Mag­gie Anton’s high­ly orig­i­nal and care­ful­ly researched book, Rashi’s Daugh­ters, is a com­pelling fic­tion­al account of the life of one of the great Tal­mu­dic schol­ars, Rab­bi Shlo­mo Yizha­ki, also known as Rashi. Born in France in 1040, C.E., Rashi, a wine­mak­er by trade, oper­at­ed a renowned school where stu­dents flocked from near and far to learn the Tal­mud from him. Rashi had no sons, but three daugh­ters, Joheved, Miri­am and Rachael, who dis­played a keen intel­lect, and a thirst for learn­ing the Tal­mud. In those times, it was unheard of for a teacher to instruct a woman in Tal­mu­dic law, whose study was lim­it­ed to male yeshi­va stu­dents. Rashi was a renowned schol­ar, his tal­ents going to waste when he found him­self with­out any stu­dents dur­ing a peri­od of his life. On the day his wife Rif­ka was giv­ing birth to her third child, Rashi’s daugh­ter Joheved came to him with a ques­tion about Rifka’s birth which was best answered with a sacred pas­sage from the Tal­mud. Although not tech­ni­cal­ly for­bid­den, women did not study in yeshiv­as, were often illit­er­ate and did not study the Tal­mud. Nev­er­the­less, after intro­spec­tion and study, Rashi found the Tal­mud itself men­tioned learned women, often the daugh­ters of schol­ars. From that day on, Rashi’s daugh­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly Joheved, became some of his most adored stu­dents and their love affair with these sacred texts began to blossom.

Rashi’s Daugh­ters is beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, and often, with her detailed and pierc­ing use of lan­guage, the read­er feels as if he or she is learn­ing the words from these sacred texts, in the com­pa­ny of the mas­ter, Rashi him­self. Ms. Anton, who her­self stud­ied Tal­mud for ten years, took sev­en years to write Rashi’s Daugh­ters, a book in which fas­tid­i­ous research and well-craft­ed writ­ing are interwoven.