Enchantress: A Novel of Rav Hisda's Daughter (60 page)

Chama was gray haired now. His hands, with their prominent veins and tendons, were those of an old man. But he had all his teeth and could almost make time stand still when he smiled. I took his hand in mine and looked up into the eyes that were so much like mine.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you by abandoning you to Ukva and Achti, but I felt I had no choice,” I said. “I should have been a better mother and taken you with me to Pumbedita. Please forgive me.”

“Of course I forgive you, Mother. Maybe I resented you a little when I was young.” Chama paused and squeezed my hand. “But now I’m grateful. Only because of you was I able to learn priestly magic from Grandfather and then study the secret Torah with Rava.” He leaned down and kissed my brow. “And come into possession of King Solomon’s ring.”

“Please be careful. I know you have more arcane knowledge than Rava and I together, but don’t try to outwit Ashmedai.”

“Rest assured I intend to be very, very careful.”

I let his hand go. “Now I must speak with my husband.”

Rava had grown hard of hearing, and I gestured him to sit close to me. His hair, what was left of it, was as white as mine, but his beard remained beautifully full. His face was as brown and wrinkled as an old leather amulet, but his dark eyes were undimmed with age.

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness, Dodi.” Tears trickled down into his beard. “I am to blame for Rami being bitten by that snake, for keeping you in Pumbedita so you couldn’t study with your mother, for Joseph moving away and becoming vulnerable to Zafnat’s curse, for Ashmedai nearly destroying our marriage,” he said woefully. “And for myriad other ways I made you suffer.”

“The good things you gave me far outweighed all that.” As my life slipped away, cares of this world seemed unimportant, but it still gave me joy to hear him call me Dodi.

I reached out and touched his damp cheek. “Forgive me for all the ways I made you suffer, too many to list now.”

“Your hand is so cold.” He blinked back tears.

“Tell me that you’ll forgive me.” I spoke urgently, for I sensed the Angel of Death approaching. “And please forgive yourself, for my sake.”

Rava felt him too and gently kissed me. “I forgive you.”

I looked up at Samael and sighed with relief. He had come, not as a faceless black-cloaked figure, but in Father’s guise. “You won’t need your sword,” I told him. “I come willingly.” He held out his hand, and I rose effortlessly to grasp it.

The room grew darker and smaller as I left it. The last thing I could see was Hannah and my sons gathered around the bed. Rava’s head lay on my chest and Chama’s hand rested sympathetically on his shoulder.

EPILOGUE

FIFTIETH YEAR OF KING SHAPUR II’S REIGN
• 359 CE •

I
expected Rava to summon me back on Erev Rosh Hashana, and he did. It was strange how I reacted when I saw him kneeling near my grave. I knew that I had loved him deeply when I lived, yet no matter how I tried, I couldn’t recall the feeling. Rather like childbirth, when I knew I had suffered unbearable agony earlier but later, my newborn at my breast, I couldn’t remember the pain at all.

Yet I still cared for him, especially after seeing how his eyes brightened when I appeared. “What would you like to know?” I asked, sure he had many questions for me.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come, and now you’re here looking like you did on our wedding day,” he murmured before eventually asking, “Was it painful for you to . . . that is, for Samael to take you?”

“As Rav Nachman said, as easy as lifting a hair from a cup of milk,” I replied. “You needn’t fear dying.”

“Am I to join you this year?”

“No, Abba. Your work is not yet complete.”

He let his breath out in a mix of relief and acquiescence. “Do I have you to thank for Joseph coming to me in a dream?”

I nodded. “He told me you were finally both able to truly understand and forgive each other.”

“It was a heavy weight off my shoulders.” Clearly unwilling to end our conversation, he searched for something else to ask. “They say the emperor Julian hates the Notzrim more than we do,” he finally whispered. “That he plans to rebuild the Holy Temple.”

“Both are true, though it is not yet decided if he will succeed.”

I let him tell me how Chama and our sons were doing, that Hannah was teaching the girls, and other things I already knew, for I was no more eager to return to the dead than he was to the living. Then I felt the pull to go back and realized I had no more time.

“I cannot stay longer. We must say good-bye.”

“Will you return next year when I summon you?” he cried out as I began to disappear.

“I will try,” I called back to him.

 • • • 

The next year Rava’s summons was more difficult to hear, and I was barely able to return to my grave when he called. Again I told him he was not to die in the coming year. But the Roman emperor would, leaving Julian as Rome’s sole ruler.

“Julian is rebuilding the Holy Temple,” Rava said excitedly. “Many want to return to Jerusalem to help.”

“You must not let them. King Shapur will view any who leave as traitors, and he’ll slaughter them.”

I urged him to continue reaching out to the
amei-ha’aretz
; Heaven was impressed with his efforts to teach them. But I needed to return sooner than before, and the following two years Rava’s summonses were not strong enough to bridge the gulf between our two worlds.

 • • • 

Something was different this time. I heard Rava’s appeal clearly and Duma, the angel of silence, who guarded the dead, indicated I should go to him.

“I told myself I should give up, that you wouldn’t come,” he whispered in relief when I answered him.

“This is the last time,” I replied.

“I understand.” His face fell. “I know it is more difficult the longer you have been gone.”

“That is true.” I hesitated, not wanting to frighten him. “But it is not what I meant. This is the last year we will be apart.”

He blanched when he realized what I meant, so I immediately reassured him. “Your task on earth is complete, Abba. Heaven has decided that the Rabbis’ teachings will be followed by Jews everywhere. After your death, Torah schools will reopen in Pumbedita, Nehardea, and Sura. Eventually even in Roman lands.

He paused and sighed. “What about the Temple?”

“If it is to be rebuilt, that will be decided this year.”

“So I will not live to see it.” He sighed again, more deeply.

“Rami has been waiting to study with you again. He has honed his arguments so you won’t be able to refute him so easily.” I waited to make sure Rava understood before I continued. “He very much looks forward to our studying together.”

His jaw dropped in astonishment. “Our studying together?” He emphasized the word “our.”

“Yes, all three of us.” I hoped he could hear the happiness in my voice.

“The three of us?”

He looked so scandalized that I reiterated, “Yes. You, me . . . and Rami.”

“You and me, and him . . . together . . . until the Messiah comes?” His shocked expression was beyond disbelief. “How can that be?”

“Abba.” I spoke to him gently so he wouldn’t discern how his consternation amused me. “Elohim created the entire world in six days. Surely this small thing is not beyond Him.”

He shook his head and acquiescence slowly replaced dismay.

The World-to-Come was pulling me back, like a powerful river rushing to the sea. “To return after so many years is very difficult for me,” I whispered, unable to speak louder. “I cannot stay longer.”

“Go in peace.” He hesitated and then said, “I await the day we will see each other again.”

I gave myself over to the current carrying me away from him and smiled in satisfaction. I was more of a prophet than anyone imagined when I said I wanted both Rami and Abba. True, in our short stay in the earthly world I had wed one first and then the other. But soon I would indeed have both of them. For eternity.

AFTERWORD

S
lipped in among the Talmud’s legal arguments, ignored by most scholars, are numerous tales of demons, curses, and the Evil Eye, and of rabbis and enchantresses who cast spells and inscribed incantations to protect people from them. The few scholars familiar with these passages on magic were embarrassed to admit that the great Sages engaged in such nonsense.

Ironically, the thousands of Jewish amulets and incantation bowls that archaeologists have unearthed in Iraq are the only physical evidence we have from the centuries when Babylonian rabbis created the Talmud. In addition, a large number of documents from the Cairo Geniza contain spells or instructions on how to cast them. The incantations I used in this novel were all lifted from such primary sources, and most magical scenes are either based on these or taken from the Talmud itself.

What happened to the rabbis and sorceresses of Bavel after Hisdadukh’s death? Emperor Julian died during the Roman attack on Ctesiphon, leaving Rome a Christian empire, and with him died all Jewish hope for rebuilding the Holy Temple. That same year, a massive earthquake destroyed Sepphoris. Its ruins, including many magnificent mosaics, would remain buried for 1,600 years. In the fourth through sixth centuries, the golden age of Sasanian Persia, both rabbinic teachings and the production of incantation bowls proliferated throughout Babylonia.

The Muslim conquest in the early seventh century changed everything. Zoroastrians were considered pagans and forced to convert to Islam, while Jews were seen as another “people of the book” and their presence tolerated. Rabbinic practices soon spread among Jews throughout the entire Muslim world, eventually reaching Europe, where the Talmud became the basis of Jewish Law and tradition that Jews follow today.

At the same time, however, the practice of sorcery declined and eventually went underground. Legitimate Jewish magic became the province of men—mystics and Kabbalists—while women who maintained the ancient craft were viewed as superstitious at best, and as witches at worst.

Talmud study remained in male hands as well, further decreasing the power and influence of Jewish women. Until recently, that is. In our time, women are breaking down long-standing barriers to Talmud study, so that making and interpreting Jewish Law is no longer reserved for men.

Along with sorcery, Talmud infuses this entire novel. The major discussions are drawn from: Berachot 5ab and Niddah 30b (in Chapter 1), Bava Metzia 97a (in Chapter 3), Gittin 34a and Berachot 56a (in Chapter 4), Ketubot 25a (in Chapter 5), Bava Metzia 36ab (in Chapter 11), Sukkah 28ab (in Chapter 13), Yevamot 34b and Ketubot 55a (in Chapter 16), Shabbat 21b and Sanhedrin 67 (in Chapter 19), Gittin 68ab (in Chapter 21), Ketubot 39b (in Chapter 24), Moed Katan 28a (in Chapter 27), Berachot 62a (in Chapter 29), Berachot 6a and Kiddushin 32ab (in Chapter 30), Ketubot 63a (in Chapter 32), Ketubot 65a (in Chapter 33), Taanit 24b (in Chapter 34), and Hullin 28a and 80a (in Chapter 35).

To learn exactly which Talmud passages appear in the scenes of
Enchantress
, go to www.ravhisdasdaughter.com. I hope, however, your reading the
Rav Hisda’s Daughter
novels will intrigue you to learn more about the Talmud from the text itself.

GLOSSARY