My friend, who ordered Rashi’s Daughters, Book I: Jocheved by Maggie Anton for our book club, asked me to read it and tell her my thoughts. Not having read any reviews I didn’t know what to expect.

Anton introduces us to the life of the renowned classical Biblical and Talmudic commentator Rabbi Salomon Isaac of Troyes (Rashi) and his family. The oldest daughter, Jocheved, studies Talmud with her father and borrows her father’s tefillin (phylacteries) to say morning prayers.

We learn about the family’s meals, bathroom habits (they collect moss to use for toilet paper), menstrual cycles, parchment making and wine-making (Anton assumes that Rashi is a vintner, although this may be a myth).

It’s fascinating to speculate on the daily life of an important Jewish family in the 11th century, even though the portrait of Rashi’s family is too intimate and completely unbelievable. But as Anton states in the afterword, “. . . because I am writing fiction, I can say whatever I like.”

The second half of the book, leading up to the wedding of Yocheved and Meir, includes long discussions about the characters’ sexual frustrations and quotations of what appear to be every existing Talmudic passage relating to sex. Anton throws in some quotes from Tractate Kallah (Bride), which her readers probably think is an ancient sex manual. In fact, after reading this book you might think the Talmud is entirely about women and sex with a bit of winemaking on the side.

In one scene, Rashi catches Meir and Yocheved kissing. (The yeshiva bachurim, or unmarried students, board in Rashi’s house.) After he orders her to review the fourth commandment (either Anton means the fifth commandment, honoring one’s parents, or she assumes her readers follow the Christian numeration), Jocheved blames Rashi for both delaying her wedding and being away so much when she was small. Thus chastised, Rashi takes Meir aside and shares in graphic detail the difficulties he experienced on his own wedding night, because he had relied on texts with no father or brother to explain things. Finally, Rashi indicates to the engaged couple that he will look the other way if they fool around in the future.

I couldn’t finish this book.

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Nechama Leibovich z”l was one of Jerusalem’s most renowned teachers. For thirty years, she mailed out dozens, and later hundreds of weekly sheets on the Torah portion for self-study. Students sent in the completed sheets, which she marked and returned.

Yesterday, we received this email:

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First, Abacaxi Mamao gets a little nervous:

I went to the hardware store in search of an inexpensive pot for boiling water. My sister owns only fleishig [meat, or meaty if you're a Brit] pots for Pesach, and my aunt, the coffee devotee, needed something in which to boil water that would then be used to make coffee to which milk would be added. Hence, my quest.

The clerk at the hardware store questioned my desire to purchase “the cheapest pot you’ve got,” so I (stupidly?) explained that I just needed it for Passover and it didn’t need to be anything fancy, just something that would boil water.

“Oh, Passover,” he said. “Where are you going to get the blood?”

Read the rest of the post to find out what happens.

And check out Lion of Zion, as he documents the once widespread practice of comparing bitter herbs to bitter women– at the Pesach seder.

He captions the picture above as follows:

The wife holds a double-edged sword, alluding to Proverbs (4:5): “But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”

Hag sameach and Shabbat Shalom.

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Apparently matzah isn’t the only food in low supply. On the radio this morning they interviewed an American about the grocery chain Costco, which is limiting the amount of rice people can purchase. She couldn’t remember anything similar since the second world war. They then interviewed an Israeli food expert. He was reassuring, saying that Israel produces 1.5 times the amount of food that it needs. Of the excess, half goes to the Palestinian territories and half to the US and Europe. And even though we don’t grow much wheat, we have more than enough potatoes to meet the country’s needs. (Pesach all year round?) That is, he continued, assuming the price of water doesn’t get too high. Israel’s water situation is at a crisis level and as usual our leaders aren’t paying much attention.

The thought of having excess food, while our neighbors (like Egypt) are having food riots because of rising costs, does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

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We have been hearing about the undersupply of matzah in the US, and couldn’t find any in the store this morning here either. We could have scraped through our (one day–I can’t help rubbing it in again) of Yom Tov but managed to scrounge some extra from friends. I figure someone got smart and and shipped a big order from Israel to the US earlier in the week.

The shortage was all caused by my father-in-law. He bought 10 or 15 pounds of matzah on sale at the supermarket before Pesach, stored it in his basement, and flew to Israel to be with his children. Hopefully no one will raid his house.

Oy Bay is covering the story.

My husband and I both recall that our families would never rely on being able to find matzah in the middle of the week. Where he lived, you put in your Pesach order in advance and that was it. In my hometown you could find Pesach products in stores, but the supply was sketchy.

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I started several posts but could not be inspired to finish any of them. Below are the main reasons, one for each day of Pesach:

1. House guests.
2. H.A.D.
3. Husband and children on vacation.

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A month ago I committed to writing a post a day (bli neder) until Pesach; despite a few bad days I had fun and the blogging energized me enough to get through Pesach preparations. My readership substantially increased, although recently more than half of my hits came from people searching for a potato kugel recipe. And the LA Times Middle East blog page listed this blog on its sidebar–how cool is that?

Two things made me happy this morning: My son had washed the floor after I went to sleep, and my daughter offered to help iron his shirts (I’m allergic to ironing).

Despite a few rough moments, I confess to enjoying Pesach cleaning. I don’t have the stamina I used to but the work seems to have gotten done. We can only hope that I didn’t forget some crucial item.

Wishing all my readers, commenters and lurkers a beautiful, kosher, meaningful, relaxing, enjoyable, delicious and memorable Passover.

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Today is Taanit Bechorot, the fast of the first-born, which commemorates the fact that Jews in Egypt were spared the tenth plague. Because this year the fast would have fallen out on Shabbat, it got moved up to Thursday. At any rate, no one really fasts. Instead, bechorot (first-born sons) attend a siyum exempting them. Just about every synagogue has one after shacharit (morning prayers).

What do you do if you are the parent of a bechor who is too young to fast? The father usually attends a siyum in his place. But I know of a woman who actually fasted on Taanit Bechorot; her husband was also a bechor, so she felt that the obligation fell on her. I don’t know why she didn’t just go to a siyum if she felt it was necessary. My husband is a bechor and I never fasted when my oldest was a baby. (And I didn’t go to a siyum either.) I know there’s not usually much to eat on the day before Pesach, but still.

As my husband was coming out of shul this morning a young woman drove up; she told him she had heard that it was possible to get “yayn bechorim” (wine of the first-born) at that synagogue. The woman explained that she was planning to drink it on Pesach, in lieu of fasting today. My husband had never heard of it. Have you?

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West Bank Mama wrote about her favorite parts of Pesach. I think mine might be the end of the first day, after Yom Tov is over and I realize I don’t have to make another seder.

After I wrote my last post it occurred to me that we must have had two sedarim the year my son was born in New York, so I asked my husband if he remembered the second one. He also drew a total blank. That was the last time we had two, because we made aliyah the following fall. Conclusion: The second seder is completely forgettable.

Actually, I do remember the second seder from when I was a child. My parents always invited an unmarried, elderly Reform professor, for whom the second seder may have been a bit of a novelty. Or perhaps they just figured he was lonely. My parents didn’t like the fact that he came late every year so they finally decided to start without him. That solved the problem.

Once, when we came to the discussion of “Arami oved avi” (a wandering Aramean was my father) in the haggadah, he made a comment. “You know, X has made great strides in ascribing this passage to E instead of to P” (a reference to scholarship regarding the alleged different authors of the Torah). This topic did not interest my father; he acknowledged the comment and continued the seder.

Read more on We don’t even remember. . ….

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Received via a community email list:

We’d like to keep our 4- and 6-year-olds alert and excited for as long as possible during the seder. Acting out parts of the haggada has been suggested but we’re drawing a blank on how to do this realistically yet without delaying the proceedings too much.
Has anyone out there in Cyberspace done this successfully in previous years? Can you share your ideas?
Also, any idea how to act out the MAKOT (plagues)?

Despite not doing anything unusual at our seder, our kids manage to stay awake. Our oldest set the precedent at his first seder at age 2.5 weeks. My parents were supposed to join us, but they had been in town for the birth and brit and couldn’t bring themselves to make a second trip so soon. We declined an invitation to the seder, which was just as well, because our newborn stayed awake for the entire time; my husband and I took turns walking with him.

As for older children, it helps if they have learned about Pesach in advance, and have a pictorial haggadah. I’ve heard of props and quizzes, but I think the most important thing is to pay attention to them, explain the text on their level, and have them fully participate in every aspect of the seder including serving. After all, the seder is full of all kinds of interesting activities; we just need to point them out.

Another thing that helps: We serve only two courses and generally end by midnight. And don’t forget the naps.

Please post any suggestions in the comments.

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