As many of you may know, HUC professor and feminist theologian Rachel Adler was my first Talmud teacher, the one who got me hooked on Talmud and Rashi way back in 1992. And in one of those strange quirks of fate, when she decided to become ordained as a rabbi last year, she chose my synagogue, Beth Chayim Chadashim, to do her rabbinic internship. Most people would find it odd that someone with her credentials has to intern at a synagogue, but that's the rule. You can imagine my shock and delight when I learned that Rachel chose my shul for this honor. So this year I've studied with her, davened with her, and observed all the Jewish holidays with her. For more info about Rachel's journey to the rabbinate, read this article from the LA Jewish Journal.
Friday night, in honor of her ordination on Sunday, she gave one of the most impressive and powerful sermons I've ever heard. All this week you can hear her words yourself by clicking on the following link. After this Friday, you can still listen via Livestream's stored videos.
Safely home from a well-deserved family cruise vacation, I continue with the second half of previous post: Meanwhile, I learned that the Talmud contained discussions of spells, amulets, demons, the Evil Eye, and other occult subjects. Magic was clearly an integral part of life in this world, and some of the rabbis, including Rav Hisda, performed what we would call acts of magic themselves. But rabbinic sages agreed that sorcery was mostly the province of women. Though the Bible says, “You shall not allow a sorceress to live,” these women were able to practice freely. They were respected professionals, not scary hags with pointy hats as in Snow White and Wizard of Oz. The Talmud even tells of a rabbi who consulted the ‘head sorceress’ to learn a special protective spell.
It came to me when I read that Rav Hisda’s daughter demonstrated various ways of protecting her husband, a rabbi well versed in magic himself, from demons. My heroine was an enchantress! Not only that, but sorceresses who inscribed incantation bowls were probably members of rabbinic families too, for what other Jewish women would be literate and learned enough to create them? My literary task was to show her becoming an enchantress in a society where, unlike today, highly educated people accepted magic as real and effective.
The difference between Rav Hisda’s Daughter and supernatural novels like Harry Potter, Witches of Eastwick, and the Twilight series, is that the magic in those stories is clearly fictional, the product of the novelist’s imagination. I use actual, historical, spells and procedures from incantation bowls, amulets, magical instruction manuals, and the Talmud. But surely that ancient magic didn’t really work any better than Harry Patter’s.
Yet perhaps it did work more often than one might think. Since many people recovered from their injuries and illnesses, most pregnant women did not die in childbirth, and the majority of children survived childhood, spells to heal and protect them were clearly successful. Physicians now know that the placebo effect is real. And then there are occasional magical procedures from the Talmud such washing one’s hands upon leaving a privy or sickroom, as protection against the myriad demons who lurk there. Change ‘demons’ to ‘viruses and bacteria,’ and we have one of today’s most effective public health measures.
When I began researching third-century Babylonia for my historical novel, Rav Hisda’s Daughter, I had never imagined that the subtitle would be “A Novel of Love, the Talmud and Sorcery.” But I soon learned that magic, whose etymology comes from Magi, the scholar-priests of Zoroastrian Babylonia, was pervasive not only in Persia, but throughout the Roman Empire as well. My initial glimpse of this world came when, looking for historical sources of names to give my female characters, I discovered a corpus of research on something called Babylonian Incantation Bowls.
These were ordinary pottery with inscriptions inside whose purpose was to protect the people under whose home the vessels were buried. Thousands of these bowls had been unearthed in what is now Iraq and dated to the 4th-6th century. At first my interest in the inscriptions, written in the same Aramaic language as the Talmud, was purely as a source of authentic women’s names. But upon careful reading, I saw that the lengthy incantations, unique to each bowl, must have been produced by educated Jews.
Most were for benevolent purposes – healing the sick, protecting children and pregnant women from harm, guarding against demons and the Evil Eye. The spells often contained biblical verses and drawings of bound demons. One even quoted Talmud. The bowl pictured here, one of two I own, includes the verse from Zechariah 3:2, “May the LORD rebuke you, O Satan.”
Archeologists have also found amulets with similar, albeit shorter, incantations written by Jews, Christians, and pagans throughout the Persian and Roman empires. They discovered Hebrew magic instruction manuals that list an astonishing variety of spells, some benevolent and some not. My favorites were the love spells, along with one for winning at chariot races.
Now that I have an official publicist at Plume, the two of us brainstormed for over an hour on how to best publicize "Rav Hisda's Daughter." For my Jewish audience, and others who are familiar with "Rashi's Daughters," our task is more a matter of letting them know of my new novel's existence and pub date. For that, I will be sending out an e-blast to my over 3000 email contacts. Plus Plume will mail 12,500 post cards to my mailing list of JCC's, synagogues, and folks who signed up at my many lectures.
But what about the vast majority of potential readers who have never heard of me, or my historical novels? My publicist thinks that exploiting the magic and sorcery in "Rav Hisda's Daughter" could bring my writing to a whole new audience. Unlike the supernatural feats of Harry Potter or the Twilight vampires, the spells and incantations in my novels are real. That is, we have historical evidence for them, and scholars of Late Antiquity have shown that amulets and other such objects were ubiquitous throughout the Persian and Roman empires.
These were used by Jews, Christians and pagans; the educated and ignorant; men, women and especially children. The clients who ordered them consulted learned professionals, women included, not scary-looking hags in black pointy hats. Amazingly, some of them, like the Jewish traveler's blessing created by Rav Hisda, are still popular today. My next few posts will include excerpts from an essay that my publicist asked me to write about the subject.
As some of you may recall, my original Talmud teacher Rachel Adler has been the rabbinic intern at Beth Chayim Chadashim [6090 W Pico Blvd, LA 90035] this year. This Tuesday and next, she will be teaching two classes on her favorite sugyot [Talmud passages] there at 7:30 pm. I want to invite and encourage everyone who can to join me at her final two study sessions before her ordination. Those who can't be there in person can call in and learn with us via speakerphone. Just dial 702-851-4044, and when prompted punch in 2, then the pass code, bccla (22252#).
In addition, I want to invite you all to come to BCC's Shabbat services on April 20 at 8 pm, when Rachel will grace the bima for the last time as BCC's intern. This post is not just directed at those in the Los Angeles area, because folks out of town can attend via live-stream. In fact, anyone can go back in time and watch BCC services for up to a week after they occurred.
Please join Rachel [and me] at any, and hopefully all, of these three events.
Ten days ago I sent back the galley of RAV HISDA'S DAUGHTER: BOOK 1 - APPRENTICE with my "final changes," at least the last changes until eagle-eyed readers find the mistakes we missed in the first printing. So just when I thought I'd be done working on it and have plenty of time to get ready for Passover, emails from my publisher kept appearing in my inbox with new tasks for me.
First came the prospective back-cover copy to review - a critical task. For once the front cover intrigues potential readers the next thing they do is turn the book over and read the back cover. So what's written there, in less than 150 words, is vitally important to getting that book sold. Of course the draft could stand some improving, and this had to be done asap.
No sooner was that sent back than the email arrived from the art department with a draft ad for the Assn of Jewish Libraries convention booklet. The layout was great, but the text needed to be tweaked to make it better appeal to this specific audience. Again I had only a few days in which to do so. This was followed by an email announcing that ARC's [advance reader's copies] were ready to send out for blurbs, which necessitated a short letter from me that would accompany each book, thanking the prospective blurbers for their efforts and hoping they'd have something nice to say about it.
Last, and certainly not least, the copy editors had some questions about the changes I'd made in the galley, as well as some last-minute changes of their own. Thirteen pages of text to go over, approve or not, and explain why - due back in 3 days. And that's what authors do once their books are written.
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.
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.
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.
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 - 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.
Back from Israel and catching up with email, a Google alert sent me to a very cool website, Yasiv.com. When an Amazon search result says, "You may be interested in ..." or "People who bought this also bought ..." it's the result of an algorithm. A lot of algorithm stuff is beyond me, but I like to look at pictures, so I checked it out.
Before my eyes, Yasiv turned an Amazon search into a web of pictures. The screen filled with items I could see, much more interesting than a listing of entries. I typed in my name and Yasiv came alive with a tangle of tomes that unwound themselves gradually into a design that reflected their connection to my original title, and to each other. Using my mouse wheel enlarges or decreases the screen, like in map websites. Each item is clickable, with a full description to help me see why Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath might be related to my historical novel Rashi's Daughters.
