Image Details

Photo by Alinari/Art Resource, New York, N.Y.

ON THE COVER: In the apocryphal Book of Tobit, the angel Raphael guides pious Tobit and his son Tobias through a maze of challenges to restore them to health and happiness. Grateful, Tobias and Tobit entreat their supposed relative to accept part of their newly acquired fortune. The artist Giovanni Biliverti (1576–1644) shows Sarah, Tobias’ wife, and Anna, Tobit’s wife, on the right, seemingly unaware of the event nearby. Amy-Jill Levine, in “Tobit—Teaching Jews How to Live in the Diaspora,” argues that the Book of Tobit, like this artist, marginalizes the women in the story.