Leah Horowitz
Encyclopedia
Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah Horowitz, (1715?–1790?), known as Leah Horowitz, was a rabbinic and kabbalistic scholar, who wrote in Yiddish
. She was the author of Tkhinne imohes (Supplication of the Matriarchs). She lived in Bolechów
, Poland
.
of Brody
. Horowitz was one of some seven children. Three of her brothers were rabbi
s, of whom the most eminent was Isaac (known as "Itsikl Hamburger", 1715–1767), rabbi of Hamburg
, Altona
, and Wandsbek
. There was also a sister, named Pessil. There is some doubt about the identity of another brother and sister. As the sister of eminent brothers, Leah disproves the old canard
that the only educated women in her time were the daughters of learned rabbis who had no sons.
Leah's early life was spent in Bolechów, in Polish Galicia (now Bolekhiv
, Ukraine
), where her father was the rabbi. When he became rabbi of Brody in 1735, his son Mordecai succeeded him as rabbi of Bolechów. Leah remained in Bolechów, continuing to live as a young married woman in the home of her brother. Her husband at this time was Aryeh Leib, son of the rabbi of Dobromyl
, Ukraine; later she was married to Shabbetai ben Benjamin ha-Cohen Rappoport, rabbi of Krasny
, Russia. It is unknown whether she had any children.
, Horowitz studied the Talmud
with commentaries and also read some kabbalistic
works. The memoirist Ber of Bolechów reports that when he was a boy of twelve, Leah helped him prepare for his Talmud lesson with her brother, the rabbi Mordecai. "She would begin to recite the words of Talmud or Rashi by heart, in clear language, explaining it well as it was written there, and I learned from her words. And when the rabbi awoke from his sleep, I knew how to explain the passage in the Talmud to him properly." In the same passage, Ber refers to her as "the learned and famous Mistress Leah, of blessed memory". Other authors also knew of her reputation for learning. The anonymous work Sefer Ozar Sihot Hakhamim describes her as "a great scholar, well-versed in the Talmud" and recounts her Talmudic discussion with another learned lady, Dinah, the wife of Saul Halevi (chief rabbi of The Hague
from 1748 to 1785).
Although very few Eastern European Jewish women before the nineteenth century have left writings, Leah was the author of the Tkhinne of the Matriarchs, an eight-page, trilingual prayer for the Sabbath before the New Moon. (As is often the case, the place and date of publication are not mentioned in most of the printed editions.) The work contains a Hebrew introduction, a piyyut
(a liturgical poem) in Aramaic
, and a Yiddish prose paraphrase of the poem. This text, which has historical importance as one of the few extant works written by an eighteenth-century Eastern European Jewish woman, testifies that its author was far more learned than the norm. (Another work, Tkhinne Moyde Ani, has been erroneously attributed to her.)
Leah Horowitz was passionately concerned with the religious place and role of Jewish women and she was keenly aware of her own anomalous status as a learned woman. She addressed these issues explicitly in the Hebrew introduction to her tkhinne, and by implication in the Aramaic piyyut and the Yiddish paraphrase. Leah was concerned to establish the legitimacy of her own involvement in "Torah study", that is, in Talmudic and halakhic
discussion. Furthermore, this is perhaps the only pre-modern text in which an Ashkenazic
woman discusses the significance of women's prayer, the proper way for women to pray and the circumstances under which women should and should not submit to their husbands' authority. However, Leah's arguments were largely lost to her contemporaries. After the first few editions, the Hebrew introduction and the Aramaic piyyut were no longer printed, leaving only the Yiddish portion of the text. Presumably, most women could not read Hebrew or Aramaic, while most men were not interested in reading a tkhinne by a woman, even if a portion of it was in the Holy Tongue
.
Nonetheless, in her Hebrew introduction Leah argues that women's prayer has the power to bring the messianic redemption if women learn to pray "properly". She states further that because women's prayer can bring the redemption, women should pray in synagogue every day, morning and evening, and she laments the fact that this is not the practice in her day. Leah has a kabbalistic understanding of prayer: true prayer is not for human needs, but for the reunification of the sundered sephirot (divine attributes) of Tiferet and Shekhinah
. Because most women have little knowledge of mystical literature and concepts, Leah's purpose in writing this text is to teach women without specialized knowledge how to pray properly, that is, for the sake of the redemption of the Shekhinah from her exile, with weeping. Following kabbalistic sources, Leah attributes great power to tears.
Elaborating on what was already a focus of women's piety, the blessing of the new moon in synagogues, she provides a framework that she believed could bring redemption. In the Yiddish portion of her text (accessible to her female readers), Leah laments the bitterness of the exile and names the New Moon as a time of favor. The protection of each of the four biblical matriarchs is invoked. The central model she presents is the midrashic trope of the children of Israel going into exile, weeping at Rachel
's grave. Rachel, a common symbol for the Shekhinah, then entreats the Holy Blessed One (Tiferet), with tears, to redeem the Israelites from their exile. He is so moved by her plea that He agrees to bring the redemption. Leah suggests that women in her day should follow the example of the children of Israel, and of "our faithful Mother Rachel". Together with Leah's images of the other matriarchs, her Yiddish tkhinne, like her introduction, combines an appreciation of women's traditional roles with an assertion that women have far more spiritual power than is usually recognized.
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
. She was the author of Tkhinne imohes (Supplication of the Matriarchs). She lived in Bolechów
Bolekhiv
Bolekhiv is a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast of Ukraine. It is designated into a self-administrated city district of oblast subordination...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Background
Horowitz was the daughter of Jacob Yokl ben Meir Ha-Levi Horowitz (1680–1755) and Reyzel bat Heshl. Her father was a member of the famed kloizSynagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
of Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
. Horowitz was one of some seven children. Three of her brothers were rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s, of whom the most eminent was Isaac (known as "Itsikl Hamburger", 1715–1767), rabbi of Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Altona
Altona, Hamburg
Altona is the westernmost urban borough of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864 Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Altona was an independent city until 1937...
, and Wandsbek
Wandsbek
Wandsbek is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes here. The quarter Wandsbek, which is the former independent city, is urban and, with the quarters Eilbek and Marienthal part of the...
. There was also a sister, named Pessil. There is some doubt about the identity of another brother and sister. As the sister of eminent brothers, Leah disproves the old canard
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
that the only educated women in her time were the daughters of learned rabbis who had no sons.
Leah's early life was spent in Bolechów, in Polish Galicia (now Bolekhiv
Bolekhiv
Bolekhiv is a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast of Ukraine. It is designated into a self-administrated city district of oblast subordination...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), where her father was the rabbi. When he became rabbi of Brody in 1735, his son Mordecai succeeded him as rabbi of Bolechów. Leah remained in Bolechów, continuing to live as a young married woman in the home of her brother. Her husband at this time was Aryeh Leib, son of the rabbi of Dobromyl
Dobromyl
Dobromyl is a city in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located at around , some 5 kilometers to the border with Poland. Population: 5,000 ....
, Ukraine; later she was married to Shabbetai ben Benjamin ha-Cohen Rappoport, rabbi of Krasny
Krasny
Krasny , Krasnaya , or Krasnoye may refer to:People*Michael Krasny , several peoplePlaces*Krasny, Russia , name of several inhabited localities in Russia...
, Russia. It is unknown whether she had any children.
Childhood
Even as a young woman, Leah was renowned for her exceptional learning. In an era when many women did not learn to read, and those who did rarely learned more than the rudiments of HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Horowitz studied the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
with commentaries and also read some kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
works. The memoirist Ber of Bolechów reports that when he was a boy of twelve, Leah helped him prepare for his Talmud lesson with her brother, the rabbi Mordecai. "She would begin to recite the words of Talmud or Rashi by heart, in clear language, explaining it well as it was written there, and I learned from her words. And when the rabbi awoke from his sleep, I knew how to explain the passage in the Talmud to him properly." In the same passage, Ber refers to her as "the learned and famous Mistress Leah, of blessed memory". Other authors also knew of her reputation for learning. The anonymous work Sefer Ozar Sihot Hakhamim describes her as "a great scholar, well-versed in the Talmud" and recounts her Talmudic discussion with another learned lady, Dinah, the wife of Saul Halevi (chief rabbi of The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
from 1748 to 1785).
Although very few Eastern European Jewish women before the nineteenth century have left writings, Leah was the author of the Tkhinne of the Matriarchs, an eight-page, trilingual prayer for the Sabbath before the New Moon. (As is often the case, the place and date of publication are not mentioned in most of the printed editions.) The work contains a Hebrew introduction, a piyyut
Piyyut
A piyyut or piyut is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Piyyutim have been written since Temple times...
(a liturgical poem) in Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
, and a Yiddish prose paraphrase of the poem. This text, which has historical importance as one of the few extant works written by an eighteenth-century Eastern European Jewish woman, testifies that its author was far more learned than the norm. (Another work, Tkhinne Moyde Ani, has been erroneously attributed to her.)
Leah Horowitz was passionately concerned with the religious place and role of Jewish women and she was keenly aware of her own anomalous status as a learned woman. She addressed these issues explicitly in the Hebrew introduction to her tkhinne, and by implication in the Aramaic piyyut and the Yiddish paraphrase. Leah was concerned to establish the legitimacy of her own involvement in "Torah study", that is, in Talmudic and halakhic
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
discussion. Furthermore, this is perhaps the only pre-modern text in which an Ashkenazic
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
woman discusses the significance of women's prayer, the proper way for women to pray and the circumstances under which women should and should not submit to their husbands' authority. However, Leah's arguments were largely lost to her contemporaries. After the first few editions, the Hebrew introduction and the Aramaic piyyut were no longer printed, leaving only the Yiddish portion of the text. Presumably, most women could not read Hebrew or Aramaic, while most men were not interested in reading a tkhinne by a woman, even if a portion of it was in the Holy Tongue
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
Nonetheless, in her Hebrew introduction Leah argues that women's prayer has the power to bring the messianic redemption if women learn to pray "properly". She states further that because women's prayer can bring the redemption, women should pray in synagogue every day, morning and evening, and she laments the fact that this is not the practice in her day. Leah has a kabbalistic understanding of prayer: true prayer is not for human needs, but for the reunification of the sundered sephirot (divine attributes) of Tiferet and Shekhinah
Shekhinah
Shekinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, especially in the Temple in Jerusalem.-Etymology:Shekinah is derived...
. Because most women have little knowledge of mystical literature and concepts, Leah's purpose in writing this text is to teach women without specialized knowledge how to pray properly, that is, for the sake of the redemption of the Shekhinah from her exile, with weeping. Following kabbalistic sources, Leah attributes great power to tears.
Elaborating on what was already a focus of women's piety, the blessing of the new moon in synagogues, she provides a framework that she believed could bring redemption. In the Yiddish portion of her text (accessible to her female readers), Leah laments the bitterness of the exile and names the New Moon as a time of favor. The protection of each of the four biblical matriarchs is invoked. The central model she presents is the midrashic trope of the children of Israel going into exile, weeping at Rachel
Rachel
Rachel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife...
's grave. Rachel, a common symbol for the Shekhinah, then entreats the Holy Blessed One (Tiferet), with tears, to redeem the Israelites from their exile. He is so moved by her plea that He agrees to bring the redemption. Leah suggests that women in her day should follow the example of the children of Israel, and of "our faithful Mother Rachel". Together with Leah's images of the other matriarchs, her Yiddish tkhinne, like her introduction, combines an appreciation of women's traditional roles with an assertion that women have far more spiritual power than is usually recognized.