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Reading Group Guide - Book
I:Joheved
Introduction Discussion with Maggie Anton Discussion Questions
Introduction
The
first
novel in a dramatic historical trilogy set in eleventh-century
France, when for a Jewish woman, knowledge was dangerous.
In 1068, the scholar Salomon ben Isaac returns home to Troyes, France
to take over the family winemaking business and embark on a path that
will indelibly influence the Jewish world—writing the first Talmud
commentary, and secretly teaching Talmud to his daughters.
Joheved, the eldest of his three girls, finds her mind and spirit
awakened by religious study, but knowing the risk, she must keep her
passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to
Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and
being true to her love of the Talmud.
In Book I: Joheved, Maggie Anton introduces readers to the remarkable
daughters of Rashi and brings eleventh-century France -the people,
customs, and attitudes of society - vividly to life.
A Discussion with Maggie Anton
Who
was
Rashi?
Born
in
1040 in northern France, Rabbi Shlomo Yizhaki (better known by his
Hebrew initials, Rashi) was a great Talmudic scholar who studied in
Worms and Mayence before starting his own school in his native city of
Troyes. Because of his unique take on Talmudic study, students flocked
to receive the benefits of his vast erudition and distinctive method of
interpretation.
Why is Rashi's influence relevant today?
Rashi wanted to make being Jewish as easy as possible. His belief in
finding the most lenient legal opinion without building "fences around
the Torah," and in permitting rather than forbidding, makes him a model
rabbi for our times.
How did you get interested in Rashi's daughters?
I began studying Talmud with a group of women after my children grew up
and left the house. The more I studied Talmud from a feminist
perspective, the more curious I become about Rashi’s learned daughters
and how they managed to study Talmud in the Middle Ages when such study
was supposedly forbidden.
Why was Talmud study forbidden for women?
This
question
deserves more than the brief answer I'll give here. In
Deuteronomy, Jews are commanded to teach Torah to "bnaichem,"a word
that even the Orthodox translate as "your children." But the
early rabbis used its literal meaning, "your sons," and decided that
only men were obligated to study Torah. The Talmudic sage Rav
Eliezer took this exemption of women one step further, and declared
that "he who teaches his daughter Torah, teaches her
lechery."
So what were the consequences for women who studied
Talmud?
All societies, Jews included, disapprove of those who don't follow
their norms. Women who wanted to study Talmud were seen as
lacking in proper feminine attributes, and because women were thought
to be light-headed, incapable of serious study, those who tried to
study Talmud would only learn to be crafty and devious. Then, as
now, since a man typically preferred to believe that he was more
intelligent than his wife, the learned woman was left with a limited
choice of potential husbands.
What were the most interesting things you learned from
your research?
The
Shabbat
lights blessing was based on the Chanukah lights blessing, not
vice versa - and that in Rashi’s time, this blessing was the
basis of a great controversy that wasn't settled until years after his
death. Also, Jewish women in Rashi's time were able to demand a divorce
from their husbands, while a man couldn’t divorce his wife without her
consent.
Were there any surprises?
I was quite surprised to learn that there was little anti-Semitism in
Rashi’s time - the Church was more interested in converting pagans and
going after its own heretic sects than in persecuting the Jews.
Ghettos and blood-libels came centuries later. Also, Jews lived
prosperous lives (even the poorest Jews had servants) and engaged in
many occupations (Rashi was a vintner for example). Some Jews
were feudal lords with small fiefs and very few Jews supported
themselves by money-lending.
What do you see as the legacy Rashi's daughters leave
for modern Jewish women?
Rashi's daughters recognized the value of Torah study in the Jewish
world, and they wanted an education for themselves as well as for their
husbands and sons. Like women today, they attended synagogue
regularly and performed those rituals usually reserved for men.
When modern Jewish women create new rituals and new blessings, we are
following in the footsteps of Rashi's daughters and doing what our
female ancestors were already doing 900 years ago.
Why did you choose to include explicit sex scenes in the book?
I don't like historical fiction that closes the door on its characters,
so I resolved to follow Joheved no matter what she was doing: eating,
praying, using the privy, studying, dealing with menstruation,
preparing a corpse for burial, and making love. Joheved is a young
woman, newly married and hoping to get pregnant, so naturally sex is an
important part of her life. I wrote the book I wanted to read, which is
why the Talmud scenes are in there as well (and there's a lot more
Talmud than sex). But most important - so many books, movies and TV
shows today are saturated with casual hook-up sex that you'd never know
how good sex could/should be between a loving couple in a sacred
relationship, which is what Judaism teaches. Many parents have told me
that Joheved's wedding night is the kind of sex scene they want their
teenagers to read.
Discussion Questions
1. What tone does the opening scene set? What does it tell you about
Joheved’s character?
2. Describe how the bond between Joheved and Salomon develops and
changes with time? Discuss the pros and cons of Jewish childhood in
medieval France.
3. Rashi’s Daughters is filled with carefully researched historical
anecdotes that the author uses as inspiration for her own imagined
scenes. Discuss this interplay of fact and fiction.
4. Rivka is upset with her daughters learning Talmud. Are her
objections reasonable? Why would men not want women in a position of
knowledge? What is threatening about educated women? Discuss the role
of women in medieval society vs. their role today.
5. Joheved and Meir have an arranged marriage, as do Salomon and Rivka.
Compare Joheved and Meir's relationship to Salomon and Rivka's? To
Miriam and Benjamin's? Discuss the pros and cons of arranged marriage
vs. marrying for love. Why would Sarah prefer widowhood to remarriage?
6. Salomon's decision to write down his kuntres is a controversial
innovation. Discuss how a society is changed in a shift from oral to
written tradition.
7. Relations between French Jews and Christians were fairly tolerant
during this time. Was this lack of overt anti-Semitism surprising? What
other myths about medieval times did Rashi's Daughters debunk?
8. Which characters resonated the most powerfully for you? Were there
others you would have liked to have known more about? Why?
9.
What
do you see in the future for Rachel? Are there any clues that
indicate what might happen?
10. Religion was a powerful force for both Jews and Christians in
medieval times. Is religion as powerful now? How does your religion, or
lack of one, influence your life?
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