Rashi's Daughters, Book II: Miriam: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France (Rashi's Daughters Series) - Softcover

Anton, Maggie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452288630 ISBN 13: 9780452288638

Publisher: Plume, 2007

Synopsis

The second novel in a dramatic trilogy set in eleventh-century France about the lives and loves of three daughters of the great Talmud scholar 

The engrossing historical series of three sisters living in eleventh-century Troyes, France, continues with the tale of Miriam, the lively and daring middle child of Salomon ben Isaac, the great Talmudic authority. Having no sons, he teaches his daughters the intricacies of Mishnah and Gemara in an era when educating women in Jewish scholarship was unheard of. His middle daughter, Miriam, is determined to bring new life safely into the Troyes Jewish community and becomes a midwife. As devoted as she is to her chosen path, she cannot foresee the ways in which she will be tested and how heavily she will need to rely on her faith. With Rashi's Daughters, author Maggie Anton brings the Talmud and eleventh-century France to vivid life and poignantly captures the struggles and triumphs of strong Jewish women.

About this title

From the Author:

"Rashi's Daughters" is the story of the three daughters of the great Talmudic authority Salomon ben Isaac, a.k.a. Rashi, who lived in 11th century Troyes, France and had no sons. At a time when most women were illiterate and the rare educated woman was one who could read the Bible, Rashi's daughters studied Talmud. They were also vintners, merchants and mothers of the next generation of Talmudic scholars.

Built on seven years of exhaustive historical research and ten years of Talmud study, "Rashi's Daughters" explores what might have been, weaving actual events, as described in responsa literature and Talmud commentaries, into an account of the lives of these amazing women. Talmud is an integral part of these novels; readers will learn along with Rashi's daughters as he explains selected texts. This is also the story of the medieval French Jewish community, how they lived, loved, worked, ate, prayed and interacted with their non-Jewish neighbors. A wealth of material about Jewish women's daily lives is provided, including how they observed life cycle events and holidays.

I wrote this book because I wanted to share my research into Jewish women's lives in medieval France, how the prosperity and tolerance they enjoyed differed from the negative stereotypes usually associated with the Middle Ages. In addition, I wished to encourage women to study Talmud, the foundation of Jewish Law that, until very recently, women have been unable to access. I hoped to share the excitement and pleasure Talmud study can engender.

From the Inside Flap:

Rashi's Daughters: Miriam - Prologue

Times had never been better for the Jews of northern France than in the second half of the eleventh century. Relations with their Christian neighbors were tolerant, even amiable on occasion, since the Church was too busy rooting out heretical sects and implementing Pope Gregory's controversial reforms to concern itself with the Jews. European society was entering 150 years of advances in political organization, economics, scientific pursuit and education, in what is now called the 12th Century Renaissance.

Under the feudal system, the Jews' social status was high, equal to that of knights. The Jewish trader was a welcome visitor to French estates, bringing news of the outside world, buying their surfeit produce and selling them imported goods. Jews were moneylenders much as department stores and gasoline companies are today; if their customers received the bulk of their income at harvest time, for example, merchants extended them credit until then.

As Christian Europe's resources grew, Jews bought wheat, wool, wine and steel, and then transported it to the Muslim east, where they sold it for a profit. In return they acquired silk, cotton, spices and jewels, which they brought back to the west, sold for another profit, and began the cycle again. Everyone prospered.

The Jews of Troyes benefited greatly from this commercial success. Under the enlightened sovereignty of Count Thibault, the great fairs of Champagne attracted merchants from throughout the known world, many of them learned in Jewish Law. Credit was extended from one fair to the next, in this infancy of the modern banking system. Since local middlemen collected a percentage of every sale, the Jews of Troyes became so affluent that even the poorest families had servants.

In 1068, one of these families was that of twenty-eight year old Rabbi Salomon ben Isaac, who would be known and revered centuries later as Rashi, one of Judaism's greatest scholars. After fifteen years studying in Germany's finest Talmudic academies, he was forced to return home to manage the family vineyard, fallen into decline due to his mother's senility. With no sons, and desperate from having to give up his yeshiva studies, Salomon broke with tradition and secretly began teaching Talmud to his daughters, Joheved and Miriam.

But Salomon did not lack male students for long. Isaac haParnas, the leader of the Jewish community, saw an opportunity to attract more Jewish merchants to the fairs in Troyes by establishing a Talmud academy there. He offered Salomon a generous salary to teach his grandsons, and other boys soon joined them, forming the nucleus of a new yeshiva. To ensure that Salomon had sufficient time to teach, Isaac haParnas partnered with him in the wine business, which finally lifted the vintner's family out of poverty.

Salomon also had time to begin writing his twin commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud. His Bible commentary is so authoritative that today it is studied is every rabbinic school. Yet his extraordinarily clear and concise commentary on the Talmud is his true magnum opus. Since the Talmud was first printed in the 15th century, his words fill the inside column of every page of every copy. Today more Jews read Rashi's words each day than those of any other Jewish scholar.

Not surprisingly, Salomon's daughters found fiancés from among his students. First Joheved was betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, a lord's son from nearby Ramerupt. Miriam, however, enjoyed a love match with Benjamin ben Reuben, son of a vintner in Rheims. Her initial compassion for the homesick youth blossomed into a deeper feeling as they worked together in Salomon's vineyard. Joheved, terrified that Meir would discover that she knew Talmud, tried to hide her learning from him. But Miriam suffered no such fears with Benjamin, and the two of them would often study Salomon's lessons together.

Over the next several years, Salomon's yeshiva thrived as more and more foreign merchants studied with him during the twice-yearly fairs, and then sent their sons to him during the year. His family grew as well when his wife Rivka gave birth to another daughter, Rachel. Miriam was so helpful during the delivery that the midwife, her Aunt Sarah, began training her as an apprentice.

Miriam learned to grow her own midwife herbs and to find the others she needed in the local forest; she helped deliver Countess Adelaide's baby during a complicated childbirth, thereby saving both the countess and the child; she prepared and administered an abortion potion for Catharina, an unmarried childhood friend; and she successfully delivered Joheved's first child.

All this time, Miriam and Joheved continued to study Talmud with their father. When their grandmother died, they took over her position leading services for the women in synagogue, and though they didn't seek it, they were on the way to assume leadership in the community of Jewish women. But Miriam gave no thought to the future of Troyes' Jews or her possible role in it. At seventeen years old, she was focused on her own future as she and Benjamin eagerly prepared for their wedding.

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0452288630
• ISBN 13: 9780452288638
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496