People of the Book ~ Geraldine Brooks ~ July 15 ~ Book Club Online

[JoanK]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  everyone is welcome to join in.

People of the Book - by Geraldine Brooks

You'll fall in love with Hanna Heath,  Geraldine Brooks'  edgy  Aussie rare book expert with an attitude, a loner with a real passion for her work.  How could she refuse this opportunity of a lifetime, the conservation of the beautifully illustrated Sarajevo  Haggadah, the mysterious Hebrew manuscript, created in Spain in the 14th century? The invitation will bring Hanna into war-torn Bosnia in the spring of 1996 and then,  into the world of fine art forgers and international fanatics. Her intuitive investigation  of the manuscript will put her in a time capsule to medieval Spain and  then back to Northern Australia again with a number of stops along the way.  This is based on the travels of an actual manuscript, which has surfaced over the centuries since its creation in Spain.

Discussion Schedule: July 15-19  ~ Hanna, 1996; Insect's Wing;     Sarajevo, 1940   July 20-24 ~ Hanna, Vienna, 1996; Feathers and a Rose;  Hanna, Vienna, Spring '96 July 25-July 31 ~ ~ Wine Stains, Venice 1609;    Hanna, Boston, 1996  August 1 - August 5 ~ #4 ~  Saltwater, Tarragona, 1492;    Hanna, London, Spring, 1996   August 6-August 10 White Hair, Seville, 1480;    Hanna, Sarajevo, Spring, 1996   August 11-15 Lola, Jerusalem, 2002;    Hanna,  Gunumeleng, 2002   August 16-August 20  Afterword

(click twice to really enlarge)

Topics for Discussion
August 1-August 5  ~ Saltwater, Tarragona 1492;  Hanna, London, 1996

1. Can you think of any reasons why Geraldine Brooks  chose the port city of Tarragona, Spain  for the creation of the haggadah?  

2.   Do you remember from whom Dona de Serena had procured the manuscript which she put in Rabbi Aryeh's hands for safekeeping?  (This could be important.)

3.   What does  David Ben Shoushan intend to do with the pages he buys from  a young boy in Tarragona?  Do we now have the answer to the puzzling Haggadah illustrations, so like the illuminated medieval Christian manuscripts?    

4.  Why would David have worried about the propriety of placing the images in the haggadah ten years ago, but no longer?  Why such an elaborate gift for his nephew?
 
5. What did the capitulation of Granada have to do with the expulsion  of Jews from Spain?
Why had the Jews been fighting the Moors?  

6. . Have you been noticiing GB's  metaphors, particularly in  character description? Though women play a subserviant role, how does Brooks describe David's daughter, Ruti?  Can you compare her to Lola?

7.  What is Kabbalah and Zohar  that Ruti has been secretly studying and practicing for the last three years?  Does this give her the nerve to carry on the affair with Micha, the bookbinder, though he is married and a father of two?

8.    Does it appear that Reuben Ben Shoushon willingly converted to Catholicism to marry Rosa?  Is it because the child would not be born a Jew that David turns his back on his pregnant daughter in law?  Is this religious intolerance in a way -  to disown one's son for religious reasons?

9.   If those who agreed to convert to Catholicism would be allowed to remain in Spain, why is Reuben in prison?  Were all of the conversos   suspected of false conversion? Why will David's older brother not help  ransom his nephew now?

10. What gave Ruti the strength to deliver Rosa's baby and then save him?  What is the irony here?  What will happen to the Haggadah?
 

Hanna, London, Spring, '96

1.  Do you see a change in Hanna after she heads back to London after seeing her Mum in Boston?

2. What remarkable parallels do you see between Hanna's essay on the Haggadah and G. Brooks' work on this book?  

3. What new information on the clasps does she learn from Frau Zweig?  The salt stains?  The white hair found in the binding of the Haggadah?

4.  Which did you find more shocking - Ozren's son Alia's recent death or the appearance  of Hanna's colleague,  Amitai Yomtov  in Sarajevo at this time?  Isn't he the one who recommended her for the job on the Haggadah?  Do you think the two events are related?
 

Relevant Links:
Geraldine Brooks - Background information; Sarajevo Haggadah; Early Haggadah Manuscripts; Illuminated Manuscripts; Brief History of Illuminating Manuscripts;

Discussion Leaders: JoanP, Ann , JoanK,  & Traudee

[JoanP]

Don, I agree, Hanna's meeting with her father's family at the shivah for Delilah Sharansky, the Jewish grandmother she never knew - the mother of the father that she never knew, was extremely moving.  A warm, happy family - such as Hanna never had.  

But Mum - still doesn't seem to get it - she doesn't understand how her lack of feeling and  emotional deprivation has done to Hanna.  "Bugger the both of them. Better just get on with it."  Traudee, I'm not sure whether this new understanding of her roots will "profoundly affect"  her work in the future.

To me, the contrast with Father Vistorini's realization of his own roots with Hanna's was the most striking element in the two accounts.  Hanna is the daughter of the Russian Jew, Aaron Sharansky.  Geovanni Dom Vistorini understands the elusive dream of his early childhood - in his drunken stupor  he realizes that he is Eliahu ha-Cohain.  Do you think he will ever be able to carry on his work as the Veniitian Inquisitor?  What will he do with the beautiful haggadah that is now in his possession?

I think we have the answer to the mystery of how the haggadah came to be in Sarajevo, PatH.  Do you remember back when Hanna was at the Archives in Vienna examining the three folders relating to the work that had been done on the haggadah a century before?

There was a letter from an instructor of the Hebrew Language at an elementary school for Sephardic (Spanish) Jews -
"A son of the Kohen family, being my pupil, brought the haggadah to me."  

Eliahu ha-Cohain - Kohen?

"When the translator visited the family, the Kohen widow said her husband had related that the book had been used when his grandfather conducted seder...She said and I was able to confirm, that the Kohen grandfather was a cantor who trained in Italy.  Hanna thought of the inscription - "Revisto per mi" - put the haggadah in Venice in 1609.  Had the Kohen grandfather trained in Venice?  Had he perhaps acquired the book there?"  

Do you suppose that GBrooks is telling us that our Father Vistorini - aka Eliahu Cohain is the grandfather described here?  I like to think that the lonely 36 year old priest went on to a new life after this sad and chilling episode with the Rabbi...what do you think of all this?
 

[PatH]

JoanP, after your hint I went back and saw  what you did.  Kohen in all it's variations is a very common Jewish name, but it's hard to believe Brooks is coincidentally using the name.  But the Kohen grandfather lived in the middle 1700s, so either his ancestors brought the book out, and he trained as a cantor in Venice because of family origin or tradition, or he acquired it in Venice when he was there.  Alternatively, since Reyna Serena was emigrating partly so she would have a chance of marrying in the Jewish faith, perhaps the Kohens are her descendants.

[PatH]

JoanP, your last post raised enough issues that I could talk all night on them:

"But mom - still doesn't seem to get it - she doesn't understand how her lack of feeling and  emotional deprivation has done to Hanna."

Worse than that, she deprived Hanna of the love of a grandmother.  Here's the grandmother, looking through the bars of the playground fence, longing to love Hannah, while on the other side is Hannah, lonely, not getting the loving attention she needs.  What a sad waste!

[PatH]

Dr. Heath, talking about her relationship with her daughter:

"And then, when you hit adolescence, and you seemed to hate me so much...it was as if that was part of my punishment.

....What do you mean?  Punishment for what?

For killing him.  Her voice was suddenly very small."

What did she mean?  Heath had behaved totally professionally;  as soon as she realized the diagnosis, she got Sharansky to the best man in the field, and took no part in the treatment, but watched closely over all that was happening.   Sharansky chose the risky surgery over the milder course, which would have been enough to save his life, because that was the only way to preserve his vision.  The surgery did not do that--he was going to be blind, which, given his driven mission to paint, would have been intolerable.  Afterward, " as it happened, he never woke up to find out he was blind.  That night there was a bleed, and Andersen missed it.  By the time they took your father back into the OR to evacuate the clot--"

As a detective story reader, I wonder if Heath missed it, or if she sat with her lover, seeing what was happening, and let it, knowing that he would have preferred death to blindness.  Heaven protect us from ever having to make such an awful choice.

[Babi]

Perhaps one of the reasons that more Jews didn't take advantage of the narrow period when they could have gotten out of Germany was that they
 really couldn't believe they were in danger.

(JoanK)

  I think that is exactly right, JOANK.  So many had been Germans for generations; they thought of themselves as German.  Some were no longer even practicing Jews, but that matters not at all to fanatics engaged in a
racial 'cleansing'.  The more prosperous and influential they were, the safer
they thought themselves. It was a stunning shock to discover that their wealth only made them more valuable targets, and their influence inspired jealousy.

 Hanna in Boston provided some lighter moments for us. I had no idea there were so many renowned universities in Boston. I knew Harvard was there,  but didn’t really know the location of MIT, Brandeis, Tufts.  No wonder my granddaughter Marie is doing so well there.  The scholarly atmosphere must be most stimulating and encouraging.
   I got a grin from the t-shirts.  “There are only 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand the  binary system and those who don’t.” I always try to read t-shirts and bumper stickers.  My most recent favorite I saw on a car before the recent elections.   It read, “Republicans for Voldemort!”

  I agree with Hanna/Geraldine Brooks about the ‘vanguard human beings’  of multiple genetic heritage.  I’ve often heard that some of the most beautiful people in the world or those  of mixed ethnicity such as one sees in Hawaii, or the Indo-Europeans.    After all, if the human race is all of a common stock, maybe it’s time we merged once again.  Perhaps the result will be gorgeous.
I could live with that. 

[JoanP]

PatH, you're right - there is so much raw emotion and regret packed into this mother/daughter meeting - it is difficult to tell what really happened.  I took it that the Dr. Heath regretted that she had opted to stay out of the surgery - you would have been more aware of the danger Hanna's father was in.  Perhaps she still believes she would have done a better job than Dr. Anderson.  And then, there is the possibility that she saw signs that there was a bleed and did nothing.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins -  remember the line from the poem Aaron Sharansky had written to her - I wanted to see it in context - here's a link -

 "What I do is me, for that I came."  

He had added the note - "Sarah, you are the one.  Help me to do what I came for." Pat - since she carried the note with her, I think you might be right in assuming that Sarah helped him - that she let him go, knowing that he lived to paint.

Sarah Heath said something else that puzzled me during this meeting in the hospital.  What do you think she was referring to - what chance did Hanna have?

Hanna: "How can you blame yourself?"  [for referring father to Dr. Anderson]
Sarah: "You wouldn't understand."
Hanna: " You could give me a chance to -"
Sarah: "You had your chance.  A long time ago."

Now what is that about?  Is Sarah referring to the fact that Hanna didn't go to med school?  Does she continue to lay a guilt trip on Hanna for throwing her life away? Is she saying that this is the reason Hanna doesn't understand her? Do you see any hope for understanding between these two - ever?  Are they still rooted in the past to have a future?

[JoanP]

Babi, wasn't GB saying much the same thing in her portrayal of Lola - the Jews living peacefully for so long  in Sarajevo were unaware of impending danger - until it was too late.

Ah yes, Harvard Square - I loved reading this section - we lived in Cambridge for the three years my husband was in the big law school there - back in the late 60's - during the peak anti-war demonstrations and marijuana lovefests!

PatH - I'm still after the Kohen/Cohain link - I can't let it go -  I still think that Fr. Vistorini is the connection here.  I believe there was no way that Father Vistorini somehow got the book back to Dona Serena for her to be the link to Sarajevo.  
First of all - the fact - The Haggadah was sold to the National Museum in Sarajevo in 1894 by a man named Joseph Kohen.
This fact GB used in her fiction.  You're right  it was too much of a coincidence that she would reveal Father Vistorini's name as Eliahu ha-Cohain.

From GB's fiction -
1894 - the son of the Kohen family brings the haggadah to his elementary school, wanting to sell it to his tutor.
the widow of the Kohen family related to the  Museum that her recently deceased husband remembered his grandfather conducting the seder with it -"which put the seder in Sarajevo as early as the mid 18th century."

Then Hanna says the grandfather in question was a cantor who had trained in Italy...and asks herself, "Had the Kohen grandfather trained in Venice?"  She makes a note to follow through with this - let's hope she does.  
I think that it is possible (probable)  that the Kohen grandfather who had trained in Venice as a cantor was related to, perhaps even  a son or grandson of Father Vistorini - aka Eliahu ha-Cohain.  I'm thinking that Father V. never left Venice, but somehow returned to his Jewish roots - or maybe made contact with the family - and passed the fabulous book to them.  what do you think?  One thing I'm certain about - he doesn't continue to burn books after this.


 

[fairanna]

The best thing about having dedicated readers you pose and answer the questions and thoughts I have ! So I am just enjoying reading , making mental notes and finding you (readers) have done my work for me...thanks ..it allows me to read with your insights and thoughts....happy to be with you ..anna

[straudetwo]

Good sleuthing, JoanP!

As you know,  mysteries in all the forms the genre embodies  are not my cup of tea, save for a few notable exceptions.
Yes,  in the present case I  too saw the name Cohain - but didn't make the connection.A good deduction.

In this book, more than any other I've read recently, the devil (and the marvel)  IS in the details: of history, geography, the restoration of  manuscripts, preservation of our small planet. Then there's the fascinating plot and vivid characters - though not all of them appealing.  

I've said from the outset, there are TWO tracks involving  ONE heroine:  
On ONE track we accompany Hanna, the narrator,  in her search in 1996, and possibly beyond.
The OTHER track follows the journey of the haggadah from its origin to its discovery and salvation in a series of  cleverly imagined episodes featuring imaginary characters.

Are these  TWO tracks of equal importance, or does one matter more than the other?

In any event, at this point in our assigned reading Hanna has discovered a father and rrelatives she hever knew existed.
A reason to jubilate, for  small perswonal fireworks, wouldn't onet think-   albeit for the  anger inside.

Was that Hanna's reaction?

 

[JoanP]

Traudee, Hanna seems intent to go on as always, to submerge herself in her work and uncover the mystery of the book using the few clues that she has discovered in the binding.   But I'll bet she regards the book - the history of the book with a deeper personal interest - the book had belonged to her father's people, her people, in a way. Do you think she will have future relationships with this new-found branch of the family?  Had her grandmother been alive, perhaps.  Right now, I'm not sure.  Has the damage been done? 

Annafair - it is so good to know you are with us - and that you are enjoying the wonderful insights and comments that come up each day here.  I look forward to them too.

One thing we haven't talked much about is the Inquisition itself, which if I understand correctly, started with political motivation - by the monarchy, by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.  Somehow it ended up with book burning and worse, the burning of those considered to be  heretics.  My own Joan of Arc was one fo them.  I was born on May 30, the date she was burned in France.

Can we talk about Father Vistorini's reason for condemning the Haggadah to the flames?  There were two reasons - the one he gave the rabbi about the moons of Galileo - and then his real fear, which the rabbi never knew about.
Funny, the Smithsonian magazine had a big thing about Galileo - with a picture, a 19th century painting of Galileo before the Inquisition.  I found the article online.  I'll go be back with the link - and the painting.

[JoanP]

OK, here's the a 19th century painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury

...and another by Christiano Banti in 1857 -

I wonder at the renewed interest in Galileo and the Inquisition in the 19th century...
 Here are some excepts from the July, 2009 Smithsonian article - the link to the whole article follows -

"The Starry Messenger (Galileo's publication of his findings) was a success, however: the first 500 copies sold out within months.
In time Galileo's findings began to trouble a powerful authority—the Catholic Church. The Aristotelian worldview had been integrated with Catholic teachings, so any challenges to Aristotle had the potential to run afoul of the church. That Galileo had revealed flaws in celestial objects was bothersome enough.

But some of his observations, especially the changing phases of Venus and the presence of moons around other planets, lent support to Copernicus' heliocentric theory, and that made Galileo's work potentially heretical. Biblical literalists pointed to the book of Joshua, in which the sun is described as stopping, miraculously, "in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." How could the sun stop if, as Copernicus and now Galileo claimed, it was already stationary? By 1614, a Dominican friar named Tommaso Caccini preached openly against Galileo, calling the Copernican worldview heretical. In 1615 another Dominican friar, Niccolò Lorini, filed a complaint against Galileo with the Roman Inquisition, a tribunal instituted the previous century to eliminate heresy."


Late in 1615, Galileo traveled to Rome to meet with church leaders personally, eager to present his discoveries and make the case for heliocentrism. But Baronius' view turned out to be the minority one in Rome. Galileo was cautioned against defending Copernicanism.

Eight years later, a new pope—Urban VIII—ascended and Galileo again requested permission to publish. Pope Urban granted permission—with the caveat that Galileo should present the theory hypothetically. The book Galileo finally published in 1632, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, however, came off clearly in favor of the Copernican view, infuriating the pope.
 Galileo was condemned by the Holy Office of the Inquisition for being "vehemently suspected of heresy, namely of having held and believed the doctrine which is false and contrary to the Sacred and Divine Scriptures, that the Sun is the center of the world." He was sentenced to imprisonment, which was commuted to house arrest for the by then ailing 69-year-old man.
Galileo's Vision - Smithsonian Magazine

But do you remember the real, though unstated reason that Father Vistorini decided to burn the Haggadah?

[Babi]

 PATH, I certainly assumed Sarah was referring to Hanna's refusal to take
up medicine as a career. I don't know of anything else that she could be
thinking about. She does seem to feel that only another surgeon could begin
to understand the importance of her work to her.  I find Sarah's attitude
rigid, even obsessive. I doubt if she will ever be able to respect Hanna's
work and her talents. She describes them in the most derisive, contemptuous
terms. Definitely not the motherly type.

 Oh, yes, JOANP. When one grows up in a place that is 'home', feeling one
belongs there, is valued there, has many friends there...how can you take
it seriously when someone suddenly points a finger and says none of that
is true?
 
  I think Vistorini wanted to save the book, and regretted that last scene
with the Rabbi. The simplest explanation is that he decided to put the book
into the hands of a Jew. It would be natural enough to choose a family with
the name of Cohen/Kohen. Not only because it was apparently his original
name, but also because the Cohens were originally priests,  descendents
of Aaron. It would be appropriate to entrust such a book to one of them.

 As to Hanna and her discovery of other family, how could she not want to
see more of them.  She is welcomed, rejoiced over,  her work respected and
admired. What a difference from what she has known with her Mother.
Personally, I'd be spending as much time with them as I could!

[PatH]

Thanks for posting the link to the Hopkins sonnet, JoanP.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten around to reading it, and it repays some study.  It’s not a quick read because of the convoluted language.  Here’s what I make of it.

In the first part Hopkins says that everything in nature, animate or not,  spends all its time expressing its inner nature, the "being"  that "dwells" "indoors".  This is it’s purpose in life—crying itself to the world.

In the sestet he enlarges the idea in the case of the "just man".  What he is manifesting is the inner nature that God sees in him, and this inner nature is the Christ within him.

I love Hopkins’ language, especially:

                  Each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name

Sharansky was Jewish, but you can read the poem on several levels, specifically Christian, generally religious, or as an explanation of nature, and it still says the same thing, the joyous, purposeful expression of your inner nature in everything you do.  It totally sums up Sharansky’s approach to life and his work.

[straudetwo]

JoanP
To fully understand "Wine Stains" and the terrible quandary of the rabbi and the priest, in fact, the mortal danger both faced in case of discovery, we need to a bit more about the Inquisition.  I am aware that people's eyes tend go glaze over when historical or geographic details are mentioned,  but sometimes it is unavoidable.  It may be helpful now.

The Inquisition was conceived by the Catholic Church.  
What was it?  Why does the mere word is vaguely disturbing?
Have you seen (as I have) a party guest,  beleaguered by too many probing questioners, protesting:  "What is this? The  Spanish Inquisition?"

So what is the Inquisition?
*  An institution of the Catholic Church combating and suppressing heresy.
*  An ecclesiastical triunal
*  The trial of an individual accused of heresy, including harsh interrogations.

History distiguinshes between
the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the Roman Inquisition and
Inquisition against Protestants.

The Catholic Church had reason to be concerned:
There was tension between successive rebelling  emperors of the Holy Roman Emperor,  and

after the death of Mohammed in 632 AD,  Islam,  the religion he founded, spread from the Arabian peninsula in all directions, in the west to North Africa, Spain, Sicily, Southern Italy. Moors and [/i]Saracens[/i] they were called in Spain; Turks/Ottomans in the east.  
The papacy was an active participant in various battles, it had its own  army of mercenaries; thus was  a party when a truce was signed and when the spoils were distributed.
The papal army was part of the Holy League, a coalition that included Spain; the territories of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia; the Republic of Venice (!!), the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy.  
I'd like to talk about the famous naval Battle of Lepanto against the Turks in 1571 - but there isn't time.  
In the following centuries, the Turks pushed westwards time and again and stood before the gates of Vienna more than once.

Why does history distinguish between the countries?  Why is the Spanish I. mentioned first?  Was its practice there more zealous, more cruel?
As the Inquisition political?
Not in the beginning, IMO. Was religion the only reason for expelling Jews? What about the real property they had to leave behind? Who benefited from that?

We really don't know - do we? - what happened after the priest slumped down on the table,  when  or if he awoke from his stupor.  Or what happened to the haggadah. We know it was saved, and that satisfies me. The thought that it could have been hidden in the carved madonna intrigues me, but WHO could have put it there and out, and when?  
I'm no a sleuce and have no idea.




 
 

[JoanP]

PatH - thank you for your explication of those lines of poetry - and the note from Hanna's father that  Sarah Heath has been carrying in her pocket all these years.  
"Sarah, you are the one.  Help me to do what I came for."  It seems that Sarah has finally brought Aaron to his daughter.  Had grandma Sharansky not died in the accident, would Sarah have told Hanna the truth?

It was interesting to me that the poem was written by Gerard Manley Hopkins - a Jesuit priest.  His"Hound of Heaven"  always moved me - I hadn't read it in quite a while - until now.

Babi - here's another possibility - Fr. Vistorini might have been overwhelmed with remorse and taken the book to Rabbi Aryeh's widow, Miriam, who somehow knew where to find Dona de Serena.  Maybe Dona de Serena came to his funeral?  But see, none of that explains the coincidence of the Cohen name on the bill of sale in Sarajevo...which is really too much to dismiss.

"King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile set up the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 with the approval of Pope Sixtus IV. In contrast to the previous inquisitions, it operated completely under royal authority, though staffed by secular clergy and orders, and independently of the Holy See. It operated in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America. It targeted primarily converts from Judaism (Conversos and Marranos) and from Islam (Moriscos or secret Moors) — both groups still resided in Spain after the end of the Islamic control of Spain.  Origins of the Spanish Inquisition

This week we will be talking more about the Spanish Inquisition as we move into the  next chapter - "Saltwater."  We'll  set sail for Spain to investigate the origin of the salt stains on the pages of the folio. Traudee, in this chapter perhaps we will come to understand what motivated the Spanish Crown to institute the Inquisition a bit more.  

Can you locate Tarragona on the map? Why do you think GB chose Tarragona? (Does anyone know if  there is any factual basis for the Haggadah ever having been in this port town at this time?)

[straudetwo]

JoanP

It took me hours to complete my last post:   I was interrupted in the morning and had people drop in in the afternoon (I don't like being dropped in on) but needed to finish the thoughts.
Forgot to thank you for the marvelous pictures in your # 211.

 

[Babi]

 JOANP

The Catholic Church had reason to be concerned: "There was tension between successive rebelling  emperors of the Holy Roman Emperor.."

  This was, of course, a threat to the power exercised by the Pope. Many
people, myself included, believe that this power of the Pope in political
arenas did much to corrupt the church. It is hardly surprising that the
emperors/kings, etc. of various nations resented this encroachment on their
own authority.
 The persecutions in Spain, France and Portugal seem to be partly the
religious fervor of their kings, and partly their desire to seize the wealth
of the prosperous Jews. The inquisition was different from one country to
another. In Venice, for example, the Doge and the Council of Ten, were
successfully resisting the excesses of the Inquisition. Hence Pope Gregory III
statement….”I am Pope everywhere but in Venice."

 Clever of our Ms. Brooks to tease us by leaving some possibilities to our
imagination, isn't it, JOANP. Of course the name Cohain was significant. It
was also subtly left for us to notice or not, and speculate endlessly. 

[PatH]

I don't think we're going to see the Madonna again.  That was a cleverly disguised mezuzah, hidden because his parents didn't dare let anyone suspect they were Jewish.

A mezuzah is a scroll containing two biblical passages and the name of God, hand-written according to a strict set of rules, rolled up, and placed in a protective case.  If you are strictly observant you will have one at each door, and touch it whenever you go through the door, to remind you of God and His commandments.  Here are the rules:

http://www.judaica-guide.com/mezuzah/

Once the soldiers had broken open the Madonna to expose the scroll, there would be no reason for it to be taken along.

[JoanP]

Good morning!  
We had some big boom booms last night - lightening too.  Quite dramatic.  The dog came cowering up into our bed, that's how dramatic it was.  This is not  a timid terrier!
As I was lying there awake for a while, I got to thinking about this book - and its organization.  Not so much the insertion of Hanna's story -  back and forth between the historical periods, but rather the way the book is changing hands in each of these periods. Are you finding it difficult to remember who possessed the book, who passed it to whom - in what century?  I am.  
Does this back and forth in time add to the mystery of the book - or would it have been less confusing (though less mysterious) had the events been organized differently?  

Here's a memory test - Do you remember from whom Dona de Serena had procured the manuscript which she put in Rabbi Aryeh's hands for safekeeping?    

I'm trying, really trying to read the book as if it is fiction - but there are times, like right now, that I want to know some facts.  Such as -  do we know the Haggadah, the haggadah text and the illuminated pages  were actually  put together - in Spain?  If this is fiction, I would like to know that - but I get the feeling that there must have been something that inspired Brooks' important episode in Spain.

At the beginning of the "Saltwater" chapter, we learn that the book is in Spain - we learn how the man, David Shoushan, bought the illuminated pages from a deaf-mute child.  We won't hear why this child is selling the pages, or where he got them from -until several chapters later when we go back further in time.  But we do learn that we are in Spain - in a busy port called Tarragona and the time is 1492.  (Did you know all this was going on at the same time that Spain was funding the exploration in the New World?  That's something to think about, isn't it? )

During the second half of the 15th century – a difficult period for the Jews of Aragon, as for the whole of Spanish Jewry – Isaac *Arama held rabbinical office in Tarragona. He maintained a yeshivah and fostered observance of the precepts within the community. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 Tarragona was a port of embarkation for the exiles from the kingdom of Aragon. [Tarragona, Spain

[Babi]

 While we are still in Vienna, there were a couple of other things that got my
notice.  Vistorini calls Rabbi Judah Azreh  “Judah Shu’al”.  I could find no ‘shu’al’  or ‘shual’ in any Hebrew dictionary, but  Vulpes translates to ‘fox’.  Vistorini perceives him as cunning.   Doesn’t it make you grin that the priests and bishops sneak into the ghetto of the despised Jews to hear Rabbi Azreh’s stirring sermons….and steal some of  his preaching for their own sermons?

I had vaguely thought of  the Levant primarily in terms of Lebanon.  My education advances!  I now know it takes in pretty much all of the Eastern end of the Mediterranean.   Also, I have always thought of synagogues as separate structures.  I am having trouble visualizing a synagogue at the top of an apartment building, sharing roof space with a dovecote and a chicken coop.

  It's not just 'timid terriers' that fear thunder, JOAN.  I once saw the damage
done by a terrified Great Dane during a thunder storm.  I wasn't sure whether
to wish someone had been with him to calm him,  or be glad no one was there
to be torn up with the furniture!

[PatH]

"Do you remember from whom Dona de Serena had procured the manuscript which she put in Rabbi Aryeh's hands for safekeeping?"

I remembered that she had inherited it from her mother, but my memory had to be jogged to remember that the mother had inherited it from an elderly manservant, born at the time of the expulsion from Spain, whose mother died in a shipwreck,  and who came under the protection of Dona de Serena's family as an orphan.  Now, in "Saltwater", we learn who that is.

The timing works, but just barely.  In 1609 Dona de Serena still hopes to have children.  If she is 35, she was born in 1574, so someone born in 1492 would have been 82, and would have had to live to be almost 90 for her to be able to remember his stories.  Even with the poor health and life expectancy of the time, that's quite possible.

[Frybabe]

Babi, I think you are correct. Shu'al appears to be a jackel, or as some prefer, a fox. I found this little paragraph which helps explain the word and its origins: http://books.google.com/books?id=Rp0NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=Shu%E2%80%99al&source=bl&ots=5b_O697wur&sig=0MSqy4f1_W7znb3FqTMytYEk0LY&hl=en&ei=rd91Sr_FJ4Gqtgfa9dGWCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=Shu%E2%80%99al&f=false


Oh, and somewhere I saw Fox News referred to as Shu'al News.

[PatH]

I like this backward way of telling the story very much.  It works well with teasing out the mysteries of what happened to the book.  I do have trouble remembering people and keeping things straight, but no more than I usually do.  With a complex story like this I always either have to keep a list of characters and events or read each section twice.

It's a beautifully crafted story--really neat and ingenious, holds my interest, and strikes a nice balance in how much is told and how much is left to the imagination.

[JoanP]

Googled  shu al and found two meanings - jackal and fox.   shu al  Sly as a fox?  That works, doesn't it, Babi, sly and cunning?

Here's a picture of the Vulpes , which is " a genus of the Canidae family. It includes the true foxes, although there are species in other genera whose common names include the word "fox".

I enjoyed listening to the two men sparring back and forth - with the Rabbi usually coming up on top.  This seems to injure the priest's pride, doesn't it?  We never did address the question - why did Father Vistorini decide the Haggadah should be condemned - aside from his stated reason pointing to the moons of Galileo?  I was puzzled at this when I first read it.  Just now, I reread the passage -

"Its beauty might one day seduce some unwitting Christian to think well of your reprehensible faith."

 I think the priest, the Inquisitor knows this is not grounds for condemning the book, but doesn't he take pleasure in  seeing the rabbi reduced to tears on his knees, begging him to save the book. Do you think if the priest had not  suddenly realized his roots, in his drunken stupor, that he would have really destroyed the book?
Once again, the Haggadah narrowly escapes destruction...

EDIT - Frybabe - I see just now that you have come up with the  shu'al meaning - that is SO funny - Shu'al News - Fox News!  Where on earth did you hear that?

[JoanP]

PatH, I am relieved to hear that you are not experiencing difficulty following the Haggadah from city to city, across the seas in all sorts of weather.  I am amazed that the real book has survived all this time, under less than archival circumstances!  I find I need lots of memory jogging along the way.  I'm not complaining, I just wondered if others were finding the need to go back and reread the beginning of previous chapters like I do.

Today we are in Spain...remember the book at arrived in Sarajevo from Venice - somehow.  The last we saw of it, it was on Father Vistorini's table and we learned in Vienna that a family named Cohen had sold it to the Museum in 1894.
In the Venice chapter, we learned that the book had come to Dona de Serena - Pat reminds us  
that

"she had inherited it from her mother, her mother had inherited it from an elderly manservant, born at the time of the expulsion from Spain, whose mother died in a shipwreck,  and who came under the protection of Dona de Serena's family as an orphan."  

At the end of the Saltwater chapter in Spain, we see the "elderly manservant"  born at the time of the expulsion from Spain was in fact Rosa and Reuben's son - BUT his mother Rosa was not the one on the ship with him, was she?

I guess we need to go to the beginning of the chapter and then wait for the NEXT chapter to find out more about this baby and his parentage.

  David Ben Shoushan buys the illustrations - all of the pages this boy has to sell him.  They are priceless.  Don't you wonder where the boy got them?  How much did David Ben Shoushan pay for them? The boy is in the company of a black slave?  David asks if the boy is a Jew?  (Why did he ask this?)  "He's circumcised, so he's not Christian, and he doesn't look like a Moor."
So this boy is a Jew -  Christians NOT circumcised at this time?  This would be one way to tell who is a Jew, who is not...

[kidsal]

My first post rather picky -- was at my doctor's when I read the section on Hannah's mother.  I asked him if he could practice in a hospital if he lost his spleen.  He said "Yes".  Perhaps in the 1960's the answer would have been "No."

[Babi]

 Perhaps not even 90, PAT. I can remember stories from an earlier age than 8.
Especially favorite stories, which a child is likely to demand again and again.
I totally agree with you about the way the book is written. It builds up
anticipation for the next revelation. "Ingenious" is right,  in leaving something
to our imagination.

Oh, and somewhere I saw Fox News referred to as Shu'al News.

That's neat, FRYBABE. Personally, I prefer 'fox' to 'jackal', as jackal
seems to have more negative connotations, unsuitable to the respected Rabbi.

 It did seem to me that Vistorinis's threat was entirely personal and
vindictive. He was angry with the Rabbi, and upset with his internal turmoil
and suspicions re. his origins. i think he was acting out of spite. I don't
think he threatened to destroy the entire book, tho',..just to delete the
portion he was able to find some objection to. Am I wrong about that? I no
longer have a copy of the book on hand to re-read.
 Oh, and I loved the picture of the fox, JOANP.  They are such beautiful animals.

 KIDSAL, you'll have to refresh my memory on the issue with Hanna's mother.
(I found the name written without the last 'h', but I notice most posters include it.)  Anyhoo,...I don't remember, or didn't catch, the idea that she couldn't practice in the hospital if she lost her spleen.  Could you tell me exactly what
she said?

[PatH]

JoanP, I, too, need to go back and reread to jog my memory, but when I do that, the little clues fit well.

Babi, I agree that Vistorini was so hard on the book because he was annoyed with the rabbi (and also because he was getting drunk and unpredictable).  At first he says he will burn the book, then he decides to torment the rabbi.  He will write Revisto per mi on 3 slips of parchment, and if the rabbi can draw them in order, Vistorini will only cut out the 4 heretical drawings.  The rabbi wins (he had noticed an irregularity on one of the slips of parchment that gave him an advantage).

In the end, Vistorini didn't even cut out the 4 pages, since the book is described in 1994 as having all its pages.

What Hanna's mother said was "..doctors who work in hospitals need their spleens.  Can't fight infections...."

[EvelynMC]

I have trouble keeping it all straight and have to go back and read and re-read to get the continuity.  However, I depend on all of you to help me keep it straight in my mind. 

[ANNIE]

Yes, JoanP, one needs to have a healthy spleen to work in any medical field as its your spleen that helps your body to fight infection.
I have tried to keep all of this story together but also have to reread much of it while reading and digesting another chapter.  But, its adds to the mystery of the whole story and I like it.

[Aberlaine]

I'm reading this book for the second time and each time I wished the story of the Haggadah was told going chronologically forward instead of backward.  I also wished for links between the chapters so we could follow the Haggadah from its origin to Sarajevo.  That might have made it easier to believe that this is simply a work of fiction.

The torture of Renato, son of David Ben Shoushan by the Inquisition was horrible to read.  What makes human beings delight in such evil?  And this because they found a tefillin in his possession, which he had kept to remind himself of the father he missed and who had disowned him.  The Inquisition, because of this clue, knew he had been Jewish even though he had converted to Christianity and had been baptized.  And convicted him of "Judaizing".

As we move further into the book and further into history, I'm appalled once again at the number of times Jews have been persecuted and banished from what they thought to be their homes.

And, due to the Balfour Declaration, Jews now have a homeland, although tenuous, which they can call their own.

[JoanP]

Frybabe, I'm still smiling at Shu'al News - and even more at Babi's choice of the synonym for shu'al - fox, sounds better than "Jackal."  Jackal News!

What do you think, Kidsal?  If you need your spleen to fight infection, doesn't it make sense that a doctor who works in a hospital would need hers? Why would that change now?   I'm glad you mentioned that scene.  I'd forgotten - Mum actually cried - mother and daughter both cried.  Hanna kissed her mother's hand.  I'd forgotten that!  
So if she can't doctor anymore, Mum is facing a bleak future.  Perhaps the two of them will get together before we run out of pages, after all.

Someone asked about the spelling of Geraldine Brooks'  characters - she consistantly spells them SARAH (with an "h") Heath and HANNA (no "h")  Heath.

[JoanP]

Nancy, I found Renato/Reuben's story so full of irony.  His father had disowned him - forced the family to regard him as a dead man.  Do you find that harsh and intolerant?  He had converted to Catholicism willingly - to marry Rosa, hadn't he?  Would a Jewish family do this to their first born son today?  
Days before the proclamation went out that Jews who converted would not be expelled, Ruti brings her brother the tefillin which you mention here.  I looked up "tefillin" -
 

Choosing Tefillin

Can't you imagine what the Inquisitors believed when they laid eyes on this?  It is very clear in the book that Reuben only kept the tefillin  because it had belonged to his father, whom he has never stopped loving.  But the Inquisitors believe it means he is praying and regard  - him as a false "converso".  Why did they continue to beat and torture him?  Why keep him in custody?  What is their interest in this young heretic?  Wasn't it the ransom money they knew they could get?  It is the Spanish Crown, not the Church, that wants the ransom money to fill depleted coffers following the recent war with the Moors.  The Church's zeal to put down the heresy in Spain - mostly the Moors'...was a good excuse for collecting ransom from well-heeled Jews.  Though Reuben's father is not a wealthy man, those close to the crown know that Uncle Joseph is a rich man.  Do you believe that if Uncle Joseph came up with the money, they would let Reuben go?

[straudetwo]

JoanP
The story of the haggadah deserved to be told, and GB has told it beautifully with a great deal of information and details.

What makes reading and absorbing the details difficult may be the structure.  The narration proceeds on two tracks:
ONE is Hanna's recounting of how and under what circumstances she was entrusted with working on the restoration of the invaluable manuscript from the perspective of the 'here and now', and how her work progresses. It constitutes a FRAME,  I believe.
The OTHER part of the book describes the imaginary (and unkowable) journey of the manuscript itself in separate chapters- and, if that were not complex enough,  the journey of the haggadah is told in reverse chronology.

Hanna's own life is not nearly as colorful as the historical episodes she so vividly describes. She is edgy and has a tendency to fly off the handle. The love story IMHO is a bit awkward, not really fully fleshed out.  Dr. Sarah Heath is an unsympathetic character if ever there was one.

There are still questions left regarding "Wine Stains" and the chapter immediately following it.  And here we are in the "Saltwater" chapter,  in 1492, the year  when the haggadah is known to have originated in Spain  - the time of the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews.  There is no doubt that the Church initiated this dreadful persecution and censorship (which lawted until 1966); the tribunals were staffed by members of the Church.  Of course the zealous royals, Ferdinand and Isabella, benefited financially and poured s lot of the money into their endless wars.

Babi. You are right.  GB spells Hanna's name without the 'h'. So I follow suit. (My granddaughter is also a Hannah but WITH the 'h'). I'll get back to your earlier question in the morning.

Re your # 226, Kidsal, thet remark about  Sarah's spleen gave me pause, too.
This is the passage in the book, the last par. on pg 199 and top of pg. 200 in the paperback.

She looked awful when they wheeled her out of recovery. She had IVs the size of garden hoses in her arm, and one cheek was all bruised and swollen where it must have slammed into the side of the car. She was groggy, but she recognized me straightaway and gave a crooked grin that might have been the most sincere smile she'd ever given me. I took the hand that didn't have the large-bore IV in it.

"Five on this one",  I said. "And five on the other one.  Surgeon Heath, still in business."
She moaned softly. "Yes, but doctors who work in hospitals need their spleens", she whispered. 'Can't fight infection  ..."

Please check Kidsal's # 226 to see what her doctor said.

[Gumtree]

I rather like the structure GB employs for the novel. As Traudee just pointed out it has a 'frame' story of Hanna's professional life in conservation and within that frame there are several stories.

Moving backwards in time is a time-honoured method of discovering history and GB's method can be likened to the family historian where the genealogist starts from what is actually known and slowly works backwards in time to discover what came before and trace the family history. GB is doing just that with the Haggadah - working back from one known situation to the previous one. The Haggadah's presence in Sarajevo, in Vienna, in Venice and then in Spain are known facts, the general historical facts of the time periods are also known and GB adds  a plausible fictional story to the mix. I think it works and works well.

Further to that we also have the parallel story of Hanna's past being told in a similar manner - moving from the present into the past as Hanna tells us of her adulthood and career, then her childhood with an apparently uncaring mother, the discovery of who her father was and her welcome into his family - her family - and her mother's ultimate betrayal of her father by doing nothing to stop the bleeding and thus save his life. It was a betrayal of her Hippocratic oath as well.

 For an artist to wake up blind would be a dreadful thing - it would change his life - perhaps for the better. Maybe he had already achieved all he could in art and could take another path. Mum had no right to play God.

There are unresolved matters here and there but  I find that even that rings true to life, to history and genealogy too, where everything is not necessarily explained  or clear cut. It enhances the book by leaving our minds to contemplate the possible answers.

[Babi]

"..doctors who work in hospitals need their spleens.  Can't fight infections.."

 Thanks, PAT. That makes sense. My daughter has a low IGA(?) count, or some such thing, which means a low resistance to infection. She has been warned not to visit her friends in the hospital, among other things.

What makes human beings delight in such evil?

That is the big question, isn't it, ABERLAINE? It seems to me that this
section of the book brings that issue to the forefront.
  “You’ve got a society where people tolerate difference, like Spain in
 the Convevencia, and everything’s humming along: creative, prosperous.
 The somehow this fear, this hate, this need to demonize “the other”---
it just sort of rears up and smashes the whole society.  Inquisition, Nazis,
 extremist Serb nationalists…same old, same old.”
   Reading about such times of oppression is always painful.  People could be destroyed  for the most trivial of reasons,  with not the slightest chance of a fair hearing.   “It could be some trifling thing:  that her mother had choked on a piece of ham, that her father had changed his shirt on a Friday,  that she…had lit candles too early in the evening.”

"Do you believe that if Uncle Joseph came up with the money, they would let  Reuben go?"

  I think so, PAT. It's simply good business. If you don't keep your end of
the bargain, people will stop doing business with you. Release the man, and
the next family will pay ransom, too.

  I agree, GUMTREE. Taking the clue and following it back,..that's what makes
this all so exciting to me.

[JoanP]

“You’ve got a society where people tolerate difference, like Spain in
 the Convevencia, and everything’s humming along: creative, prosperous."

Babi, we have seen the little Haggadah threatened in such a  period of prosperity in each of the episodes, haven't we?  People have developed a comfort zone with their neighbors - their differences have blurred. Have you noticed too that when there is such cultural closeness, religious differences seem to be less important among the elders in the community?  It is the young who yearn for more - Lola sneaks out to the Young Guardians'  meetings - and out of Sarajevo, Dona de Serena who hopes to take the book out of Venice to Sarajevo -  And now we see Ruti - secretly studying Kabbalah and Zohar - Ruti who will finally escape Tarragona with the precious book in tow.

Have you noticed that  the Haggadah's survival depends on women?  Let's watch for this in the remaining chapters.
Traudee, please feel free to refer to any unanswered questions from preceding chapters as we move ahead - or back in time.   It appears that GB has left some questions unanswered purposely.

[JoanP]

Gum, can you tell the factual historical background - that places the creation of the Haggadah in Spain?  I can't find it?  Is it the folio pages themselves, made from sheepskins that have been found only in Spain?  

Finally, we understand how this particular haggadah is accompanied by the illustrations - unlike all others. (The haggadah pages and the illustrations are both done on the same sheepskin.) The Haggadah was not illustrated by a Jewish artist - as has been suspected.  

David Shoushan provides the text to accompany the illustrations which he has purchased from a boy, accompanied by a slave - the boy  has just embarked (from where? )  I thought it was interesting why Shoushan did not hestitate including these illustrations in the Haggadah because they were a gift for his brother's son.  He knows his brother whould be more interested in the beautiful artwork, than in the propriety of including images in a Jewish haggadah.  How does he know this?  Would he have included illustrations in a haggadah for his own son?

[kidsal]

My doctor, a pulmonologist, works in Salt Lake City and is associated with all the hospitals there.  Perhaps it is a state-by-state thing, or different in other countries, but he says it is no longer applicable to practicing in a hospital.