Summary

Revka, the Baker’s wife, thinks about how she took her good fortune and happiness for granted when she lived with her kind hearted husband and beautiful daughter in the Valley of the Cypresses. Now, she lives at Masada with her two grandchildren. Her daughter and husband are dead. Her son-in-law lost his faith and no longer spoke to them. Her grandsons had lost their voices in desert. She hears the other women call Shirah a witch, but she understands wickedness and evil and knows that Shirah isn’t either of these things.

Revka believed she had been cursed when she was assigned to work in the dovecotes because she had to collect the birds’ waste. She cried herself to sleep that night. In the morning, her grandson Levi led her to the wall to watch the doves fly. She realized...