Free Rashi's Daughters, Book III: Rachel by Maggie Anton Page A

hugged her new son close. Surely Papa’s piety would protect his family from the Evil Eye. Yet demons hated Torah scholars above all and seized any opportunity to harass them. When Joheved gave birth to a boy less than a month after Miriam had her youngest son, the bad luck of pairs brought on Lillit’s attack. Joheved nearly succumbed to childbed fever, and her first baby named Salomon died a year later. All of Papa’s Torah study wasn’t powerful enough to save his namesake then; would it be powerful enough now, with eight grandsons in jeopardy?
     
    Walking home from Shavuot services, Rachel pulled Joheved aside and whispered, “Now that Adam has left Troyes, do you think we still have to worry about our babies—may the Holy One protect them?”
    Little Salomon squirmed in Joheved’s arms, and she shifted him to her other hip. Her son could walk while holding on, but she wasn’t about to put him down in the muddy road, filthy with every kind of garbage a person could throw in it.
    “I don’t know. My worries over him never cease.” A smile lit her face as she watched Meir take hold of their daughters’ hands and cautiously cross the street. “I worry about all my children.”
    Adam from Roanne had proved to be the very man that the Jews of Vénissieux had put in herem , and it took less than a week before Troyes affirmed the ban. Once everyone in the community refused to speak to him and made sure they stood at least four cubits away, it became clear that he would do no business in the city.
    Rachel checked that the red threads around Asher’s wrists weren’t too tight; he was growing so fast. Though Adam had only given the Evil Eye to Salomon’s male family members, Mama saw to it that all her grandchildren wore red threads these days.
    Mama also insisted that Papa inspect every mezuzah within their courtyard; never mind that they were written less than three years ago. And each night, after Rachel nursed Asher and tucked her older children in their beds, Papa blessed them with verses from Numbers that were especially effective in protecting children from the Evil Eye.
    May Adonai bless you and protect you. May Adonai make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May Adonai lift up His favor upon you and give you peace.
    In the morning, before they headed for synagogue, Papa followed the advice that the Sages gave in the ninth chapter of Tractate Berachot.
    He who fears the Evil Eye—let him put his right thumb in his left hand, and his left thumb in his right hand. And he says, “I, A son of B, am of Joseph’s seed, and the Evil Eye has no power over me. As it is written: May they be teeming like fish.” Just as the waters cover fish and thus the Evil Eye has no power over them, so too the Evil Eye has no power over Joseph’s descendents.
    When Rachel asked how he knew they were descended from Joseph, rather than another of Jacob’s sons, he explained that all Jewish people were Joseph’s progeny and that the Evil Eye is easily fooled. Thus the incantation works whether a man is of Joseph’s seed or not.
    Rachel wished she shared Papa’s confidence a few days later when Shemiah came to her complaining, “Mama, I don’t feel good.”

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    Rachel’s chest tightened. “What’s the matter?” “I feel hot and my throat hurts.” Shemiah sneezed and blew his nose onto the ground. “And my nose is dripping all the time.”
    She reached out and felt his forehead for fever. It was warm but not burning. “Go on up to bed. I’ll have Cook prepare some chicken broth for you.”
    Just to be sure, Rachel checked her daughter’s forehead too, but little Rivka seemed fine. So she headed for Miriam’s, to obtain whatever herbal infusion her sister would recommend for a mild fever with an overabundance of phlegm in the nostrils.
    “Broth boiled with parsley for a light fever, and sage to reduce the phlegm,” Miriam replied. “If there’s a cough as well, I recommend adding some water mint.