Enchantress: A Novel of Rav Hisda's Daughter Read Free Page A

kept watching the moving water. “I too had much to contemplate at Yom Kippur. After many discussions with my teacher, I have concluded that you bear no responsibility for the many years of misery I’ve endured on your account.”
    He no longer sounded angry. Was he attempting to reconcile? “I don’t understand,” I said.
    “You were merely a child when you said you wanted to marry both Rami and me. I should not have let my desire become focused on you just because of a few childish words spoken when you were a girl.” Rava’s tone became wistful. “I should have recognized much earlier that my yetzer hara was tormenting me to interfere with my studies.”
    “But it has failed,” I protested. “You are an excellent Torah scholar.”
    “If I was, I would be able to conquer my yetzer hara instead of fighting a continual losing battle.”
    “No man is that great a scholar.”
    “That will be my challenge this year,” Rava said. “Rav Oshaiya says that if I can subdue my yetzer hara despite living in Em’s house while you’re studying with her there, it will be a great achievement.”
    “Rav Oshaiya? I thought you were studying with Rav Yosef.”
    “Rav Oshaiya is teaching me the secret Torah.”
    That was a relief. I would have the entire year, until Jewish Law forced him to divorce his childless wife, to make him see why his yetzer hara was so attracted to me.
    It was because we were fated to marry.
    “It will be a challenging year for both of us,” I said.
    “Yes, your new charasheta studies will be quite demanding,” he said, evidently misunderstanding me. “But I have every confidence that you will master them.”
    I was gathering the courage to tell Rava how I felt about him, when suddenly the wind began to weaken.
    “Oh no,” Rava muttered as the sails grew slack and our boat’s progress slowed.
    I watched with dismay as the boatmen grabbed paddles and frantically attempted to take us to shore before the current started sweeping us back downstream. “What will happen now?” I asked. All I knew was that we were somewhere south of Pumbedita, but surely Rava was familiar with the river’s many moods.
    “We will have to wait until the wind picks up again or they find some donkeys to pull us along the towpath.”
    I was gazing helplessly at the motionless sails when my skin began to tingle as I sensed the presence of magic.
    Rava was pacing the deck with impatience, and I could see that he was not the source of what I felt. The awareness grew stronger, and I turned to clandestinely examine the other passengers. There was one other woman on the boat, accompanied by a small retinue of slaves. Her eyes were closed, but her hands and lips were moving.
    I shivered as a slight breeze caressed my skin. The woman’s hands continued their motions, and the breeze strengthened until the sails billowed and filled with air. Only when the boat started moving again at a brisk speed did her mouth close and her fingers return to her spinning. At the same time the feeling of supernatural power ceased.
    There was no doubt in my mind that I had just witnessed a charasheta, an enchantress, at work.
     • • • 
    We reached Pumbedita several hours later. My hometown of Sura was old enough for the prophet Ezekiel to be buried there, but most of the city had been built much later. Pumbedita, however, a major stop on trading routes between East and West since the time of Abraham, was truly ancient. Now that I was here, gazing up from the bustling dock to the massive city walls like a provincial simpleton, I began to doubt I was worthy of having someone as illustrious as Em for my teacher.
    Em and Abaye were glad to have us arrive together. She clasped me to her ample bosom, while he threw his arm around Rava’s shoulders. Abaye’s wife and daughter were already asleep, so extensive greetings would have to wait. But I had to tell Em about the enchantress on the boat, which I did as we walked up the winding stone