with what Tractate Kiddushin has to say about my characters. My original goal was to go through the Talmud, tractate by tractate starting with Berachot, studying passages that mention Rav Hisda and his family, and thus learn what kind of people they were and how they lived.
However my goal has expanded into searching for particularly interesting and pertinent pieces of Talmud that I will be able to incorporate into my novels. But Talmud study in the 3rd century was very different from today, and not just because they didn't have commentaries like Rashi's back then. Typically teachers would recite a piece of Mishna followed by an explanation of what it meant.
At that point somebody would quote a Baraita that seemed to contradict the Mishna, and the attempt to reconcile the two began. Sometimes another Baraita, or two, was brought in to bolster one side's argument. Usually a way to resolve the conflict was found and the law made clear, but occasionally, especially if the Rabbis involved had equal stature, both opinions would stand.
Next post I'll give an example.
Part of my research for RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER is reading other historical novels set in 3rd-4th century Babylonia. Of course there aren't many, and I didn't have a good way to find decent ones. It was only when I got my latest copy of "Historical Novels Review," which comes with being a member of the Historical Novels Society, that I remembered that it reviews books by the century they're set in.
Sure enough, the latest issue had a review of LION IN THE SUN, the final volume of Harry Sidebottom's "Warrior of Rome" trilogy [], which is not only set in my exact time, but also in my exact locations [Roman Palestine and Babylonia]. Plus Sidebottom [this guy has to be English] is a professor of ancient warfare at Oxford known for his historical accuracy.
Bad news - his novels are published in the UK and not generally available in the US. Good news - the publisher is Penguin, who also publishes my RASHI'S DAUGHTERS novels. A quick note to my editor and next thing I knew, all 3 volumes of "Warrior of Rome" arrive by FedEx. Really good news. I not only learned a lot, I enjoyed a good read. Thanks HNS for that membership perk.
For those of you who enjoy Tom Lehrer as much as I do, here's the Brandeis Univ Men's A Cappella Choir version of "Hanukah in Santa Monica", including the rare second verse: [you may need the sound up to catch all the words]. I love the line about "on Succos, I just sit on my tuckus," which is what we all want to do after the Days of Awe.
Happy Hanukah to all my friends and fans. I'm celebrating that I've finished the synopsis, prologue, and first four chapters of RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER, and sent them off to my agent to present to Penguin [publisher of RASHI'S DAUGHTERS]. We assume that Penguin would want to publish my next two books. The question is how much they are willing to pay for them, especially in this economy, and what marketing perks they might offer.
Working so hard to get these items in shape to submit has consumed most of my time this month, as those who saw my November 1 post may recall. But now I'm ready to relax a little as I start on Chapter Five. This Saturday evening I'll be singing Hanukah songs with my synagogue's choir on the Third St. Promenade, starting at 5:30 pm.
In honor of the occasion, here's that world-famous tune by Tom Lehrer