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Medieval life in a modern context.

Article Excerpt
Rashi's Daughters--Book One--Joheved, by Maggie Anton, 2005, Banot Press, paperback, $15.95

A number of historical novels have appeared recently focusing upon women. Rashi's Daughters is a good example of this phenomenon. It is a well-written work, set in 11th century France that incisively pictures Jewish life in medieval times.

Though based upon Rabbi Salomon ben Isaac, [Rashi] (1040-1105), and his family, the novel concentrates upon a subject that is of particular interest in our times--the role of women. It is this emphasis that lends the work a modern context. This tinge of modernity is perhaps inevitable when the novel, though set in medieval times, is centered upon a household, family relationships and basic life-issues such as birth and death, the day-to-day cares of livelihood, food, and health--subjects that were of concern to people, both then and today in the modern world.

The focal point of the work, as its title indicates, is not Rashi the famous commentator or his scholarly grandsons, but the generation in-between, his daughters. The central figure of the book is Joheved, depicted as Rashi's eldest daughter. She has an inquiring mind and a thirst for knowledge. She is the studious, serious, and contemplative sister, while Miriam is more lively and practical. Little is known about Rashi's daughters though it is reported that they were learned. The historian Heinrich Graetz (History of the Jews) writes that: "Rashi's mantle fell upon his grandsons and sons-in-law, who were his greatest disciples. For he had no sons, but only three daughters, of whom the one was so deeply versed in the Talmud that...