Apprentice (2 page)

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

To my children, Emily and Ari,
who both chose to walk in their mother's footsteps—
albeit on different paths

Preface

Acknowledgments

Time Line

Map of Middle East ca. 300
CE

Cast of Characters

Prologue

Part One—King Bahram's Reign (283–292
CE
)

Part Two—King Narseh's Reign (293–299
CE
)

Afterword

Glossary

B
abylonia, the fabled region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is now located in Iraq. During its lengthy history it has been known as Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, the Cradle of Civilization, and even the Garden of Eden. Land of Magi and Chaldeans, Babylonia has so long been associated with magic that even today it conjures images of flying carpets and genies in lamps.

Yet Babylonia was the cradle of monotheism, birthplace of Zoroastrianism and Judaism. Indeed, the two religions coexisted peacefully there since Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Israel's first Temple and made captives of its population in 586
BCE
. Enjoying autonomy under the tolerant Zoroastrians, many Jews remained in Babylonia even after they were permitted to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple with the prophet Ezra.

Unfortunately for their coreligionists in Judea, only the Jews of Babylonia continued to live in peace and prosperity. By the year 6
CE
(not that anyone at that time would have known a new calendrical system was starting) Judea had become a Roman province. The Jews rebelled against their foreign masters sixty years later, but Rome crushed the revolt and, to the horror of Jews everywhere, destroyed the rebuilt Holy Temple.

In the power vacuum that resulted, the next hundred years saw a fierce competition between Judean sects—Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, Gnostics, Zealots, Nazarenes, among others—for supremacy in a Judaism that struggled for life without its Temple-based few rituals. The majority of Jews, however, joined none of these groups. They prayed at local synagogues and followed the Torah as best they could.

With no Temple, the priests in Judea relinquished their leadership role to the Rabbis, heirs to the Pharisaic tradition. Torah study was the
highest value for these men, and 150 years after the Temple's destruction, when the Oral Law was codified as the Mishna, rabbinic scholars had set up schools in the cities of Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Tiberias. Shortly thereafter, similar schools were established in the Babylonian cities of Sura and Nehardea. Thus when Rome converted to a Christian empire in the fourth century and extinguished Jewish political power in the land renamed Palestina, Babylonia became the great center of Torah study. Historians have long believed, and many still do, that the Rabbis quickly established their hegemony, with the majority of Jews readily accepting the Mishna's authority. But recent scholarship suggests that for generations, if not centuries, the Rabbis were a beleaguered minority whose teachings were either rejected or ignored by most Jews.

Yet it was this tiny group of men, perhaps a few hundred out of over a million Jews who resided between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers during the third to fifth centuries, whose discussions, debates, and stories were collected and redacted along with the Mishna into what is known as the Babylonian Talmud. Today, fifteen hundred years later, this sacred text continues to serve as the basis of Jewish Law, with the ironic result that the rules and traditions of Jews throughout the world were formed by a community of which little is known prior to the third centurty.

It is this small Babylonian community of learned men and their families whose names populate the Talmud. While not so well known as Sages from the Mishna, like Hillel and Shammai, some names appear more prominently than others: Hisda, Nachman, Sheshet, Yosef, Rami bar Chama, Abaye, and Rava.

There are even a few women who appear in the Talmud: Em, Yalta, Beruriah, Choma, and more often than almost any other of her gender, Rav Hisda's daughter.

T
wenty years ago, when I first joined a women's Talmud class being taught by Rachel Adler, it would never have crossed my mind that one day I'd be any kind of historical novelist, let alone one who writes about women and the Talmud. But I was intrigued enough by the subject to delve into it, and when my research turned up some amazing Jewish female historical figures, something possessed me to write about them.

But I couldn't have done it alone. Henry Wudl, my research assistant and study partner, found all sorts of Hebrew and Aramaic texts I could never have accessed. My dear friend Rabbi Aaron Katz, who helped me so much on
Rashi's Daughters
, was always available to answer even my most bizarre questions. Eager to reply to my e-mails about Babylonian Jewry were scholars: Richard Kalmin, Shai Secunda, Tal Ilan, Geoffrey Herman, Catharine Hezser, Michael Satlow, and Judith Hauptman.

I want to thank my editor at Plume, Denise Roy, for her support, and for her encouragement in making
Rav Hisda's Daughter
the best it could be. Many thanks to Beth Lieberman for editing guidance that forced me to take this book to the higher level she knew I was capable of, and to my literary agent, Susanna Einstein, who has been negotiating for me since the early days of my career. My daughter Emily, a voracious reader of historical novels, spent countless hours critiquing my early drafts and never hesitated to lambast any scenes that didn't measure up to her exacting standards.

Last but not least, I offer my thanks and love to my husband, Dave, who designed the map and Aramaic cover art. He could always think of the right word when I couldn't, and without his support I would still be working in Kaiser's metabolic lab.