![]() When he won’t give up his faith, he’s traded to the brutish lout Joseph, who is renowned for working his slaves to death. He is auctioned as a slave to the head of the local convent, Sister Assunta, who is bent on converting him to Christianity. Meanwhile, far away in Malta, Isaac is worried about Hannah’s safety, having heard tales of the terrifying plague ravaging Venice. ![]() There is nothing Hannah wants more than to see the handsome face of the loving man who married her despite her lack of dowry, and who continues to love her despite her barrenness. Despite the Rabbi’s protests, she knows that this money can release her husband, Isaac, a merchant who was recently taken captive on Malta as a slave. Moreover, she cannot turn down the enormous fee offered by the Conte. Hannah cannot turn away from a labouring woman again. The Rabbi once forced her to withhold care from her shunned sister, Jessica, with terrible consequences. But Hannah’s compassion for another woman’s misery overrides her concern for self-preservation. Moreover, as her Rabbi angrily points out, if the mother or child should die, the entire ghetto population will be in peril. Not only is it illegal for Jews to render medical treatment to Christians, it's also punishable by torture and death. ![]() When a Christian count appears at Hannah's door in the Jewish ghetto imploring her to attend his labouring wife, who is nearing death, Hannah is forced to make a dangerous decision. Hannah Levi is known throughout sixteenth-century Venice for her skill in midwifery. ![]()
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