The Dovekeepers

Revka is from the Valley of the Cypresses, a fertile land near the mountains. When Revka was young she was married off to a kindhearted baker. She then had a daughter, Zara, who was their only child. Revka thought she had everything she wanted but forgot that everything could also be taken away. When Zara grew up, she married Yoav, a young rabbi, and the couple soon had two sons, Levi and Noah.

It was around this time that legionnaires from Rome began to come to Revka’s village, robbing homes and desecrating synagogues with a cockerel’s blood. The rabbis and wise men had no choice but to bow to the legions, even as the Romans raised taxes so high the poor began to starve.

One day, the baker went to the synagogue to offer his freshly baked bread, as he had always done every day. He never returned, but Yoav did. Yoav told Revka the baker had been killed by the Romans, and the synagogue burnt. Chaos had broken out in the village with the Roman soldiers in a killing frenzy. Revka’s family left the village and headed toward the wilderness.