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Chapter 1
 

But it wasn’t a dream, at least not the kind that other people had when they slept, seeing visions that made no sense in the light of day. In Iddo’s dreams he relived memories, powerful memories, as real as on the day he’d lived them as a child. The images and sounds and horrors had imprinted on his soul the way a stylus presses into soft clay. The kiln of suffering had hardened them, and they could never be erased.

He drew a shaky breath, wiping his hand across his face, scrubbing tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry, Dinah,” he whispered. “I’m sorry . . .”

“Are you all right?” she asked. “I’ll make you something warm to drink.”

He rested his hand on her arm, stopping her. “No, stay in bed. Why should we both be awake?” Iddo rose from their mat, groping in the dark for his robe. He wouldn’t be able to sleep now.

During the daytime he could control the images that circled the edges of his consciousness like jackals by looking up at the cloud-swept sky or studying the perfection of his infant grandson’s tiny fingers. But at night, when darkness hid the Creator’s beauty, the images and sounds closed in on Iddo, scratching and clawing, refusing to be silenced. Once they pounced they would strip him of everything he had accomplished, ripping at the man he now was, reducing him to the ten-year-old child he had been when Jerusalem fell—helpless, terrified, naked, and shivering before his enemies. Forty-seven years had passed since he’d lived the real nightmare, and Iddo had spent those years here in Babylon. He had a wife, children, grandchildren—all born here. Yet the atrocities he’d seen in Jerusalem remained as vivid as the world he saw every morning. The nightmare never faded, never blurred.

He waited for his heart to slow, his breathing to ease, then shuffled to the door, opening and closing it soundlessly so he wouldn’t disturb his household. Outside in his dark courtyard, he traced the familiar silhouette of the mud brick houses in his neighborhood, the spiky date palms growing along the nearby canal. He lifted his chin to watch stars disappear, then reappear behind the playful night clouds. “‘When I consider your heavens,’” he whispered, “‘the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?’” The psalms of King David were another weapon he used to keep the jackals of fear away.

The terror that had destroyed Jerusalem was the Almighty One’s punishment. All of the prophets had said so. God no longer dwelled with His people because they’d been unfaithful to Him. His temple was destroyed, His people scattered among the nations, living among pagan gods. Iddo’s only hope, his family’s only hope, lay in studying God’s Law, filling his heart and mind with the Torah, obeying every word of it every day of his life. If he sought the God of his fathers with all his strength, maybe the Holy One would show mercy and return to His people again.

Iddo shivered in the cool fall air, waiting for the nighttime peace to still his soul. But instead of the deep silence that he craved, he heard remnants of sounds from his nightmare: a low rumble like hundreds of marching feet, faraway screams and cries—or were they only the cries of birds? Iddo had spent many nights awake, but the sounds from his dreams had never lingered this way. Was he imagining things? He climbed the outdoor steps to his flat rooftop and looked out at the city. Lights danced in the distance like summer lightning—only it couldn’t be lightning. The star-filled sky stretched from horizon to horizon in the flat landscape, the night clouds mere wisps.

A sudden movement in the street below caught his attention, and he squinted down at the shadows. His neighbor, Mattaniah, stood with his hands on his hips gazing toward the center of Babylon. Beside him stood another neighbor, Joel, who was a descendant of temple priests like Iddo. Could they hear the sounds, too?

Iddo hurried downstairs and out through the courtyard gate to the street. The two men turned at the sound of Iddo’s footsteps. “Did the noise wake you, too?” Mattaniah asked.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“We don’t know,” Joel said. “The Babylonians are holding a festival of some sort for one of their pagan gods tonight, but my son Reuben thought it sounded more like soldiers marching.”

“Yes . . . I thought so, too,” Iddo said.

“We were wondering if the armies of the Medes and Persians had attacked the city,” Mattaniah said.

Joel shook his head. “They’ll never succeed. Babylon’s gates are heavily fortified and the city walls are twenty feet thick. They’re impregnable!” But Iddo remembered Jerusalem’s toppled walls and shuddered. “My son went to have a look,” Joel continued. “We’re waiting for him to come back.”

Iddo stood with his neighbors, listening to the distant sounds, talking quietly as they waited for Reuben to return. By the time the young man finally jogged home, flushed and breathless, an arc of pink light brightened the eastern horizon. “You won’t believe it, Abba! I walked all the way to the plaza by the Ishtar Gate, and the streets are filled with soldiers all around the southern palace. Thousands of them!”

“Babylonian soldiers?” Iddo asked.

“No, sir. They weren’t like any Babylonian soldiers I’ve ever seen.”

“Then it is an invasion!” Mattaniah said.

“It can’t be. How would the enemy get past our walls?” Joel asked.

“I think I know how,” Reuben said. “I followed the river on the way home and the water was only this deep . . .” He gestured to the middle of his thigh. “The soldiers could have waded into the city beneath the walls, using the riverbed for a highway—like that story in the Torah when the waters parted for our people, remember?”

An invasion. Iddo turned without a word and hurried back to his walled courtyard, closing the wooden gate behind him, leaning against it. He must be dreaming. He hadn’t awakened from his nightmare after all. Any moment now Dinah would shake him, and he would wake up. He closed his eyes as he slowly drew a breath, then opened them again. He was still in his courtyard, still aware of the distant rumble of marching feet.

If this wasn’t a dream, then for the second time in Iddo’s life enemy soldiers had invaded the city where he lived. His nightmare had become a reality once again. He took a few stumbling steps toward the house, stopped, and turned in a useless circle, like an animal trapped in a pit. He had to flee, had to escape with his wife, his family. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe they could wade out of the city and hide in the marshes beyond the walls. Maybe the Almighty One had parted the waters just for them, so they could escape. He took two steps forward and stopped again.

The Almighty One.

Would He help them? Iddo needed to pray, to ask for His wisdom and protection before fleeing. He climbed the stairs to the rooftop—barely able to manage them on trembling legs—and fell prostrate, facing west toward Jerusalem. “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe—” He stopped. His father and grandfather had lain prostrate in the temple courtyard in Jerusalem with all the other priests, praying day and night for help and protection and salvation. Their prayers had gone unanswered.

“Blessed art thou, O Lord our God . . .” Iddo began again. Maybe something would be different this time, and the Almighty would hear His people’s pleas for mercy. Iddo and the others had obeyed everything the prophets said: “Marry and have sons and daughters. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” Iddo had done that. He and the other priests had not only tried to obey every letter of the Law, but they had constructed a fence of protective laws around the Torah to make sure no one even came close to breaking one of God’s commandments. They honored the Sabbath day as best they could, even when their captors denied them a day of rest. They gathered for prayer three times a day as the three Patriarchs had done, and—

Iddo lifted his head. Why was he praying all alone? The other men must be awake by now. He would go to morning prayers, gather with the others, and decide together what to do. His household was stirring when he went downstairs to fetch his prayer shawl and phylacteries. Dinah knelt in front of the hearth with a fistful of straw, blowing on the coals to start the fire. His daughter, Rachel—lovely, vulnerable Rachel—hummed as she folded the bedding. Iddo heard murmuring in the other rooms, as well, the rooms he had added onto his house for his sons Berekiah and Hoshea and their wives and families. His newest grandson was crying to be fed, and his helpless wail sent shivers through Iddo as he remembered the children in Jerusalem who had been too hungry to cry. Would it be the same in this invasion? The suffering, the starvation?

“I’m going to morning prayers,” he told Dinah.

She looked up at him in surprise. “So early? You never go this early.”

“I need to talk with the others. Something has happened, and I’m not sure—”

“What do you mean? What happened?” She rose to her feet, studying him with dark, worried eyes. Her long hair still hung loose and uncovered, and Iddo resisted the urge to gather the soft weight of her curls in his hands. Not a single strand of silver marred Dinah’s dark hair, while his own hair and beard had turned completely white ten years ago, when he was still in his forties. “Are you all right, Iddo?” she asked.

He looked away. “Joel’s son came home this morning with . . . with some news. I need to talk with the others to understand what it means.”

“What news?”

He couldn’t say it out loud, couldn’t speak of an enemy invasion. “Just make sure you and the other women stay here. The children, too. Don’t let anyone leave our courtyard until I come back. Don’t go to the marketplace or the well or the ovens—”

“Iddo, you’re scaring me!”

“Don’t worry,” he told her. Useless words. If what Reuben said was true, they had every reason to worry. He turned to go, hesitating in the doorway for just a moment, wondering if he should ask his sons to come with him. But no, Berekiah and Hoshea rarely went to morning prayers—why should today be any different? “I won’t be long,” he told Dinah. He had no idea if it was true.

The Beit Knesset, or house of assembly, was nearly full when Iddo arrived. It didn’t take long to learn that the rumor was true: Foreign soldiers had invaded Babylon. One of Israel’s elders—a member of The Great Assembly—had traveled all the way from the other side of the city with the news. “The Persians and Medes diverted the water of the Euphrates into a canal north of the city,” he told them. “Their armies waited south of the city until the water was shallow enough to wade through and then entered beneath the walls in the middle of night.”

The room went silent for the space of a heartbeat, two heartbeats. “How could this happen?” someone finally asked. “How could Babylon’s king and his army be taken by surprise? Didn’t they post watchmen? Didn’t they see?”

“The Almighty One’s hand is in this,” the elder replied. “He promised that one day the Babylonian empire would fall, and last night it happened. The Babylonians were holding a festival to their idols and didn’t even realize that the Medes and Persians were inside their walls until it was too late. King Belshazzar is dead. Thousands of his noblemen have been executed. Darius the Mede has taken over his kingdom.”

Iddo sank onto one of the benches that lined the room’s perimeter as everyone began talking at once, flooding the room with panicked questions.

“Will these Medes and Persians slaughter and pillage like the Babylonians did?”

“How can we protect our families?”

“Should we flee the city?”

“How can this be happening to us a second time?”

They were the same questions that Iddo lacked the strength to ask. The elder held up his hands for silence. “Listen . . . please . . . We’re waiting to hear what Daniel the Righteous One and Judah’s princes have to say, but in the meantime you should all return home. The Babylonians are staying inside their houses today, and so should we. If the city is still quiet by the time of evening prayers, we’ll gather here once again. Maybe we’ll have more news by then.”

As Iddo prepared to leave, a single question filled his thoughts: How could he protect his family? The truth was, he couldn’t. While younger men hurried home to barricade their doors, preparing to protect the people they loved with kitchen knives and clubs, men like Iddo who remembered Jerusalem knew they couldn’t save themselves.

Dinah had the morning meal ready when he returned. His sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren had gathered in the large, central room of their house. “What’s going on, Abba?” Berekiah asked. “Mama said you looked worried—and that you told us all to stay inside.”

The room grew quiet as Iddo explained what little he knew about the invasion. Even his young grandchildren grew very still. “What will this mean for us?” his son Hoshea asked when Iddo finished.

“No one knows. But one of the elders from the Great Assembly promised to return with more news when we gather for evening prayers. We’ll find out then. In the meantime, we must all stay inside like the Babylonians are doing.” He looked at Dinah, and the fear he saw in her eyes made him reach for her hand. He was her protector, the patriarch of their family, and it grieved him to know that he couldn’t keep her from harm.

“Can’t we go to the well for water?” his daughter asked.

“No, Rachel. Nor to the market or the ovens.”

“But—what will we do?”

“We’ll stay here at home. Like we do on the Sabbath.”

“But what if we run out of water?”

“We can manage until sundown, Rachel.” His words came out sharper than he intended, but her question brought back memories of the long siege of Jerusalem, when the city had run out of food as well as water. He remembered his mouth being as dry as sand and the unending ache in his stomach. He remembered the vermin he had eaten to try to fill it, the brackish water that hadn’t quenched his thirst. “We’ll spend the day praying for mercy,” he said, looking at his sons. “I’ll be up on the roof if you’d like to join me there.” He laid down his uneaten bread and went outside to climb the stairs.

Iddo’s neighborhood and the distant city looked eerily still from the rooftop. The low rumbling of marching footsteps had finally ceased, and as he knelt on the sun-warmed tiles, he couldn’t decide if the silence was a good sign or a bad one. On an ordinary day, he and his sons would have begun work by now, Iddo laboring as a scribe, tallying business accounts for the Babylonians, handling their correspondence, keeping track of their shipments and trading ventures spread throughout the empire. His two sons had formed a trading partnership of their own that had made steady profits—until now. Who knew what would happen now? But Iddo and his sons, like their forefathers, were born to be priests of the one true God. If they lived in Jerusalem instead of in exile, they would be offering sacrifices at His temple, just as Iddo’s father and grandfather had done, all the way back to Israel’s first priest, Aaron. Iddo remembered Jerusalem’s temple, remembered watching the sacrifices as a boy, inhaling the aroma of roasting meat, listening to the Levite choirs and the trumpets. Now the holy temple was gone.

But Iddo was still a priest. As soon as he’d reached adulthood here in Babylon, he had begun his apprenticeship with the older priests who had been exiled with him, learning the regulations, trusting that one day the temple would be rebuilt as the prophet Ezekiel had promised. “It’s a waste of time, Abba,” both of his sons had said when they’d reached the age of apprenticeship. “Why learn dead rituals for a dead religion?” Were they right? Were the faith of their father Abraham and the laws given to Moses mere relics of the past, as dead as the corpses that had filled Jerusalem’s streets?

The city of Babylon remained quiet the entire day. None of Iddo’s fears of death and destruction had materialized—yet. “Come with me to the house of assembly to pray,” he told his sons that evening. “I want you beside me to hear whatever news there might be. Then we can decide together what to do.”

“Shouldn’t we wait a few more days until the dust has settled before going out?” Berekiah asked. “We don’t know what our new captors will be like and—”

“No. You should set an example of faith for your children.” Iddo gestured to Berekiah’s oldest boy, Zechariah, who was nearly twelve years old and Iddo’s favorite. He had fetched his father’s prayer shawl for him and stood with it in his hands, watching them, listening. “We need to pray. Don’t you realize how serious our situation is?” Iddo asked.

“Of course I do. And I am thinking of my children. What if our new Persian overlords misinterpret our gathering and think we’re planning a rebellion?”

“I’m willing to take that chance. Come on, it’s time to go.”

“May I come, too?” Zechariah asked. Before Iddo could reply, Dinah gripped their grandson from behind and pulled him close.

“No, Zaki. Stay here. We don’t know if it’s safe yet.”

The knowledge that he couldn’t make his family feel safe fanned Iddo’s anger into flames. He would fight this enemy of fear, replacing it with faith. The Holy One was with them, not their enemies. He reached for Zechariah’s hand. “Yes, you may come with us. The Almighty One will keep us safe.” He hoped it was true.

No one spoke as Iddo and his sons and grandson walked to the house of assembly. Hundreds of men had already jammed into the room and a tremor of excitement rippled through the gathering. “What’s going on?” he asked one of his fellow priests. “What did I miss?”

“It’s Rebbe Daniel,” the priest whispered. “He’s alive! He survived the invasion and came all the way from the king’s palace to pray with us.”

Iddo’s uneasiness melted in relief. Rebbe Daniel the Righteous One was highly revered in Babylon, not only among the Jewish community, but among the Babylonians and their leaders, as well. If the Medes and Persians had let him live, then there was hope for Iddo and his fellow Jews. Iddo had only seen this legendary man twice before, and he was overjoyed to see him now, glad that his sons and grandson would hear what he had to say. The room fell quiet as the elderly man stepped onto the bimah to speak.

“We have nothing to fear from our new rulers,” Daniel said. “Darius the Mede has asked me to serve him as I served the Babylonians.”

“We’re safe, then?” someone asked.

“Yes. We’re all safe.”

Iddo closed his eyes as the news sent murmurs of relief rippling through the hall.

“There’s more,” Daniel continued. “I have been praying and studying the prophets’ words for some time now, and the Holy One has shown me that the years of our captivity are nearing an end. He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying that we would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years, and when those seventy years were fulfilled, He would punish the Babylonians. This invasion by the Medes and Persians is the beginning of that punishment. More than three thousand of our captors have been executed, including the king and his noblemen. Our exile is coming to an end. We will soon return home to Jerusalem.”

A shout went up from the gathered men. Iddo laid his hand on Zechariah’s shoulder to steady himself. Home. To Jerusalem. He longed to shout praises along with the other men, but the news had stolen his breath. He was afraid to believe it, afraid to put his faith in something as impossible as returning to Jerusalem. And even if it did turn out to be true, could he bear to return to the ghost-filled ruins he had left behind as a child?

“Our captivity began when King Nebuchadnezzar brought King Jehoiakim here to Babylon in bronze shackles,” Daniel continued. “I was part of that first group of exiles sixty-seven years ago. That means our seventy years of captivity are nearly over. We need to pray today and every day that the Holy One will now have mercy on us and restore us to the land He promised our father Abraham. That’s what I’ve come here to do with all of you tonight—to pray.”

“Did our new captors say that we could return?” someone asked.

“Not yet—but God promised that we would. We’ve endured punishment for a time, but the Holy One promised to take us back, to restore our fellowship with Him, to continue His plan to redeem all mankind through our people.”

As Rebbe Daniel prepared to pray, Iddo turned with the other men to face the Aron Ha Kodesh, where the sacred Torah scrolls were kept. Daniel prayed aloud, lifting his hands to heaven, and the faith and conviction in the man’s voice sent shivers through Iddo.

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled. All this disaster has come upon us, just as it was written in the Law of Moses. But now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, hear our prayers and in keeping with your mercy, forgive us! Look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. We don’t make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! For your sake, O my God, don’t delay because your city and your people bear your name.”

The prayers went late into the evening, and by the time they ended, Iddo’s legs could barely carry him home. But his worry had vanished as if lifted from his shoulders to ascend with his prayers. “See, Zechariah? The worst is over now,” he said as they entered the gate to their courtyard. “But we must do as Rebbe Daniel told us and continue to pray. The Almighty has promised that if His people humble themselves and pray, then He will forgive our sin and heal our land. We will return to Jerusalem and—”

Berekiah took Iddo’s arm, stopping him before he entered the house. “Abba. You don’t really believe that we’ll return to Jerusalem, do you?” he asked quietly.

“Of course I do! You heard what Rebbe Daniel said. The Almighty One has promised through His prophets that we will.” Iddo looked down at his young grandson, eager to reassure him, but the boy’s father nudged him toward the door.

“Go inside, Zechariah. Your grandfather and I will be there in a moment.” Hoshea also waited behind, and Iddo saw his sons exchange worried looks.

“Listen, Abba. It’s crazy to believe that we’ll be allowed to return,” Hoshea said. “Slaves never go free, and exiles never return to their native lands.”

“The slaves went free under Moses,” Iddo said. “It must have seemed just as impossible back then, too.”

“And who will dare approach this new ‘pharaoh’ and demand that our captors set us free?” Berekiah asked.

“Maybe the Almighty One will send Rebbe Daniel to—”

“To do what? Can he perform miracles like Moses did? Will God send plagues and darkness to convince this army of conquerors to free us? You don’t really believe all those tales, do you?”

Iddo couldn’t reply. What had seemed so believable as he’d prayed in the house of assembly seemed absurd as he faced his sons’ doubts.

“Abba, you of all people should know that prayer isn’t a magic formula. The Holy One doesn’t do our bidding. If He did, we would still be living in Jerusalem and offering sacrifices at the temple, not living here in Babylon.”

“But the Holy One must bring us home,” Iddo said. “If our people remain here, our faith will become extinct. I see it happening little by little every day. How can we survive if we stay here, surrounded by pagan people and their wicked practices? We’ll become just like them.”

“But our faith hasn’t been extinguished, Abba, it has endured—even here.”

“Then why don’t you practice it? You hardly ever come with me to pray or to study the Torah.”

“There’s a difference between ritual and belief,” Berekiah said. “Just because I don’t pray three times a day with the other men doesn’t mean I don’t believe.”

“But now that our leaders have asked us to come together and pray for our freedom, are you going to join us? Do you believe the Holy One’s promises?”

When Berekiah didn’t reply, Hoshea answered for both of them. “We think our leaders are wrong to raise everyone’s hopes when the truth is that we’ll never be allowed to return. It won’t happen.”

“Enough! I won’t listen to another word!” Iddo yanked his arm free and climbed the stairs to the roof alone, to pray.

He knew it was his fault that his sons didn’t believe. When they were boys, Iddo’s own faith had been too weak to support the weight of their doubts and questions. Now they were grown men, more concerned with the world in front of their eyes than with the unseen world of faith and prayer.

But Iddo would teach his grandson Zechariah to believe. He would do everything right from now on. Maybe then the Almighty One would hear their prayers and end His people’s exile.

 

Chapter 2

inah pulled the last round of bread from the fire and set it out to cool beside the others. The crusts had baked to a dark golden brown, filling the room with their mouth-watering aroma. “What else?” she asked, glancing around. “Is everything ready? Shabbat is nearly here.” The sun dropped below the flat horizon much too soon on these short winter days and Dinah, her daughter, Rachel, and two daughters-in-law, Sarah and Naomi, needed to finish preparing all of the food before it did. “Are the lentils ready?” she asked.

“Yes, Mama.”

“And you’ll make sure everything else is prepared, Rachel? Before your father comes home from prayers?”

“I will, Mama.”

“Good.” She looked around again and saw a haze of smoke from the hearth lingering in the room. They usually prepared meals outside in the courtyard, but the rainy winter day had driven them inside. Dinah propped the door open to chase the last of the smoke away. When she was satisfied that everything was ready, she fetched the extra pot of food from the warming shelf beside the hearth. “I’m taking this next door to Miriam’s family. I’ll be right back. Close the door if it gets too cold in here.”

“Why don’t you invite them to eat here with us?” Naomi asked, shifting her infant son to her other shoulder.

“I did invite them, but Mattaniah said no. He thinks the noise and activity is too much for Miriam.” Dinah had to admit that her household was very lively with her extended family all living and eating together. But Dinah loved every minute of her busy life. At age fifty-four, her arms were full, her heart content.

She dashed from the house and hurried next door through the spitting rain, the pot of warm food swaddled in cloths. “I brought something for your Sabbath meal,” she said when Miriam’s daughter, Yael, opened the door. “How is your mother feeling today?”

“The same,” Yael said with a shrug. She was ten years old and had barely known her mother to be well. But in recent months, the sharp decline in Miriam’s health worried Dinah. “Come in,” Yael said, opening the door wider. “Mama will be happy to see you.”

“I can’t stay long. Shabbat begins soon. I’ll just set this by the fire to keep it warm until dinnertime.” But the fire on the hearth had gone out, leaving the room as cold and damp as a cave. Dinah set down the food and bent to add fuel and rekindle the embers. “Is your father home?” she asked, hearing the murmur of voices in the next room.

“Not yet. Parthia is here to read Mama’s fortune. She promised to read mine, too. Want her to do yours?”

“I don’t think so, Yael. I can’t stay long.”

“But this new seer is always right. She told Abba that he would prosper, and the very next day someone hired him to build a storehouse.”

Dinah blew on the coals until the straw caught fire, uncomfortable with Yael’s news. She knew that Miriam’s husband had paid for a string of Babylonian healers and astrologers, seeking signs and omens, desperate for a cure for his wife. But now Yael was becoming fascinated with the hocus-pocus, as well.

When the fire was blazing, Dinah stood, wiping soot and straw from her hands on a piece of sacking. She studied Yael’s bright, eager face and saw a lovely child beneath her nearly wild exterior, a girl who was certain to grow into a beautiful woman. She needed a mother’s guiding hand to prepare her for womanhood, but Miriam was too ill for the task. Yael often roamed the neighborhood by herself and played near the canal with Dinah’s grandson, Zechariah. What would become of her if Miriam died? “Maybe I will peek in and see how your mother is doing,” Dinah said. She couldn’t resist brushing Yael’s dark, untamed hair from her eyes, but the girl squirmed away from her.

“I have to fetch Mama some water. You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

Dinah parted the curtain that divided the two rooms and found Miriam propped up on her sleeping mat, her thin face as pale as the plastered wall behind her. A dark-robed Babylonian woman with soot-black hair and skin like burnished pottery perched on a stool in front of her. Layers of necklaces and amulets hung around the woman’s neck, and she wore an elaborate golden headpiece that dangled onto her forehead. Loops of shining bracelets encircled her dark wrists, jingling and tinkling as she ground spices together in a bowl on her lap. Strewn in front of her was an array of pots, filled with odd-looking leaves and roots. A plume of incense curled from one of the pots, making Dinah cough when it caught in her throat.

“Dinah, come in,” Miriam said when she saw her. “This is Parthia, my new seer.” The woman glanced up at Dinah without a word before resuming her task.

“I can only stay a moment. The sun is going to set soon. I brought some stew for your Sabbath meal.”

“Dear Dinah. You’re always so good to us.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better. Parthia brought good news today. She said my stars are moving into a favorable position for healing.”

Dinah couldn’t reply. She stepped aside as Yael crowded into the room juggling three cups of water in her small, nail-bitten hands. She gave one to Dinah, one to her mother, and kept the third for herself. Dinah took a dutiful sip, even though she hadn’t asked for a drink.

“I want to repay you for all of your help, Dinah,” Miriam said. “Is there something you’d like to ask the seer while she’s here?”

Dinah took another sip of water, stalling for time. She longed to ask if Rebbe Daniel’s promise of a return to Jerusalem would really come true. Her husband had talked of nothing else since the evening after the invasion, and she feared Iddo’s heart would break if it didn’t happen. But she couldn’t imagine the catastrophic changes in her own life if it did occur. “Thank you . . . but no,” Dinah finally replied. “Iddo got angry with me when I asked your last astrologer for signs.”

“But why? What was the harm in seeking guidance to choose Rachel’s wedding day? Doesn’t he want your daughter to begin her married life under the most favorable stars?”

“Yes, of course, but . . . but Iddo says . . .” He had called it Babylonian nonsense and told Dinah she should pray for the Almighty One’s blessing on Rachel instead of dabbling in pagan astrology. He had forbidden her to have any more to do with their neighbors’ sorcery.

“Iddo doesn’t need to know, does he?” Miriam asked with a smile. “Give Parthia your cup.”

Dinah handed it to her without thinking and a moment later the seer tossed a pinch of powder from her bowl into the water. Her bracelets jingled as she swirled the contents around, muttering unintelligible words. Then the clinking stopped as she stared into the cup, studying the mixture, waiting for the water to settle.

“I see a great tearing in your life,” the seer began. “Something very precious to you will be ripped away and—”

“Stop!” Dinah snatched the cup from her, spilling some of the contents onto the stone floor. “I don’t want to hear any more!”

“Why not?” Miriam asked. “Don’t you want to be prepared for the future?”

“I know my future will hold sorrow; everyone’s does. We can never be prepared for it.” Dinah thought of the suffering her parents had endured, and what Iddo had endured as a child. If they had known what was coming, could they have prepared for it? In fact they had known the future—Israel’s prophets had warned them of the coming judgment—yet everyone had suffered just the same. “It doesn’t help to know,” Dinah finally said, “because we’ll only worry about it ahead of time. I’ll face whatever comes when it comes.”

“Read mine next,” Yael said, holding out her cup to the seer.

The woman glanced at Dinah with contempt in her eyes, then rose from her stool. “Not here, little one. Come. I brought the charts that I promised so you can learn how to read the stars.” She carried the water and her bowl of powder to the front room with Yael scurrying behind her.

“I’m sorry,” Dinah said. “I didn’t mean to spoil anything.”

“It doesn’t matter. Mattaniah pays her well.” Miriam sank back against the cushions again. The life that had animated her a moment ago seemed to escape from her the way a lump of bread dough sinks after being punched, releasing the air. “I can understand why you don’t need to know your future, Dinah. Your life is already so wonderful. But if you suffered from my ill health, you’d want to know what to expect.”

“But that seer can’t possibly know for certain what will happen, can she? Why waste the good days of your life worrying about something that may never come to pass?”

“If I’m going to die, I want to make preparations for my family.”

Dinah crouched in front of her friend and took her hand. “Miriam, none of us knows if we’ll live to see tomorrow. Why not live each day with hope?”

“But she does give me hope. She was right about the Persian invasion, you know. She said that Babylon would undergo a great upheaval, and she was right. She saw it in the stars.”

Was there a difference, Dinah wondered, between this Babylonian woman with her stars and swirling water and Israel’s prophets, who also claimed to see the future? Why would Iddo listen to one and not the other?

“Mattaniah told me what Daniel the Righteous One said,” Miriam continued. “How our people may return to Jerusalem soon. So I asked the seer about his prophecy, and she said—”

“Wait! Don’t tell me!” Dinah stood, dropping Miriam’s hand. “I don’t want to know.”

“Are you sure?” A thin smile brightened Miriam’s face.

Dinah hesitated for just a moment before saying, “I’m sure. Listen, I should go. See how dark it’s getting already? Shabbat shalom, Miriam.” She bent to kiss her friend on both cheeks.

“Shabbat shalom. And thank you again for the food.”

Dinah hurried home to wash and change her clothes for the Sabbath. Her sons’ wives had scrubbed their children—four boys and three girls—and gotten them ready while Rachel rolled out the rug where they would eat, placing the bread and wine at the head where Iddo would sit. Dinah had just finished lighting the Sabbath lights and reciting the blessing when her sons arrived home from work and Iddo returned from prayers in the house of assembly.

“May we soon be celebrating Shabbat in Jerusalem,” Iddo said as he kissed Dinah in greeting. She helped him out of his damp outer cloak and hung it on a peg near the hearth.

“Do you truly believe that we’ll be returning?” she asked, thinking of Miriam’s seer.

“Of course. We’re praying for the Almighty One to work a miracle so we can go home.”

But she was home. This was her home, the place where she had been born. Even if the Almighty One did work a miracle to bring about a second exodus, why would her husband want to return to the place of his nightmares? Their home was here in Babylon, not the desolate, ruined city of Jerusalem filled with skeletons and ghosts, a thousand impossible miles away.

“Is everything ready?” Iddo asked. “Call the children. Let’s wash and eat.”

Dinah watched with contentment as the men performed the ritual hand-washing and the children scrambled into their places on the rug.

Thirty-six years ago, two very different suitors had asked Dinah’s father for her hand. Joel had been handsome and assertive, already a community leader at a young age. He had been born in Babylon, as she had been. But Dinah had been drawn to Iddo by his gentle nature, his uncompromising adherence to his religion. When he had awakened, screaming from a nightmare on the first night they shared a bed, his vulnerability had made her love him all the more. She longed to protect him, to help chase away his demons. But even on their happiest days, sadness always hovered over Iddo. He was like a mouse cowering in the shadows, waiting for the hawk to dive down and snatch him away. She slowly had discovered that the things she loved the most about him—his gentleness, his rigid legalism—were symptoms of a deep, unbearable grief, the same haunted grief she’d witnessed in her parents and in other Jews from the generation of the exile. As the years passed, what Dinah had grown to love the most about her husband was his ability to move forward in spite of that grief.

As Iddo blessed the bread and broke it, blessed the wine and poured it, the fierceness of her love for him gripped Dinah like a fist. She watched him pass around bowls of stew and lentils, olives and roasted grain, and saw a man who was old before his time. Would the Holy One tear Iddo away from her? Is that what Parthia had seen? If death was going to rip Iddo from Dinah’s arms, she didn’t want to know.

She began to relax after her busy day of cooking as the leisurely meal unwound, enjoying the food and the traditions, laughing and eating and singing with the others. But her deepest satisfaction came not from the rituals but from her family.

“May we soon return to Jerusalem!” Iddo said, raising his cup of wine. Dinah lifted her cup along with everyone else, but Iddo’s words had created a tension in the room that he didn’t seem to notice. “I can faintly recall celebrating Shabbat in Jerusalem when I was very young,” he continued. “But those memories were overshadowed by the years when Jerusalem was under siege.”

The room fell quiet. Iddo never spoke of those memories, and it must have surprised everyone that he did now. “We were starving near the end. There was nothing to eat for many, many days. And now . . .” His voice trailed off as he stared down at the table.

Dinah reached for his hand. “Now we’ve been richly blessed with abundant food,” she said.

He looked up at her, puzzled, and pulled his hand free. “Now we will return to the Promised Land,” he corrected.

“I hope you’re right, Abba,” Berekiah said, “but I worry that you may be disappointed. The world isn’t the same place it was when you were a boy. The nation of Judah no longer exists.”

“They wanted to cut us off from our land and our faith and our traditions,” Iddo said, “hoping we would mingle with the pagans and disappear!”

Dinah had never seen him this way at dinner before, his face flushed, his quiet voice raised. “Hasn’t the Holy One been with us here, Iddo?” she asked. “What difference does it make which patch of land we live on?”

“It makes a huge difference!” He turned to their grandson, Zechariah. “Do you remember what we studied the other day about God’s four promises?”

“Yes, Saba.” The boy smiled as if pleased to be included in the adult conversation. He was such a bright boy, a gifted boy, yet still sweet and tender at age eleven. Since the day he was born he’d been able to make Iddo smile, bringing a light to his eyes each time he toddled into the room, helping him forget the grief that haunted him. Even if Dinah didn’t have a million other reasons to love her firstborn grandchild, she would love Zechariah for that reason alone.

“He promised to give us the land,” Zechariah replied, holding up one finger. “He promised that we would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. . . .” He held up a second finger.

“It must be a pretty cloudy sky,” his Uncle Hoshea muttered, “if we’re the only stars that are left.”

“He promised that through us all the nations of the earth would be blessed. . . .”

“All of the nations hate us,” Hoshea said, speaking louder this time. “It’s impossible to see how we have blessed anyone.”

“Hoshea, please,” Dinah murmured.

“But it’s true, Mama. The only way we’re a blessing to the Babylonians is as their slaves and servants.”

“Tell us the fourth promise, Zaki,” Dinah said.

“He promised to live among us and be our God.”

“Yes! We were created to live with God,” Iddo said. “And His dwelling place on earth is His temple in Jerusalem. That’s why it’s so important for us to return and to rebuild it. Without it, our sins will continue to separate us from Him.”

“Does it have to be in Jerusalem?” Hoshea asked.

“Of course it does! Do you think He would dwell among us here, alongside pagan idols and pagan temples?”

Dinah’s grandbaby fussed in his mother’s arms as if sensing the unsettled atmosphere. Shabbat dinner was never this loud, with raised voices and arguments. Dinah stood and took the child from his mother. “Let me see if I can soothe him,” she said. She left the room without looking back and carried the baby outside to the courtyard, gently rocking him in her arms.

The rain had stopped but the winter night was cool, and she held her grandson close to keep him warm. She brushed her cheek against his smooth, soft skin as she tried to soothe him and quiet her own worried heart. A handful of stars peeked between the clouds, and she thought again of God’s promise to Abraham to make his family as numerous as the stars. But why couldn’t the promise of many descendants come true here? Dinah was content with her life. Why couldn’t Iddo be content, as well?

“Something very precious to you will be ripped away . . .”

Dinah gripped her grandchild tighter, humming a lullaby to push away the seer’s words. Little by little, the baby stopped fussing and her own soul quieted, as well. When he was asleep, she carried him inside and tucked him into bed. But before she had time to rejoin the others who were still sitting together after the meal, a man from their community arrived at the door.

“Forgive me for disturbing your Sabbath meal,” he said, “but it’s time. My wife, Keziah, asked me to fetch the midwives.”

“Yes, of course,” Dinah said. “Babies don’t wait until Shabbat is over, do they? Especially third babies. Let me get my shawl, and I’ll come with you.”

Dinah loved being a midwife, bringing new babies into the world. She loved working side-by-side with her cousin Shoshanna, who was also a midwife, even when it meant that her meals were interrupted. She told her family where she was going and hurried down the street to fetch Shoshanna.

Keziah’s baby was larger than the first two had been, and though the labor went smoothly, she had a difficult time delivering. Dinah soothed her as she struggled through hours of pain and endless contractions. “I can’t do this anymore!” Keziah moaned.

“Think of the future,” Dinah coached. “Think of holding your precious child in your arms. A brand-new life.”

“I can’t!”

“Yes, you can, Keziah. Find the strength inside yourself.” After a hard struggle, Keziah’s first son was finally born. She was exhausted but joyful as she held him close, and the look on Keziah’s face brought tears to Dinah’s eyes. The miracle of birth always moved her.

Long after midnight Dinah and Shoshanna returned to their homes. Dinah tried not to awaken Iddo as she crawled into bed beside him, but he was already awake. “I’m sorry if we upset you at dinner,” he said as he held her, warming her after the chilly walk home.

“I hate it when you argue with each other.”

“But do you agree with our sons, Dinah? Do you think they’re right and that the prophets are all wrong?”

“I don’t know. . . . What do I know of such things?” She closed her eyes, wanting to sleep, not talk. Why spoil the contentment she felt after the miracle of her night’s work?

“Dinah, it’s important to me to know how you feel about it. Do you agree with our sons?”

She sighed and rolled over onto her back, knowing Iddo wouldn’t let the matter rest until she answered him. “Berekiah and Hoshea were only asking you to look around and see what you have now, here in this place, instead of longing for the past or trying to see into the future.”

“But God always keeps His promises. He said as long as the sun and moon remain, Israel will remain. And what do you see shining in the sky every morning?”

“The sun—but it rises above Babylon, too, not just Jerusalem.” Iddo gave an exasperated huff in reply. “I was born here, Iddo. This is the only home I’ve ever known. I’ve been happy here all my life with our family and my work. I’ve never experienced what you did or known your grief. . . . I just wish . . .”

“What? What do you wish?”

“I wish Rebbe Daniel and the other prophets had never offered you this hope. What if they’re wrong and this turns out to be another loss in your life?”

“They won’t be wrong.”

Dinah brushed her fingers through his white hair, trailed them down his soft white beard. “Then from now on I will pray that the prophets are right. Now please, Iddo. Let’s go to sleep.” She closed her eyes again and nestled in his arms. But as she tried to sleep, Dinah still feared that if his hopes didn’t come to pass, the disappointment would kill him.

“I see a great tearing in your life . . .”A shudder passed through Dinah. She wished with all her heart that she had never allowed the Babylonian woman to gaze into her cup.

 

Chapter 3

echariah sat hunched against the morning cold as he ate breakfast with his father and grandfather. Kindling a fire was forbidden on the Sabbath, and the air in the unheated room sent a chill through him. He felt his father watching him and looked up. “Come to work with me this morning, Zaki. I want you to see—”

“On Shabbat?” his grandfather interrupted. “It’s bad enough that you choose to work on the Sabbath, but why ask your son to desecrate it?”

“It just occurred to me that he will turn twelve soon. He’ll be an adult and his Torah studies will be finished. It’s time he learned the trading business from Hoshea and me.”

“And what if he prefers to come to the house of assembly with me?”

Zechariah stared at the floor as the argument bounced back and forth. He loved both men, but sometimes he felt as though his father was gripping one of his arms and his grandfather the other, yanking him in opposite directions, tearing him in two. He hated being trapped in the middle, but if they asked his opinion, he would rather go with Abba. Working alongside his father would be a welcome change from praying all morning—even though he hated to disappoint his grandfather.

“He’s my son,” Abba finally said. “It’s my decision. We’ll be back in time for afternoon prayers.” He stood, motioning to Zechariah. “You ready?”

Zechariah tried to mask his excitement as he rose to his feet to fetch his outer robe and sandals. He couldn’t meet his grandfather’s gaze as Saba gathered his prayer shawl and phylacteries, then shuffled out the door to walk to the house of assembly alone.

Abba strode briskly as they left their Jewish neighborhood, but Zechariah slowed his steps to gaze all around as they walked through Babylon’s strange, exotic streets. He rarely glimpsed this alien world except from the rooftop of his home. “What’s that building?” he asked as they passed a magnificent pillared structure.

“That’s the temple of Ishtar, one of Babylon’s gods.”

“Was the temple in Jerusalem like that?”

“I don’t know. I never saw it. You’ll have to ask Saba.”

Two men were ascending the temple stairs wearing the most beautiful white robes Zechariah had ever seen, embroidered with purple and gold. “Who are those men?” he asked.

“Priests, I suppose. I don’t really know much about Babylonian religion. They have at least a dozen temples to their pagan gods here in this city, not counting the great ziggurat.”

Zaki stopped to stare until the men disappeared inside, then hurried to catch up with his father. “Saba says we’ll wear white robes like that when we’re priests, someday.”

“You and I will never be priests, in spite of what your grandfather thinks.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s no longer a temple in Jerusalem. It’s gone. Destroyed.”

“But Rebbe Daniel said—”

“The prophets are all dreamers, son. It’s much wiser to place your hope in things you can see right in front of you. Then you won’t be disappointed. That’s why your uncle and I are working so hard to build this business for you and your brothers. You know I love your grandfather, but we can’t all live in a dream world like he does.”

“Is it true what you said this morning? That I’ll get to go to work with you after my birthday instead of studying the Torah?”

“Well . . . maybe you should continue to study it some of the time. But my business will be yours someday, so it’s time you learned how to run it with me.” They reached a squat, low-roofed building near the canal a few minutes later and went inside through a rear door. After passing Babylon’s towering buildings, Zechariah was disappointed in his father’s gloomy office. The walls inside the one-room structure were lined with shelves and stuffed with even more scrolls and clay tablets than at the yeshiva Zaki attended. Abba showed him the worktable where he and Uncle Hoshea sat all day, buying and selling goods throughout the empire, keeping track of debts and sales. The work seemed no different or more exciting to Zechariah than sitting in the yeshiva all day, studying Torah scrolls.

Abba led the way to the front of the building and opened a door that overlooked the canal. “This is our slowest season of the year,” he said. “The ships from Armenia won’t begin to arrive until the trading season resumes in the spring.”

“Ships like that one?” Zechariah asked, pointing to a tall-masted vessel similar to the ones he saw on the canal near their house.

“Some of them are. But the ones that come from Armenia are round and made from willow staves and animal skins. They sail downriver from Armenia with goods to sell—and carrying a donkey or two. Since the river can only be navigated in one direction, the traders sell their goods, dismantle their boats, and then load the staves and skins on their donkeys for the return trip. It’s interesting to watch.”

“I wish I could travel someplace new.”

Abba rested his hand on Zaki’s head for a moment. “Maybe you and I will have that chance someday. Listen, I have to go over my accounts now. Go ahead and explore while I work.”

For the next two hours, Zechariah wandered along the edge of the canal outside his father’s building, watching the flurry of activity on the waterfront and in the other shops and warehouses. He loved listening to the slurping, splashing sounds that the water made against the dock and dreaming of faraway places. But even though he wasn’t doing any forbidden work, Zaki still felt guilty for not going to the house of assembly with Saba and the others on this Sabbath morning. When he finally turned to retrace his steps, he heard music in the distance and the persistent thumping of drums. He raced back to his father’s office. “What’s that music, Abba? Do you hear it?”

Abba had been hunched over his worktable, but he sat up straight, cocking his head to listen. “I don’t know what that is. . . . But give me a minute to finish this, and we’ll go see.”

A short time later Abba closed the building, and they hurried up the street together, following the sound. “It’s a royal procession,” a stranger told Abba when he asked. “You’ll get the best view from the top of the wall.”

Abba found the nearest stairway leading to the top of Babylon’s massive walls, and they puffed their way to the top. Zechariah had never been up this high in his life. The walls were as wide as The Processional Way, Babylon’s main street, and wide enough for teams of horses and chariots to race each other. Tiny Persian soldiers in bright blue tunics swarmed in the street below like busy insects as they cleared a path for the procession. The music grew louder and louder, the drums banging and thumping in time with Zaki’s heart. An escort of musicians paraded past first, followed by four magnificent white horses pulling a golden chariot. The man riding in the chariot wore a long, purple robe trimmed with gold, and the people lining the street bowed down to him as he passed. “Is that the new Persian king?” Zechariah whispered.

“Yes, I suppose it is. It’s a good thing we’re watching from up here. We only bow down to the Almighty One.”

The dazzling parade slowly moved past—soldiers on horseback, noblemen in chariots, and golden images of Babylon’s gods on wheeled carts, glittering in the bright sunshine. Zaki had never seen anything like this before, but Abba assured him that kings and emperors always traveled in such splendor wherever they went. “Did King David and King Solomon travel that way, too?” he asked.

“Maybe . . . That was a long time ago, son.”

As Zechariah gazed out over Babylon, the city looked beautiful to him, the buildings and temples decorated with glazed bricks of blue and red and gold. His Jewish neighborhood of tightly clustered square buildings was dull in comparison, the color of mud. He made a slow turn, taking it all in, and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but Babylon. At last they descended the stairs again and headed home.

“Abba, are we really going to move back to Jerusalem like Saba said last night?”

He shook his head. “No king would ever let his slaves go free. Has anything changed since the Persians arrived?”

“No.” Zaki’s life had continued the same as always, with school and chores and prayers in the house of assembly. Today was the first hint that something new may be coming, and he was excited about it, even if his father’s workplace had been a disappointment.

They went to prayers together, as Abba had promised. Afterward, Zechariah walked home with his grandfather, trying to make amends. “There’s a little time to study the Torah before we eat,” Saba said. “Shall we go up to the roof?”

Zechariah stifled a sigh. There would be no escaping to play with his neighbor, Yael. She was his best friend, and even though she was a girl, she behaved more like a boy, exploring the canal with him whenever they had free time. He couldn’t wait to tell her about all the things he’d seen today with his father. But Saba had already opened the gate to their courtyard and was heading toward the stairs to the roof. Zechariah glanced at the distant palm trees near the water’s edge one last time before racing up the stairs ahead of him. He enjoyed learning with Saba—as long as the lessons didn’t take forever.

From the rooftop he saw the Euphrates River gliding through the middle of the city like a thick brown snake. He could see the top of the ziggurat in the city’s center, a long distance away from his Jewish neighborhood. He would love to climb that mountain of bricks someday and see what the view was like from such a glorious height.

“What are you looking at?” Saba asked when he reached the top of the stairs.

“I like the way the sun is shining on the ziggurat. Doesn’t it look beautiful?”

Saba turned his back on the view without replying.

“Saba, I’ve been wondering: How can seventy years of exile have passed already? You aren’t seventy years old, and you remember being brought here.”

“Our captivity began before I was born, son. Groups of our people were forced into exile three different times in a little more than twenty years. I don’t remember the first two invasions, but when Judah’s last king rebelled against the Babylonians, their armies demolished everything and brought me here.”

Zechariah sank down on the rug beside his grandfather, hoping he would tell him more. Saba never talked about the past or the things he remembered. But he’d offered a few hints at dinner last night, and Zechariah longed to hear more. “How old were you then? My age?”

“I was ten when the Babylonians broke through the walls and destroyed the temple. Now you and I will be among those who are blessed to return and rebuild it.”

Zechariah felt pulled in two directions again. Babylon was his home, Jerusalem a distant place he knew only from the Torah. He celebrated the story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt at Passover every year, but it had always seemed like a myth to him, no different from the exaggerated stories that the Babylonians told about their gods, Marduk and Ishtar and Enlil. He thought of the temple and the priests he’d seen today and asked, “Do you remember the sacrifices at the temple?”

“Only vaguely. I was just a boy, too small to see over the heads of the taller men. I remember my mother lifting me up once, so I could see my father in his white robes, but I was too young to understand what the sacrifices were all about.”

“Did the soldiers really destroy everything?”

Saba nodded, closing his eyes. “We tasted ash in our mouths for days and days. The charred land was empty, and when the wind blew, the ash went down our throats and into our eyes. The stench of death was everywhere. You couldn’t escape it.” Saba’s voice had grown very soft. “You can’t imagine our fear to find ourselves in enemy hands. They stripped us and forced us to march, and we were so terrified. . . .” He fell silent, shaking his head as he stared down at his lap. Zechariah knew about Saba’s nightmares. He’d heard him screaming in the night.

“It must have taken a long time to walk here,” Zechariah said after a moment.

“Yes, but we had no choice. The soldiers forced us to keep going no matter how tired we were—for miles and miles, across mountains and deserts. . . . Many people died along the way, especially the old ones and the little children who were already weak from starvation. People had to carry their loved ones’ bodies until nightfall because the soldiers wouldn’t let them stop to bury them, and we couldn’t leave them for scavengers to feed on. So we buried them at night, with nothing to mark their graves and no chance to grieve or to pray before falling asleep and waking at dawn to march another day.” He stopped again as his voice choked with emotion.

Zechariah was sorry for making his grandfather sad. He searched for something to say to cheer him but couldn’t think of anything. At last Saba cleared his throat. “And now, if it pleases God, we will go back the way we came,” he said. “The Almighty One will provide a new exodus from slavery and we’ll return home, just as He promised through His prophets.”

Zaki thought of how Abba had called the prophets a bunch of dreamers. He and Saba couldn’t both be right.

When Zechariah heard voices in the street below, he stood to peer over the parapet. Yael was entering her courtyard with a Babylonian woman, draped in golden jewelry. He wanted to wave, but Yael didn’t look up and he didn’t dare call out to her. Saba stood and came to peer over the wall beside him. “What is that woman of wickedness doing in our neighborhood? And on the Sabbath, no less!”

“Yael’s mother is sick, and she’s the woman who’s been reading her future in the stars. Yael says the stars and planets control our destiny and that—”

“Nonsense! The Almighty One created the heavenly bodies so we could keep track of the times and seasons. Why would He allow something as distant and impersonal as a star to decide our fate? Yael’s father knows that pagan sorcery is forbidden. The Torah says a woman of wickedness like her should be stoned to death.”

Zechariah couldn’t imagine such a horrible death, pummeled with rocks and stones until you died.

“Promise me you won’t go near that woman,” Saba said.

“I promise.”

“Come, let’s begin.” Saba turned his back on Yael’s house, and they sat down in a patch of sunshine to study together.

“Will you help me practice my Torah portion, Saba? I want to read it perfectly on the day of my bar mitzvah. I want you to be proud of me.”

“I already am proud of you.”

They worked until it was time to eat, and Zechariah made good progress in studying the passage of Hebrew Scripture. When the meal was ready and they left the rooftop, Zechariah lagged behind so he could dash over to Yael’s house and see if she wanted to go exploring after the meal.

He halted before reaching Yael’s gate. The Babylonian woman stood with her back to him while Yael knelt beside the threshold. They were digging a hole—something that was forbidden on the Sabbath. Zechariah remembered his grandfather’s story of how they had buried their dead loved ones along the road into exile and wondered if Yael’s mother was going to die.

When Yael looked up and saw him, she motioned to him. He shook his head, remembering his promise. She hurried over, brushing dirt off her hands. “Come on, Zaki. Want to help us?”

“What are you doing?”

“The seer brought a clay demon and we’re burying it under our threshold to keep the evil spirits away until Mama gets better. The stars say she will recover if nothing interferes.”

“Do you really believe all that stuff? I mean, it seems . . . stupid.”

Yael planted her hands on her hips, challenging him. “What if your mother was sick? What would you do?” For all her bravery, tears shone in her eyes.

“I don’t know. I guess I’d try anything.” He didn’t want to imagine losing his mother, even though Safta Dinah and his aunts would take care of him. Yael had no one. He thought again of how Saba had lost his entire family. Why did the Holy One let things like that happen?

“Want to see the demon before we bury it?” Yael asked.

“I can’t. I promised Saba that I wouldn’t go near . . . her.” He tilted his head toward the Babylonian woman.

“Parthia? Why not? . . . Hey, you know what Parthia said? She said I have the gift of divination. She’s teaching me to tell the future like she does.”

“The future?” He took a small step backwards. Saba said Parthia should be stoned to death.

“She says I can earn money telling fortunes and help pay for Mama’s potions and things. It costs a lot of money for seers, you know. Here—give me your hand, and I’ll tell you what I learned so far.” She grabbed Zechariah’s hand before he could stop her and turned it palm-side up. “This is your lifeline. . . . Hey, yours is really long! And this is your love line. See all these little lines branching off of it? You’re going to have a harem full of wives.”

“I am not,” he said, snatching back his hand. Yael laughed at him. But she had such a happy, carefree laugh that he couldn’t help smiling.

Then her laughter died away and she said, “I’m afraid to look at Mama’s lifeline.”

Zechariah felt sorry for her. They had lived side by side since they were born, yet Yael’s life was so much harder than his was. He couldn’t imagine his friend telling fortunes like the Babylonians, working to earn a few pennies, even though everyone Zechariah knew longed to see the future.

“Come back, Yael,” the woman called, beckoning to her. “The hole is big enough. We must finish this.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to see the demon before we bury it?” Yael asked.

“No thanks. I have to eat. You want to go down to the canal with me afterward?”

“Sure. See you later, Zaki.”

He hurried inside and quickly washed his hands before sitting down with his family. As he listened to his grandfather recite the blessings and break the bread and pour the wine, he wondered why his father didn’t believe in tying on phylacteries every morning or resting on the Sabbath like Saba did. Were Saba’s beliefs as useless as Babylonian sorcery? How was Zechariah supposed to tell the difference between superstition and faith? He felt pulled in opposite directions again, as if he sat in an oxcart with an animal tied to each end. The direction Saba pulled seemed right—but so did Abba’s way. Zechariah loved both men, but how was he supposed to choose?

He remembered what Rebbe Daniel the Righteous One had said in the house of assembly and suddenly decided that if the Holy One made a way for them to return to Jerusalem, it would be a sign that the stories in the Torah were all true. If not, then Abba must be right, and the prophets were all dreamers. But it would break his grandfather’s heart if Rebbe Daniel was wrong.

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