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Coming soon - a Talmud app

Surprisingly, it took me quite a while to discover The Talmud Blog , and now I want to share it with you. The article I’m particularly interested in details a new Talmud App that will be available just in time for the start of the new Daf Yomi cycle in August - coincidentally when my new novel comes out. Whether this is a good thing or not is discussed in almost 40 comments, one of which is mine.

Yes, the "old days" are over, and whether the Artscroll folks like it or not, the Talmud is now open to women, non-Orthodox Jews, and even non-Jews - who can see for themselves that halacha has not always been so monolithic and ossified. This is a particular boon for women, who have been excluded from Talmud study throughout history and thus unable to participate in making Jewish Law that affected them.

In the 20 years I've studied Talmud, my Hebrew [never mind my Aramaic] was never good enough to read Steinsaltz without a whole lot of effort that I preferred to expend to understand the arguments and discussions. Thus Schottenstein was, pardon the expression, a Godsend. I kept wondering when [not if] they would provide a digital, searchable version, and my main questions now are how affordable the app will be and whether the entire Talmud will be available, or only one tractate at a time according to the Daf Yomi schedule.

Good-bye to speaking about Rashi's Daughters

Finally I have a little free time to catch up on my blog. Twelve days ago I left for a book tour that included Nashville, W Palm Beach, a scholar weekend in Roanoke VA, followed by programs in Richmond and Norfolk. Now I'm waiting in Dulles Airport [thanks to their free wifi] for my flight to Toronto, where I'm doing a scholar weekend at Beth Sholom Synagogue.

This trip, the last I'll be doing on "Rashi's Daughters," brings me a combination of nostalgia and regret as I bid good-bye to speaking about a subject I love that I've been lecturing on since "Joheved" came out in 2005. Starting this summer, and continuing for the foreseeable future, I'll be teaching about the third century instead of the eleventh, and about Babylonia rather than France. No more jokes about Mrs. Rashi or the lack of hooplah over Rashi's 900th yartzeit [you know what I mean if you've heard me speak], but I'll still be explaining the difference between the historian and historical novelist.

Even more than with Rashi, I'll have to be ready to answere the question, "Who?" when I say my new series of called, "Rav Hisda's Daughter." For those who want to know more about him in a very cute way, check out the following link, which was probably put together by some teenage yeshiva students. Yet it is surprisingly accurate, and I recommend it for your enlightenment and enjoyment.

Where is God's name in Book of Esther?

I you all enjoyed an excellent Purim. Because of the similarity in their names, Jewish scholars have compared Purim to Yom Kippur. Check out the following links from Orthodox Union and the Cordoza School to learn more about this.

We are also taught that God's name does not appear anywhere in Megillat Esther. Yet while researching "Rashi's Daughters," I learned that in Rashi's time Jewish scribes deliberately wrote the Megillah with those letters larger, so the readers might see the Holy Name emerge, as it were, out of the text. You can read the scene on page 190 of "Book 1 – Joheved."

You too can see this by examining the Hebrew version of Chapter 5:4, where Esther, after entering the throne room without permission, is pardoned by the king. Look closely at the text when she invites him to a feast. Note the initial letters of her words, and there it is, almost exactly in the middle of the book! יבוא המלך והמן היומ.

Time to begin promotion

Now that the first volume of "Rav Hisda's Daughter" is essentially complete [the only task left is proof-reading the galley], it's time to switch my attention to promotion. ARC's [Advance Reader's Copy] need to be sent to potential blurbers, ideally big names in historical fiction or Jewish studies, who will read and enjoy my novel so much that they are willing to say something nice about it that Plume can use for publicity. You might think this is something the publisher does, but mostly it's the author's responsibility – especially in this case where I'm the obvious person to solicit quotes from Jewish scholars. Of course having potential blurbers agree to read my novel is no guarantee that we'll get a useable blurb from them, but at least it's a start.

Another important, and even more time consuming, promotion is creating a website for my new novel. But after checking what other historical novelists have done, it became clear that I first needed an author site with info about me that would also provide links to each of my series. My webmistress and I agreed that we didn't want to change the basic design as much as duplicated it with new colors. After much back and forth, we've settled on a beta-version of www.MaggieAnton.com. I invite you to visit it, check out the links, and let me know if anything doesn't work right.

Finally - description of RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER

Finally - the answer to the question from my publisher that you've been waiting for: please describe your book in 200 words or less.

Hisdadukh, blessed to be both beautiful and learned, is the youngest child of Talmudic sage Rav Hisda. Her story unfolds in third-century Babylonia, in the household of her father, one of a handful of beleaguered rabbis struggling to establish new Jewish traditions after the destruction of Jerusalem's Holy Temple.

The world around her is full of conflict. Rome, fast becoming Christian, battles Zoroastrian Persia for dominance while Rav Hisda and his colleagues face defiance by those Jews who reject the Oral Law and cling to the old ways. Against this backdrop Hisdadukh embarks on the tortuous path to become an enchantress in the very land where the word 'magic' originated - where some women draw on the occult to protect and to heal as some employ sorcery to gain power for themselves and to injure others. But the conflict affecting Hisdadukh most intimately arises when her father brings his two best students before her, a mere child, and asks her which one she will marry. Astonishingly, Hisdadukh replies, "Both of them," and that is what eventually happens - albeit first one and then the other.

Based on actual Talmud texts and populated with its rabbis and their families, "Rav Hisda's Daughter" brings the world of the Talmud to life - from a woman's perspective.