by Maggie Anton
A PLUME BOOK
RAV HISDA’S DAUGHTER
BOOK I: APPRENTICE
MAGGIE ANTON was born Margaret Antonofsky in Los Angeles, California, where she still resides. Raised in a secular, socialist household, she reached adulthood with little knowledge of her Jewish religion. All that changed when David Parkhurst, who was to become her husband, entered her life, and they both discovered Judaism as adults. That was the start of a lifetime of Jewish education, synagogue involvement, and ritual observance. This was in addition to raising their children, Emily and Ari, and working full-time as a clinical chemist.
In 1992 Anton learned about a women’s Talmud class taught by Rachel Adler, now a professor at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. To her surprise, she fell in love with Talmud, a passion that has continued unabated for twenty years. Intrigued that the great Talmudic scholar Rashi had no sons, only daughters, Anton researched the family and decided to write novels about them. Thus the award-winning trilogy, Rashi’s Daughters, was born.
Still studying women and Talmud, Anton has lectured all over North America and Israel about the history behind her novels. You can follow her blog and contact her at her Web site, www.maggieanton.com.
Praise for Rav Hisda’s Daughter
“This is more than a touching story of love and loss, a journey of an independent-minded woman, or a tale of magic and witchcraft. Anton’s imagination takes you into the lives of our Talmudic Sages—as young students and venerated teachers, shy fiancés and strong husbands, devoted sons and caring fathers. She also fills in the blank spaces for us—the rich and important lives of women and girls of those times. Researching her material well, Anton recreates Talmudic times, both the day-to-day ordinary existence and life fraught with danger and destruction, yet surviving to bring us Jewish law and wisdom unto this very day.”
—Blu Greenberg, Founding President of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance; and author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition
“This book is a truly wonderful endeavor to bring the Talmud, the second Jewish Scripture, particularly its Babylonian branch, to life for the reader, and makes it possible for her to come to terms with one serious and holistic attempt to interpret how it presents itself. If you are intrigued by what Judaism is, how it presents itself, and how it came to be what it is today; and if, at the same time, you are a fan of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this is the book for you. There is little doubt that if you are patient enough, you will discover behind the unpronounceable Persian names and exotic setting on the Euphrates River both Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.”
—Tal Ilan, Professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, author of A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud
“Maggie Anton has written an imaginative and meticulously researched story, compelling and rich both intellectually and emotionally.”
—Rachel Adler, Professor of Jewish Religious Thought and Feminist Studies at HUC-JIR (Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion) in Los Angeles, author of Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics
“Maggie Anton invites us to imagine the world behind the Talmud. She populates that world with engaging characters and interesting situations. Her work also introduces readers to the history and culture of Jews in Late Antiquity. Finally, Anton reminds us that women, whose voices are largely ignored in the Talmud, were part of the vibrant world that produced the greatest text of classical Judaism.”
—Rabbi Dvora E. Weisberg, PhD, Director of the School of Rabbinic Studies, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
“Maggie Anton’s extensive research into rabbinic and other contemporaneous materials is evident throughout this novel. She skillfully weaves together multiple Talmudic sources to create a vivid picture of what life might have been like for the daughter of a prominent rabbinic family in Sasanian Babylonia and Roman Palestine in the late third century CE, wrapped in a story of love, loss, and a young woman’s quest to find her purpose and place in an androcentric world.”
—Gail Labovitz, Associate Professor of Rabbinics for the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University; author of Marriage and Metaphor: Constructions of Gender in Rabbinic Literature
Praise for the Rashi’s Daughters Trilogy
“Miriam is well-researched and absolutely intriguing to read…what a wonderful story this is!”
—Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University, Los Angeles
“Miriam gives us a fascinating glimpse into the world of Jewish women long ago. A wonderful read!”
—Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, author of ReVisions: Seeing Torah Through a Feminist Lens
“Once again, Maggie Anton has delighted us with an engrossing story of the family and the circle of students around Rashi, the medieval commentator on the Bible and Talmud. Miriam is a unique historical novel that acquaints the readers with a variety of distinctive men and women who reflect upon and struggle with the powerful forces within and outside of them.”
—Jody Myers, Professor of the Department of Religious Studies, Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program, California State University, Northridge
“No one who reads [Rashi’s Daughters, Book I] will ever read Rashi’s writings in the same way.”
—Dr. Neil Gillman, Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America; and author of Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew
“Impressive…Rashi and his entire community spring to life in this intriguing novel.”
—Rabbi Laura Geller, Senior Rabbi, Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills
RAV HISDA’S
DAUGHTER
BOOK I: APPRENTICE
__________
• A NOVEL OF LOVE, THE TALMUD, AND SORCERY •
__________
MAGGIE ANTON
A PLUME BOOK
PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. · Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) · Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England · Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) · Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) · Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India · Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) · Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, August 2012
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Copyright © Maggie Anton, 2012
All rights reserved
Map illustration by David Parkhurst
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Anton, Maggie.
Rav Hisda’s daughter, book I, apprentice : a novel of love, the Talmud, and sorcery / Maggie Anton.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-101-60345-1
1. Jewish women—Fiction. 2. Babylonia—Fiction. 3. Jewish fiction. I. Title.
PS3601.N57R43 2012
813’.54—dc23 2012014785
Printed in the United States of America
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Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
To my children, Emily and Ari,
who both chose to walk in their mother’s footsteps—
albeit on different paths
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Time Line
Map of Middle East ca. 300 CE
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Part One—King Bahram’s Reign (283–292 CE)
Part Two—King Narseh’s Reign (293–299 CE)
Afterword
Glossary
PREFACE
Babylonia, the fabled region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is now located in Iraq. During its lengthy history it has been known as Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, the Cradle of Civilization, and even the Garden of Eden. Land of Magi and Chaldeans, Babylonia has so long been associated with magic that even today it conjures images of flying carpets and genies in lamps.
Yet Babylonia was the cradle of monotheism, birthplace of Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Indeed, the two religions coexisted peacefully there since Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Israel’s first Temple and made captives of its population in 586 BCE. Enjoying autonomy under the tolerant Zoroastrians, many Jews remained in Babylonia even after they were permitted to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple with the prophet Ezra.
Unfortunately for their coreligionists in Judea, only the Jews of Babylonia continued to live in peace and prosperity. By the year 6 CE (not that anyone at that time would have known a new calendrical system was starting) Judea had become a Roman province. The Jews rebelled against their foreign masters sixty years later, but Rome crushed the revolt and, to the horror of Jews everywhere, destroyed the rebuilt Holy Temple.
In the power vacuum that resulted, the next hundred years saw a fierce competition between Judean sects—Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, Gnostics, Zealots, Nazarenes, among others—for supremacy in a Judaism that struggled for life without its Temple-based few rituals. The majority of Jews, however, joined none of these groups. They prayed at local synagogues and followed the Torah as best they could.
With no Temple, the priests in Judea relinquished their leadership role to the Rabbis, heirs to the Pharisaic tradition. Torah study was the highest value for these men, and 150 years after the Temple’s destruction, when the Oral Law was codified as the Mishna, rabbinic scholars had set up schools in the cities of Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Tiberias. Shortly thereafter, similar schools were established in the Babylonian cities of Sura and Nehardea. Thus when Rome converted to a Christian empire in the fourth century and extinguished Jewish political power in the land renamed Palestina, Babylonia became the great center of Torah study. Historians have long believed, and many still do, that the Rabbis quickly established their hegemony, with the majority of Jews readily accepting the Mishna’s authority. But recent scholarship suggests that for generations, if not centuries, the Rabbis were a beleaguered minority whose teachings were either rejected or ignored by most Jews.
Yet it was this tiny group of men, perhaps a few hundred out of over a million Jews who resided between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers during the third to fifth centuries, whose discussions, debates, and stories were collected and redacted along with the Mishna into what is known as the Babylonian Talmud. Today, fifteen hundred years later, this sacred text continues to serve as the basis of Jewish Law, with the ironic result that the rules and traditions of Jews throughout the world were formed by a community of which little is known prior to the third centurty.
It is this small Babylonian community of learned men and their families whose names populate the Talmud. While not so well known as Sages from the Mishna, like Hillel and Shammai, some names appear more prominently than others: Hisda, Nachman, Sheshet, Yosef, Rami bar Chama, Abaye, and Rava.
There are even a few women who appear in the Talmud: Em, Yalta, Beruriah, Choma, and more often than almost any other of her gender, Rav Hisda’s daughter.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Twenty years ago, when I first joined a women’s Talmud class being taught by Rachel Adler, it would never have crossed my mind that one day I’d be any kind of historical novelist, let alone one who writes about women and the Talmud. But I was intrigued enough by the subject to delve into it, and when my research turned up some amazing Jewish female historical figures, something possessed me to write about them.
But I couldn’t have done it alone. Henry Wudl, my research assistant and study partner, found all sorts of Hebrew and Aramaic texts I could never have accessed. My dear friend Rabbi Aaron Katz, who helped me so much on Rashi’s Daughters, was always available to answer even my most bizarre questions. Eager to reply to my e-mails about Babylonian Jewry were scholars: Richard Kalmin, Shai Secunda, Tal Ilan, Geoffrey Herman, Catharine Hezser, Michael Satlow, and Judith Hauptman.
I want to thank my editor at Plume, Denise Roy, for her support, and for her encouragement in making Rav Hisda’s Daughter the best it could be. Many thanks to Beth Lieberman for editing guidance that forced me to take this book to the higher level she knew I was capable of, and to my literary agent, Susanna Einstein, who has been negotiating for me since the early days of my career. My daughter Emily, a voracious reader of historical novels, spent countless hours critiquing my early drafts and never hesitated to lambast any scenes that didn’t measure up to her exacting standards.
Last but not least, I offer my thanks and love to my husband, Dave, who designed the map and Aramaic cover art. He could always think of the right word when I couldn’t, and without his support I would still be working in Kaiser’s metabolic lab.
TIME LINE
450 BCE Ezra and some Jews return to Zion from Babylonia but many remain there.
332 BCE Alexander the Great defeats Persian king Darius; Judea and Babylonia become Greek provinces.
167 BCE Hasmonean/Maccabean revolt in Judea (basis of Hanukah); Judea again ruled by Jewish kings.
130 BCE Parthians conquer Babylonia; Jewish communities given autonomy under exilarch’s rule.
63 BCE Pompey conquers Hasmonean state; Judea now ruled by Rome.
ca. 40 BCE Hillel comes to Jerusalem from Babylonia and founds school to teach Torah.
37 BCE Herod becomes client king of Judea, dies in 4 BCE.
6 CE Judea becomes Roman province.
35 Jesus crucified.
66 Judean Jews rebel against Rome.
70 Judean rebellion fails; Temple in Jerusalem destroyed.
132 Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea against Rome.
135 Bar Kokhba revolt is crushed; Judea renamed Palestina.
200 Mishna (Oral Law) redacted by patriarch Rabbi Judah haNasi in Sepphoris.
220 Rav (Abba Arikha) returns to Babylonia from Eretz Israel; he and Shmuel establish Torah schools in Sura and Pumbedita, respectively.
226 Sasanian Persians c
onquer Parthia.
230 Hisda born in Babylonia.
241 Shapur I becomes king of Persia.
250 Jews agree to accept Persian law in Jewish courts; Jews receive autonomy within that limitation.
260 Shapur I defeats Rome, captures the emperor Valerian.
270 Rava (Abba bar Joseph) born in Babylonia. Rav’s grandson Nehemiah becomes exilarch (through 313).
274 Bahram II becomes king of Persia; Zoroastrian Kartir becomes high priest.
283 Roman emperor Carus captures Persian capital Ctesiphon and dies the same year; King Bahram is busy fighting in Afghanistan.
284 Diocletian becomes Roman emperor (through 305).
286 Diocletian resumes war with Bahram, invades Armenia.
292 Bahram dies; his brother Narseh deposes Bahram’s son to become king of Persia.
295 Rav Huna dies; Rav Hisda to head school in Sura; Roman general Galerius begins persecuting Christians.
296 Narseh declares war on Rome.
297 Narseh regains Mesopotamia from Rome, Galerius blamed.
298 Galerius defeats Narseh; Persia loses Armenia and upper Euphrates in fall; Ctesiphon sacked in winter.
299 Narseh makes Peace of Nisibis with Rome; Galerius orders Roman army purged of Christians.
301 Narseh abdicates in favor of son Hormizd.
307 Constantine, a Christian, becomes emperor of Rome.
309 Hormizd dies; Persian crown placed on pregnant wife’s belly; Rav Hisda dies with no replacement for Sura school.
310 Shapur II born and declared king of Persia.
313 Mar Ukva becomes exilarch (through 337); Constantine issues Edict of Milan, makes Christianity an official religion in Rome; Persia begins persecution of Christians.
323 Rav Joseph dies; Abaye heads Pumbedita school while Rava moves to Machoza.
