Rashi's Daughters, Book III: Rachel

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

A PLUME BOOK

RASHI’S DAUGHTERS BOOK III: RACHEL

MAGGIE ANTON was born Margaret Antonofsky in Los Angeles, California. Raised in a secular, socialist household, she reached adulthood with little knowledge of her Jewish religion. All that changed when Dave Parkhurst entered her life, and they discovered Judaism as adults. That was the start of a lifetime of adult 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 1997, as her nest was emptying and her mother was declining with Alzheimer’s disease, she became intrigued with the idea that Rashi, one of Judaism’s greatest scholars, had no sons, only three daughters. Using techniques developed doing her family’s genealogy, she began to research Rashi’s family, and the idea of a book about them was born.

Eight years later, the first volume of
Rashi’s Daughters
was finally complete, making Maggie Anton a Talmud maven and an authority on medieval French Jewish women. She retired from the lab and spent the next two years researching and writing
Book II: Miriam
, in addition to lecturing at more than one hundred synagogues, JCCs, and Jewish women’s organizations.

Maggie lives in Los Angeles, California, with Dave, her husband of thirty-nine years, where she is working on her next historical novel. You can follow her blog and contact her at her Web site,
www.rashisdaughters.com
.

“Imaginative and talented novelists have the ability to shed fresh light on corners of history otherwise inaccessible. Maggie Anton’s new book,
Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel
, takes us once again into the medieval Jewish world of love and learning, and the love of learning. One can only be grateful for such an intriguing and engaging work.”

—Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Professor of Bible, Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion; editor of
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary
(2008 National Jewish Book Award)

 

“
Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel
is an enlightened, empowering, and engaging journey of Rashi’s youngest daughter, Rachel, who enacts the forbidden during the Middle Ages—studying and teaching Talmud as a female. Thought provoking, research rich, psychologically complex,
Rachel
is a mirror of our own hearts and minds, a tale of pathos that awakens the tenderest of emotions, even if time separates us by nine hundred years.”

—Elissa Elliott, author of
Eve

 

“This third book of Maggie Anton’s brilliantly original trilogy is a page-turning delight. I’m dazzled by the clever ways in which Anton integrates poignant depictions of Rashi’s third daughter with obscure yet wonderfully pertinent Talmud texts, fun details about ancient medicines and the complexities of wool weaving, a gripping portrayal of the horrors of the Crusades, and descriptions about the vivid intellectual world of medieval Europe.”

—Rabbi Miriyam Glazer, PhD, Professor of Literature,
American Jewish University; author of
Psalms of the
Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Their Beauty, Power, and Meaning

 

“With only scraps of information about Rashi’s daughters, Anton has brought these three women to life. A stunning achievement. You will not be able to put this book down and you may even find yourself rushing off to study Talmud. So curl up in your favorite chair and savor every moment.”

—Judith Hauptman, E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud
and Rabbinic Culture, Jewish Theological Seminary;
author of
Rereading the Rabbis, A Woman’s Voice

 

“True to life yet colorful characters and a riveting plot . . . a most informative and enjoyable read. Not to be missed!”

—Eva Etzioni-Halevy, author of
The Garden of Ruth

 

“Wonderful . . . a fascinating glimpse into the world of Jewish women long ago.”

—Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, author of
ReVisions: Seeing Torah
Through a Feminist Lens

PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
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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

Copyright © Maggie Anton, 2009

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

 

Anton, Maggie.
Rashi’s Daughters : Book Three—Rachel / Maggie Anton.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-13333-0

1. Jewish women—Fiction. 2. Rashi, 1040-1105—Fiction. 3. Troyes (France)—Fiction.
4. Jews—France—Fiction. 5. Jews—France—History—to 1500—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3551.N765 R3 2005
813.54—dc22 2005920049

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

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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To my father
NATHAN GEORGE ANTON
Like Rashi,
No sons, only learned daughters

acknowledgments

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, when I began researching the lives of Rashi’s daughters in hopes of discovering if any truth lay behind the legends of their being learned and wearing tefillin, I never imagined that I would end up writing a trilogy of novels about them. I certainly never imagined that
Rashi’s Daughters
would be published by a major New York house, that my books would become bestsellers, or that I would be receiving fan mail every day.

There are so many people responsible for this amazing turn of events. I’ve studied with some of the finest Talmud scholars in America, but I owe a large debt of gratitude to Rabbi Aaron Katz, my study partner and dear friend since 2002. Aaron has taught me so much that there aren’t words enough to thank him. My books would not exist without his assistance.

I want to thank my outstanding editor at Plume, Signe Pike, who went over every line of
Rashi’s Daughters, Book III: Rachel
and suggested changes that better expressed what I wanted to say. Also much appreciation to my freelance editor, Beth Lieberman, for advice and encouragement that turned this book, and my others, into the ones I wanted them to be, and to Sharon Goldinger, who shepherded this naive author into a successful one. My friend Ray Eelsing and my daughter, Emily, spent many hours critiquing my early drafts. Each brought their own unique talents to the task and their comments were invaluable.