Several folks asked for a copy of my Rosh Hashanah drash, which was actually a Talmud study session to show how Rashi's commentary is essential to deciphering the text. I will try to summarize my teaching, which focused on a short passage in Tractate Rosh Hashanah 20a. Keep in mind that the Talmud is written in a deliberately opaque fashion because this is the oral Torah that the reader should have already studied with a teacher. The shorthand version written down is supposed to jog the student's memory of what was already learned.
Next comes the literal English translation of what appears in the Talmud; first with no punctuation, then followed by the punctuated text. As you will see, just because you recognize all the words doesn't mean you can understand what it says.
1. They made Elul full does Bavel recognize the favor we did them what favor is this Ulla said for vegetables Rav Acha said for the dead what is between them between them Yom Kippur after Shabbat.
2. They made Elul full. Does Bavel recognize the favor we did them? What favor is this? Ulla said for vegetables. Rav Acha said for the dead. What is between them? Between them Yom Kippur after Shabbat.
Here is Rashi's commentary, which gives some important clues: They = the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Full = a 30 day month instead of 29 days. For vegetables = if Yom Tov falls just before or after Shabbat, vegetables will wilt before they can be used. For the dead = if Yom Kippur falls just before or after Shabbat, someone who dies the day before cannot be buried for 3 days.
Now for an explanation that hopefully makes sense. The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem has the task of regulating the Jewish calendar by announcing the new moon, which indicates that a new month as begun. The lunar cycle is almost exactly 29.5 days, so the Jewish lunar year works if months alternate between 29 and 30 days. For the year in question in our Gemara, the Sanhedrin, instead of relying on witnesses to sight the new moon following Elul [which would determine the date of Rosh Hashanah], declared that Elul would have 30 days and that this would be a favor to the Jews in Bavel [Babylonia].
Why was a 30-day Elul a favor? The answer is the last sentence in our text, which explains that the additional day delayed Yom Kippur, which otherwise would have fallen on a Sunday, until Monday. This helped in two ways. First, as Ulla said: it enabled Jews to have nice fresh foods when their Yom Kippur fast ended, rather than stuff prepared/picked several days earlier. Rav Acha pointed out that if Yom Kippur falls on Sunday, the corpse of someone who died on Friday couldn't be buried until Monday, which would be quite unpleasant in Babylonia [now Iraq] in September.
Thus, we have two good reasons for adding the extra day. Because of this, when the Sanhedrin established a calculated calendar rather than relying on witnesses, one of the rules was that neither Yom Kippur [YK] nor Rosh Hashanah [RH} would be allowed to fall on a Sunday or Friday. If necessary, a day would be added to the month of Heshvan or subtracted from the month of Kislev to ensure this. This calendar is still followed today, and that is why RH and YK are on Shabbat so often: if the new moon occurs on Friday, RH is delayed until Shabbat; if it occurs on Sunday, RH is delayed until Monday [and YK until Shabbat]; and if it occurs on Wednesday, then RH is pushed to Thursday, which delays YK until Shabbat.
Thank you Rashi for making sense of out this cryptic passage of Talmud.
Why I love being “in the tradition of RASHI'S DAUGHTERS”
When I first got serious about writing, I worked on a young adult novel about Shakespeare.* I was well into the writing when a movie came out. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called Shakespeare in Love.
I watched, spellbound, loving every second. Then I crept away to my room and cried for two hours. Someone had stolen my idea!
I was reminded of this when I first started researching THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS (which Pocket Books published and which went on sale on September 8). This historical novel tells the story of my 13th Century ancestor, Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, who had to deal with the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout medieval Europe. As I was researching online for facts about medieval Jews, I stumbled across a Web site that featured a not-yet-published trilogy about Rashi's daughters.
This time, I didn’t burst into tears. Instead, I signed up on Maggie’s email list and pre-ordered my copy of the first book. And I loved every minute of it when it arrived.
Because I was on Maggie’s email list, I received notice that she was coming to BEA in New York a couple of years ago. I was fairly close to being finished with my first draft, so I took my courage in my hands and sent her an e-mail. Would she have any time to meet so I could ask a few questions?
Like the mensch she is, Maggie wrote back almost immediately. She was booked practically the entire time she was in the city, but would I like to join her during her free morning, when she planned to walk around Central Park?
To me, a walk around Central Park on a blistering hot summer’s day means a gentle stroll, then finding a seat under an umbrella and getting a cold drink. When Maggie emerged from her friend’s apartment building, I realized she had totally different ideas. She was dressed for a power walk, in shorts and sneakers.
Well, no one can say I don’t sacrifice for my art. Despite the blisters that started popping out almost immediately, I kept up. And believe me, it was well worth it. In an hour or so, Maggie told me her entire story – how she first published the book, how she worked to promote it, how a major house acquired it after she had made it a resounding success. She generously gave me names and ideas and encouragement – all of which were an enormous advantage when I began to look for an agent (who found the publisher) and then a publicist.
Maggie had truly blazed a path for me. Before RASHI'S DAUGHTERS, books on medieval Jews were few and far between. But due to her considerable accomplishment, I find people “get” my book instantly. When I describe it, someone almost always exclaims, “Oh, it’s like RASHI'S DAUGHTERS. I loved those books!”
So I’m delighted that my book is being considered – by Library Journal and others – to be “in the tradition of RASHI'S DAUGHTERS.” And I’d like to take this occasion to give Maggie the public thanks she deserves for her extraordinary kindness to a debut novelist. Maggie, you’re a mensch!
You can learn more about THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS at www.michelle-cameron.com.
*The YA Shakespeare book eventually became a verse novel, In the Shadow of the Globe, published in 2003 by Lit Pot Press, a small literary publisher.
With Rosh Hashanah upon us, I thought I'd connect BOOK III - RACHEL with the High Holy Days [aka High Holidays or, preferred usage, Days of Awe]. I don't think what I'm about to write is a spoiler, so even if you haven't read RACHEL, don't hesitate to read further.
One of my goals in writing RASHI'S DAUGHTERS was to show how medieval French Jews celebrated holidays and life cycle events, and to that end I was determined that every Jewish holiday would be observed in at least one volume of the trilogy. All three contain scenes where Rashi's family and community observe Shabbat, Hanukah, and Purim, as well as some mention of the Days of Awe. However, Sukkot is celebrated in JOHEVED while Passover seders only occur in MIRIAM. Selichot, Simchat Torah, and Yom Kippur services are also unique to MIRIAM.
RACHEL alone details observances of Shavuot and Tisha b'Av. While our sages have connected Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashanah by the seven Sabbath's of consolation between the two holy days, where hopeful passages from Isaiah are read in synagogue as Haftarah portions, there are three scenes in RACHEL that relate directly to Rosh Hashanah.
In Chapter Fifteen, I wrote a lengthy scene about Joheved's daughter Hannah's desire to blow the shofar, despite women being exempt from this, and other, time-bound positive mitzvot. I tried to be as accurate to the times as possible, essentially quoting pertinent sections of Machzor Vitry that discuss women and shofar in such a way that it is clear that women of Rashi's community did blow the shofar, at least for other women to hear. They were ahead of their time in performing other rituals usually done by men as well.
Another section on Rosh Hashanah occurs in Chapter Twenty-Four, when I have Eliezer teach from the Talmud tractate of that name. Here I wrote about how the Jewish calendar is determined by explaining one of the Gemara's most difficult sugia, RH 21. Most Jews have no idea of the complicated history that lies behind the free calendars we get every August, usually published by Jewish funeral homes and decorated with kitschy pictures of Jewish life or Judaica. They may wonder why some years the holidays are late and some years they're early, or why Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur seem to coincide with Shabbat so often. Little do they know, unless they've read RACHEL, that one of the most important functions of the Jewish calendar is to keep Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur from falling on a Friday or Sunday.
Of course the Days of Awe wouldn't be so 'aweful' without the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, which contains the powerful words, "On Rosh Hashanah it was inscribed and on Yom Kippur it was sealed: How many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die ...", attributed to Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. The legend behind this prayer, and its purported author, is just that - a legend. One that is easily disproved. However the story of the dying Rabbi Amnon, martyred during the First Crusade for refusing to apostatize, was too famous for me to ignore, especially since one of the most powerful scenes in RACHEL takes place during the Mainz massacres in 1096. So I created a situation in which Rabbi Amnon appears and the Unetaneh Tokef is written, but none of the discredited parts of the legend occur. I may be writing fiction, but I want to make sure that my version of any legend could have happened.
And so may you all be inscribed for a Good Year.
Right now I'm in St. Louis, waiting for my big speaking event Sunday at Kol Am. Houston was great, with a lovely event at the JCC, although I definitely wasn't used to the hot and rainy weather. In the meantime, I discovered a great review of my new book on the review blog,
Jew Wishes On. Here are some highlights:
"Rashi’s Daughters, Book III: Rachel, by Maggie Anton, is a lovely novel, filled with beautiful imagery, and imagery that is often brutal. The novel is filled with intrigue and historical data from the Medieval period, but also contains much information about the Jewish Talmudic scholar Salomon ben Isaac, otherwise known as Rashi. From the moment I began the first page, I was enthralled, and continued reading until I was finished. It was difficult to put down, on the few occasions that I had to. Within the pages emerges a family tapestry of Rachel and her place within the familial unit...
"Rashi’s Daughters, Book III: Rachel" is an amazing accomplishment. Anton is overwhelming in her competence to write historical content, and in her ability to keep the reader’s interest. There are so many awe-inspiring moments, moments that shock the reader. The book flows, from one scene to the next with superb illuminations and brilliant descriptions. She is a master at portraying, not only the Medieval/Middle Ages time period, but in depicting daily life under the harsh conditions of the 11th Century. It was a struggle no matter how you perceive it, but add the Crusades to the structure, and life and what those around Rachel considered to be "normal," quickly debilitates and diminishes...
It is a beautiful testimony to Rashi and his teachings, his care for all individuals. But, more than that, it a magnificent testament to Rachel and her endurance, fortitude, caring, and concern for humankind, during a crucial and horrific period in history. I highly recommend this well-written historical novel to everyone. It is writing at its excellence, and a brilliant novel, in my opinion. Bravo! I personally own and have read this book.
I recently saw a request for help posted on the Yahoo Jewish Book Marketing group that I couldn't turn down. Shelley B, who runs the blog Write for a Reader was asking for posts from authors, bloggers, and publishers describing books we read as children that had an impact on our lives. In other words, a book that sparked something inside us, created the reader we are now, inspired us to write, etc. To explain how, in some way, our lives were changed Because of A Book.
I didn't have to think twice. As those of you know who have heard me speak, I credit Sydney Taylor's ALL OF A KIND FAMILY series with the inspiration to write my RASHI'S DAUGHTERS historical trilogy. Interestingly, I leaned that Taylor originally wrote only a trilogy of children's novels about the Jewish immigrant experience in the Lower Eastside of New York City in the early 1900's. The latter two volume were written towards the end of her life. According to the Association of Jewish Libraries, "During the second half of the twentieth century [the series] were the most widely known books about American Jewish children."
As a child growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950's [Taylor's first volume came out in 1951], I discovered these books just as her fictional heroines discovered books – at a weekly visit to the local library. My home was secular, only celebrating Hanukah and Passover, so it was the ALL OF A KIND FAMILY who taught me how to observe the other Jewish holidays. It was with her characters that I attended my first Jewish wedding [and my only Pidyon haBen]. Through the ALL OF A KIND FAMILY, I learned the rituals of Shabbat. I read and reread these books, and when I had children, read the stories to them. Copies sit on my bookshelves today.
When I decided to write my RASHI'S DAUGHTERS trilogy, in many ways I used ALL OF A KIND FAMILY as a template. With a minimal plot, involving romance as the basic structure, I wanted to do for Rashi's family, with no sons, just daughters, what Sydney Taylor did for her immigrant family of five girls. The reader would be embedded in their daily lives - experiencing their homes, clothes, food, medicine, education. I would detail all the Jewish holidays and lifecycle events, as observed by a pious 11th century French scholar's family. Most important, my readers would work and study with them; especially the latter since legends held that Rashi's daughters were learned in Talmud in a time when most women were forbidden to study the holy text,
But I knew my novels would be for adults. Unlike ALL OF A KIND FAMILY readers, mine would attend funerals and observe the black fast of Tisha B'Av. My readers would accompany the daughters when they went to the privy, when they had their menses, and when they 'used the bed' with their husbands. And of course, when they studied Talmud. Since the first volume, JOHEVED, begins when she and sister Miriam are children [and Rachel is merely a baby], many Jewish educators thought they had a new book for their curriculum - until they got to the wedding night. So after some pressure, I agreed to adapt it for young readers, resulting in RASHI'S DAUGHTER: SECRET SCHOLAR coming out in 2008. So it seems have I followed in Sydney Taylor's footsteps more closely than I originally intended.