Al Reguel Ajat

Tevilat Kelim is the halachah that regulates the immersion of culinary utensils in a mikveh. It originates in the Torah, in Numbers 31, when God commands Moses to wipe out the Midianites, a pagan people who were spreading their idolatry to the Hebrews. After the battle, Moses instructs the warriors to purify themselves and do the same with “all garments, leather articles, goat products, and wooden vessels.” And verses 21-23 say, “Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, ‘This is the statute of the law that God has commanded Moses (referring to the spoils of war): Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead, everything that can withstand fire, will pass through the fire and will be clean, but it will be purified with water for impurity. But everything that cannot withstand fire will be passed through water.”

The Mishneh, in tractate Masechet Avodah Zarah, interprets this passage as follows: Whoever buys a utensil from a pagan (“haoved cochavim,” one who worships the stars), one that is normally immersed in water, must be immersed; one that is normally boiled, must be immersed in boiling water; one that is normally heated in fire until red-hot, must be heated in fire. And the Gemara says: And all require immersion in forty seahs (the amount of water).

The Shulchan Aruch, in tractate Orach Chaim, in chapter 37, lists the rules regarding Tevilat Kelim, including the blessing that must be said upon doing so. And these rules go into detail: for example, they distinguish what must be done depending on the material from which they are made, as glass and metal utensils are immersed, but wooden ones are not. This also applies to items purchased and/or made by pagans. (are dipped) or by Jews (are not dipped), or whether they were purchased (are dipped) or only borrowed (are not dipped). And they explain that not all culinary utensils must be dipped, among other things.

And the rules of the Shulchan Aruch were later further expanded by Orthodox religious authorities. The website Halachipedia lists more than 40 rules for Tevilat Kelim: it specifies in detail the procedure for dipping, when to say the blessing, which utensils require dipping, what to do with disposable utensils or electrical ones like a toaster or coffee maker, or when we buy food packaged in glass and consumed directly from the container, such as soft drinks or fruit juices. Furthermore, these sites no longer mention utensils made by idolaters, but simply by anyone who is not Jewish.

The Conservative Rabbis’ Law and Standards Committee, after a unanimous deliberation, concluded that Tevilat Kelim is not required, at least that the object is suspected of having been made by an idolater, as would be the case with a vessel from ancient Rome. They conclude that it is practically impossible to know who made the utensil, that they are now made by mixing materials that may or may not require immersion, and that the rule was for warriors and not for the entire people. In contrast, Orthodox Judaism is adding new and increasingly detailed rules. The result is an extremely complex tangle of rules that are difficult to follow. And this happens when we forget the true meaning of the commandment.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Resolution of the Conservative Rabbis’ Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, article on Tevilat Kelim from Halachipedia, and other sources.

It is written in the Talmud, in tractate Eruvin 13B: “Rabbi Abba reported that Shmuel said: For three years, Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreed. These (Beit Shammai) said: Halacha is in accordance with our opinion, and those (Beit Hillel) said: Halacha is in accordance with our opinion. Finally, a Divine Voice arose and proclaimed: Both these (those of Shammai) and those (those of Hillel) are the words of the Living God.”

Rabbi Shlomo Luria, known as the Maharshal (1510–1574), explained his approach to study and teaching thus: “I always strove to seek out, down to the last source, the origin of some halacha, a search which I used to discuss with my colleagues and students. I would sometimes spend up to a week in deep research and reasoning until I found the root of the matter, finally to write it down in my book. And I always had the habit of citing all the opinions of the sages who preceded me, according to their rank of authority, in addition to the decisions and rulings of those who compiled the responsa, in order to avoid suspicion of plagiarism or the reproach that I had overlooked the opinion of some great authority.”

And Luria said, without fear, publicly: «Do not pay attention to the decisions of those who dare to define the laws, when most of them have only read the Tur Orah Hayyim of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, as if the opinion of this rabbi had been transmitted to him directly from the mouth of Moses on Mount Sinai.» In this sense, Luria went so far as to question the opinions of his own father, Rabbi Jehiel Luria. And Joseph Caro himself, the creator of the Shulchan Aruch, was not spared from his criticism, whom he accused of having occasionally expressed superficial opinions in his effort to harmonize conflicting laws, as well as of having sometimes based his decisions on the reading of texts that were not faithful to their original.

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells us: “One of the Talmud’s greatest contributions to Judaism is its indeterminacy, its frequent refusal to establish a single law. Talmudic discussions consist mainly of opposing positions, often without a clear decision as to which point of view is correct.” And Luria said that the Kabbalists explained the origin of these differences of opinion in the fact that every Jewish soul was present at Sinai and that each understood the Torah from its own perspective, according to its intellectual capacity, its nature, and the uniqueness of each.

Lopes Cardozo comments: “For the past five hundred years, great rabbis have questioned the overwhelming authority of Yosef Karo’s Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. They felt that these works do not reflect authentic Judaism and its halachic tradition. The reason is obvious: These great codes of Jewish law go against the spirit of Judaism. They present Halakha in ways that oppose the heart and soul of the Talmud and Judaism itself. They deprived Judaism of its halachic tradition of being multifaceted. The problem is not the works themselves, but rather this desire to codify and finalize Jewish law, to present a Judaism with a single face.”

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: The Jewish Encyclopedia, Nathan Lopes Cardozo: “The In-Authenticity of Codifying Jewish Law.”

Shabbetai Tzvi ben Mordechai was born in Smyrna on July 23, 1626, the 9th of Av on the Jewish calendar. He studied Talmud at the Yeshiva of Rabbi Joseph Escapa. He was not drawn to the study of Talmud, but rather to mysticism and practical Kabbalah. At that time, it was believed that the Messianic era was imminent, an idea promoted by groups of English Christians with whom his father had contact, as he was the representative of an English company.

These ideas, coupled with calculations based on the Zohar, influenced Shabbetai’s restless mind, and at the age of 22, he proclaimed himself the Messiah before a group of followers, whom he had convinced with his knowledge of Kabbalah, his personality, and his strange behavior. The rabbis of Smyrna expelled him from the community. He arrived in Constantinople, where he met Abraham Ha-Yakini, a preacher who helped confirm his messianic dreams. To this end, Ha-Yakini prepared a manuscript, imitating the ancient writing style, in which he declared that in the year 5386 (1626), a son would be born to Mordechai Tzvi, who would be called Shabbetai and would be the true Messiah. With this forged document, Shabbetai went to Salonika, where he again proclaimed himself the Messiah to new supporters, impressed by his mystical tricks, such as «marrying the Torah.» The rabbis of Salonika expelled him, and after traveling through several cities, he arrived in Cairo, where he met Raphael Joseph Halavi, a wealthy Jew from Aleppo who, despite his wealth, led an ascetic life. Halavi used his fortune to help young Talmudic and Kabbalah scholars and soon became one of the most enthusiastic promoters of Shabbetai’s messianic plans.

Shabbetai decided to go to Jerusalem. There, he recruited new followers through a theatrical display: singing psalms all night, praying at the tombs of pious sages, mortifying his body with fasting and other penances, and even weeping profusely. Shabbetai returned to Cairo, where he learned the story of Sarah, a Jewish girl who had been a victim of the Chmelnitsky pogroms in Poland. Sarah was rescued by nuns and imprisoned in a convent, from which she escaped and ended up living in Amsterdam, where she led a rather eccentric life until the idea occurred to him that she was destined to be the bride of the Messiah. Shabbetai decided to send for her to marry her. As his wife, Sarah’s charm helped him gain more followers. On the way to Jerusalem and passing through the city of Gaza, he met Nathan Ghazzati, who became his confidant and assumed the role of the prophet Elijah.

With Halavi’s money, a charming wife, and many followers, he arrived in Smyrna in the fall of 1665, where he publicly declared himself the long-awaited Messiah. This took place in the synagogue, with the sound of the shofar and a crowd shouting «Long live our king, our Messiah!» His popularity grew incredibly rapidly, and his fame spread to many countries.

He went to Constantinople, where he hoped to be crowned the Messiah, but was imprisoned by the Turkish authorities. Even while in prison, his movement grew in strength, which worried the Turks, who eventually brought him to trial. Someone advised him that the only thing that could save his life was to convert to Islam. And Shabbetai did so. The disappointment among his followers was enormous. Shabetai was another of those false leaders whom people believe.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Article by Kaufmann Kohler and Henry Malter and other sources.

Midrash is the way sages explain difficult-to-understand biblical texts. One of the best-known is the Midrash Rabbah, composed of 10 collections, one of which is the Midrash Eicha, or Lamentations. Poem 24R of this midrash, based on Jeremiah 31:15 and narrated by Rev. Shmuel ben Nahman, seems to be written like the script for a play:

The scene: The heavenly court after the destruction of the Temple. The characters, in order of appearance: Abraham Avinu, the Angels, God, the Torah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Rachel. The plot begins when Abraham appears before God, his garments torn and with ashes on his head, walking through the ruins of the Temple, lamenting and weeping.

Abraham: “Why have we been treated differently than all other peoples, that we have come to this shame and contempt?”

The Angels: “King of the Universe, the covenant made with the patriarch Abraham is broken, through which man acknowledges that You are God, the Creator of heaven and earth. You have despised Jerusalem and Zion, despite having chosen them. Have you rejected Judah?”

God: “Why these funeral dirges?”

The Angels: “For Abraham, Your friend who came to Your house and mourned and wept, why is he indifferent to You?”

God: “Because the day he left for his eternal home, he did not come to My house.”

Abraham: “Why have you exiled my children and handed them over to pagan nations who have exposed them to all kinds of unnatural deaths and destroyed the Temple, the place where I was to sacrifice my son Isaac?”

God: “Your children have sinned and violated the entire Torah and its twenty-two letters.” Abraham: “Who is the one who testifies that Israel has transgressed Your law?” God: “Let the Torah come and testify against Israel.”

The Torah appears. Abraham to the Torah: “Do you remember the day when God wanted to give you to many nations and none would accept you, until my children came to Mount Sinai and accepted you and honored you? And now you come to testify against them?” When the Torah heard this, it did not bear witness against him.

Abraham to God: When I was 137 years old, did you not ask me to sacrifice my son Isaac?

Isaac: “When my father took me, was I not willing to let myself be bound and even stretched out my neck under the knife?”

Jacob: “Did I not work for twenty years in Laban’s house, and when I returned, Esau was ready to kill me and my children, and I risked my life for them?”

Moses: “Was I not a faithful shepherd of Israel for 40 years, and I ran after them like a horse in the desert. But when my time came to enter the Land of Israel, You decided that my bones should be scattered in the desert.”

Moses: “You wrote in Your Torah: ‘Whether it is a cow or a sheep, you shall not kill it and its child in the same day,’ for they have killed many mothers and their children in the same day, and You have remained silent.

All to God: Do You not remember all this on our behalf, so that You will have mercy on our children?”

Rachel: God, do You remember that Jacob loved me, but my father chose to give him Leah instead? I had compassion on my sister and taught her the signs so that Jacob would not realize it was her.” I even lay under his bed, and when he spoke to her, I answered in his place. If I was able to overcome my jealousy so as not to shame my sister, why are You jealous of false gods that aren’t even real? How can You allow Your jealousy to cause Your children to be killed and exiled?

And God was moved by Rachel’s argument and said, «For you, Rachel, I will restore the House of Israel to its place. The exile will one day come to an end.»

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Poem 24r of the Midrash Eicha Rabbah, based on Jeremiah 31:15.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born in Prague, today the capital of the Czech Republic and then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents were middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His father, Hermann Kafka, emigrated from Ozek, a Czech town with a significant Jewish population. Although Franz’s parents spoke the western dialect of Yiddish, pejoratively called Mauscheldeutsch, the “Moses German,” they eventually substituted it with German and Czech.

His parents were not very observant Jews and attended synagogue only on major holidays and celebrated the Passover Seder at home only. The limited Jewish education Franz received ended when he celebrated his bar mitzvah. Kafka completed his primary education in 1893 at an all-boys German school and attended high school at the Imperial Secondary School located in the Kinsky Palace on Old Town Square. In 1901, he entered the University of Prague, where, urged by his father, he completed his law degree in 1906. It was there that he met Max Brod, who became his closest friend throughout his life. In 1908, he began working in the legal department of an insurance company, a position that also allowed him to write.

The tense relationship he always had with his father shaped his almost nonexistent Jewish identity in his youth. In “Letter to His Father,” he wrote: “Judaism hasn’t saved me from you either. In itself, on that ground, it would have been possible to conceive of salvation, but even more so, it would have been possible to conceive that in Judaism we would both find ourselves, or, even more, emerge from it together. But what kind of Judaism did you bequeath to me! As a child, I, like you, reproached myself for not attending the temple regularly enough, for not fasting, etc. I didn’t believe I was doing myself any injustice, but rather an injustice to you, and my ever-vigilant conscience tormented me. You went to the temple four days a year; there you were, at best, closer to the indifferent than to those who took things seriously; you performed the prayers as a matter of formality, … and, furthermore, as long as I was in the temple—that was the main thing—I could slip away wherever I wanted.”

Kafka was influenced not only by his relationship with his father, but also by the antisemitism of the Czechs. In 1897 and 1920, he witnessed two violent pogroms and saw how the authorities had to protect the Jewish population. But in 1911, his attitude toward all things Jewish began to change when he met Yitzhak Lowy, a Yiddish theater actor. He liked his performances so much that he attended every one of them that year. He soon became interested in Jewish mysticism and religion, and especially in Zionism. His contact with this group of Jewish actors was like a conversion to Judaism. It was then that he met Dora Diamant, a Jewish girl from a Hasidic family, who became the love he had always yearned for. However, his plan to emigrate to the Land of Israel with Dora was thwarted in 1917 when he suffered the first symptoms of tuberculosis. Before his death in 1924, he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his writings. Fortunately for everyone, he ignored him. Today, the term «Kafkaesque» is applied to situations that are very complex, bizarre, or illogical. Franz Kafka undoubtedly had a «Kafkaesque» Jewish identity.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Walter H. Sokel «Kafka as a Jew,» Encyclopaedia Judaica, and other sources.

Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) was the king of Macedonia from 336 BCE until his death. During his reign, which lasted only thirteen years, he expanded his empire to include countries as distant as India and Egypt, including the Land of Israel. He founded the city of Alexandria in 331 BCE, in a strategic port region in the Nile Delta. His conquests not only completely changed the political structure of the area, but also ushered in an era of extraordinary cultural exchange, in which Greek culture spread throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Greek became the language of the empire.

Upon Alexander’s death, his generals divided the empire, and Egypt fell to Ptolemy. Under Ptolemy, Alexandria became the cultural center of the ancient world. He built the famous «Temple to the Muses,» the «Museion,» from which the word «museum» comes. As part of the temple was the Great Royal Library of Alexandria, which would become the largest library in the world at that time. Great scholars such as Archimedes, Euclid, and Galen settled in the city, and at one point there were 14,000 students among its residents.

The Bible records that Jews began settling in Egypt after Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem (586 BCE) and the assassination of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25-26). Years later, Jewish immigrants settled in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period, attracted by its religious tolerance and vibrant cultural life. In his books, Flavius ​​Josephus recounts that Ptolemy, after conquering Judea, took 120,000 Jewish prisoners to Egypt. Many other Jews followed them, since in Alexandria, Jews enjoyed full civil rights like any Greek citizen, but remained an independent and autonomous political community. Historians estimate that 40% of Alexandria’s population was Jewish.

It was during this time that Hellenistic Judaism began its development. One of the main cultural contributions of the Jews of Alexandria was the Septuagint, the first Greek translation of the Bible, commissioned by Ptolemy II, who commissioned 72 scholars who were fluent in both Hebrew and Greek. Legend has it that Ptolemy placed the 72 scholars in separate rooms and told each one: «Write for me the Torah of Moses, your teacher.» Legend has it that all the translations were identical. With the Septuagint, the Jews of Alexandria, who only spoke Greek, had access to Jewish sources. But these Hellenistic Jews, who had been educated in Greek culture, interpreted the Bible differently.

Some of them, most notably Philo, explained the Holy Scriptures through the lens of classical Greek philosophy: the precepts of the Torah had to be understood using logic and reason and had to be universal and immutable truths. It was no longer enough to say that the Jewish commandments were valid only because they had been commanded by God. And Philo, through symbolism and allegory, somehow demonstrated that the laws of the Torah complied with the Greek way of thinking. Ultimately, he sought to teach the Greeks the values ​​of Judaism, and he ended up teaching the Jews Greek values.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Jewish Encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Judaica, lecture by Christine Hayes

and other sources.

Professor David Biale comments that, since there is no central authority in Judaism, many popular beliefs, simply because they are mentioned in rabbinic literature, seem to have the approval of the rabbis, as is the case with magic and the existence of demons, themes frequently found in Jewish folklore.

It is written in Deuteronomy 18:10-12: “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices divination, or a sorcery, or a soothsayer, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord your God will drive out those nations from before you.”

There is virtually no mention of supernatural beings in the Bible, but they are mentioned in the Talmud, especially in the Babli, since in Babylon, for example, belief in demons was deeply rooted among the local non-Jewish population. We see in Tractate Berachot 6a: «Abba Benjamin says: If the eye had the power to see them, no creature could endure the demons. Abaye says: They are more numerous than we and surround us like the ridge around a field. R. Huna says: Each of us has a thousand in his left hand and ten thousand in his right hand. Raba says: The crushing of the crowd at Kallah lectures comes from them. The fatigue in the knees comes from them. The weariness of the scholars’ clothes is due to rubbing against them. The bruise of the feet comes from them.» Talmudic literature rarely goes into detail about what demons and magical creatures are like, or whether they are truly independent beings or simply psychological realities. In Kabbalah, however, the descriptions are much more detailed. Recently, Rabbi Yacob Menashe, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, wrote: “The holy Zohar tells us that when Shabbat ends, great bands of evil spirits fly around the world. That is why we recite the Mizmor «Yosheb Besether Elyon» (Psalm 91) after the Amidah at the end of Shabbat, because it has the power to drive these spirits away. The Zohar tells us that when evil spirits see pious people reciting prayers, psalms, and Habdalah, they flee.”

Conservative and Reform Judaism do not believe in demons. For them, God is transcendent, so there is no room for other supernatural powers. For the Orthodox, however, who maintain that the Talmud is the Oral Torah that Moses received on Mount Sinai along with the Written Torah, they do exist. For example, in Sefer Raziel, a book of spells and magical practices widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East, the story is told that the angel Raziel revealed divine secrets to Adam after his expulsion from Paradise to help him cope with life outside the Garden of Eden, the same secrets he later also revealed to Abraham. David Biale says: “The fact that this book of magic was known to almost all Jewish communities demonstrates that religious folklore was as popular as rabbinic laws.” Hell!

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: David Biale: “The Norton anthology of world religions. Judaism.” Articles by Rabbi Yacob Menashe, Jay Michaelson, Rabbi Louis Jacobs, and Adam Kirsch.

Sigismund Schlomo Freud (1856–1939) was born in Freiberg, Moravia, part of the Austrian Empire. His parents were originally from Galicia, a region in northwestern Ukraine. His family moved to Vienna when he was three years old. Freud lived in that city for virtually his entire life. In 1881, he graduated with a medical degree from the University of Vienna. In 1886, he married Martha Bernays, the granddaughter of Isaac Bernays, the chief rabbi of Hamburg. The couple had six children. In 1938, Freud left Vienna to escape the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom. Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology.

By the time Freud was born, his parents were already less observant of Jewish law and rituals than they had been when they lived in their villages in Galicia. Yet, Freud’s home was rich in Jewish culture and religion. The Jewish scriptures were the primary instrument of Freud’s education until he attended school at the age of nine. His social life also took place primarily within a Jewish framework. The first to hear his ideas on psychoanalysis were the members of his B’nei B’rith group, a Jewish service organization.

For Freud, the most important element of Judaism was the «prohibition against making an image of God.» Therefore, the Jew’s relationship with God took place in his mind, in his intellect, what he called «Geistigkeit.» The Jew speaks, argues, requests, thinks, imagines, and reasons with a God who has neither form nor name. And they do it all in their mind. This contrasts with other religions that approach God primarily through the senses, where He does have an image, a name, and a ceremony where you can see, hear, touch, smell, and even taste the divine. Freud said that this difference between the intellectual and the sensorial marked the Jewish character for more than two thousand years.

Freud said that, for Jews, believing that God chose them to fulfill a special role in the world helped them maintain their self-esteem, despite the adverse conditions they endured due to the deep anti-Semitism that prevailed at that time, especially in Germanic Europe. He also said that what truly made a person Jewish was not believing in a monotheistic god, eating kosher food, circumcising one’s sons, or any other number of uniquely Jewish beliefs, practices, or inclinations. According to Freud, a person is Jewish simply because they inherit «the traces of memory and experience of their ancestors.»

Freud once wrote: “I can declare that I am as far removed from the Jewish religion as from all others. They don’t attach the slightest sentiment to me. On the other hand, I have always had a powerful sense of community with my people, which I have also nurtured in my children. We all still belong to the Jewish faith.” Freud had Judaism in his veins.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Sigmund Freud, “Moses and Monotheistic Religion.” Articles by Eliza Slavet, Lydia Flem, and Mark Edmundson.

“Tsene-rene” is a book written in Yiddish by Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, around 1590. The text is based on the structure of the “parashot” of the Torah, the weekly sections into which the Torah is divided, mixed with texts from the Talmud, especially the Agadah and the Midrash. The name comes from a verse in the Song of Songs (3:11) which in Hebrew says: “Tzena Urena banot Zion,” “Go forth and see, O daughters of Zion.” On its cover, in addition to the title, it explains that it contains: “The Pentateuch in the language of Ashkenaz (Yiddish), the five “megillot” (The Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Lamentations), and the Haftarot, portions of the books of the prophets.”

The Tsene-rene has been published in over 200 editions. The current one is under the English title «The Weekly Midrash.» Because it was originally written in Yiddish, the book was very popular, especially among those who did not speak Hebrew, the «sacred» language. This group included women, who, by principle, were not taught the language of the Torah, although they did know its alphabet, allowing them to read Yiddish, the Jewish language of Eastern Europe.

 Adam Kirsch explains: “By the title alone, the book was aimed at a female audience. Any Jew who couldn’t read the Bible in Hebrew could approach it through the Yiddish Tsene-rene. Many Jewish children absorbed Bible stories through their mothers reading them aloud. But Tsene-rene is not a simple translation of the Bible; if it were, it might never have become so popular. What Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi produced, instead, was a free paraphrase and interpretation of the five books of Moses, drawing on numerous sources, with the idea of ​​giving the reader a picture of how Jewish tradition understood the text.”

Kirsch says: “The Tsene-rene is a didactic book whose aim is to draw moral lessons from the biblical text. It is especially interested in using the women of the Bible as models of feminine virtues. The lives of the matriarchs, Eve and Miriam, are used to demonstrate the values ​​of Jewish tradition and instill them in the reader. This was not easy, as many biblical narratives present women in a negative light. Such as the story of Adam and Eve, created from a rib while he slept. The Tsene-rene explains it this way: «God made Adam sleep to teach us that a man should not constantly fight with his wife. If he sees her doing something he dislikes, he should pretend he didn’t see it and act asleep.» The sleeping Adam becomes the model husband, for he knows when to close his eyes. The Tsene-rene also explains that «woman is, by nature, stronger than man, having been created from a bone, while man was created from dust that dissolves easily.» In another story from Genesis, the Tsene-rene offers a description of Sarah kneading the dough for matzah, the day before Passover, although Passover, the festival of Jewish liberation from Egypt, was not instituted for hundreds of years.

 The author of the Tsene-rene projected the Judaism he knew, with all its rituals, back to the time of the matriarchs. They simply could not imagine Jewish life any other way.» The Tsene-rene, the first Jewish feminist book, put women front and center.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Adam Kirsch, “The People and the Books.” Jacob Elbaum, Chava Turniansky “Tsene-rene”

Glückel of Hameln was born in Hamburg in 1646. When she was twelve, her parents engaged her to Haym of Hameln, whom she married two years later. Over time, Haym became a successful businessman in Hamburg. They had fourteen children, twelve of whom survived. In addition to fulfilling her duties as a mother and wife, Glückel was actively involved in the family business, so much so that when her husband was asked on his deathbed if he wished to leave any final instructions or advice, he replied: «I have no instructions. My wife knows everything about the business. Let her continue doing it as she has done until now.» Haym died in 1689. Eleven years later, Glückel married Hertz Levy of Metz, the city to which they moved. Hertz drained the family fortune, and upon his death in 1711, Glückel was left in utter poverty, dependent on the support of one of her daughters and her son-in-law.

Glückel began writing her memoirs, in Yiddish, two years after Haym’s death, to «banish the melancholic thoughts she had during many sleepless nights and to be able to pass on to her children the stories of their parents’ lives.» Java Turniansky tells us: «The first chapter is an introduction to her spiritual world, a kind of manifesto of the faith, beliefs, aspirations, motives, and opinions of this pious and God-fearing Jewish woman, where she addressed themes from the field of Mussar, the Jewish movement of morality and ethical teachings.» In the introduction to the first chapter, Glückel wrote the following story:

“A bird tried to cross a sea with its three chicks. The sea was so wide and the wind so strong that the father bird was forced to carry its young, one by one, in its strong talons. When it was halfway across with the first chick, the wind turned into a gale, and it said, “My child, look how I am struggling and risking my life for you.” When you are older, will you do the same for me and provide for me in my old age?» The chick replied, «Just take me to a safe place, and when you are old, I will do anything you ask.» At that moment, the father bird threw his son into the sea. He drowned, and the father said, «This is what is done to a liar like you.» Then the father bird returned to the shore, came out with his second son, asked him the same question, and upon receiving the same answer, drowned the second son with the cry, «You are a liar too!» Finally, he set off with the third chick, and when he asked the same question, the third and last chick replied, «My dear father, it is true that you are fighting mightily and risking your life for me, and I would be wrong if I did not return this to you when you are old, but I cannot commit myself. However, I can promise you this: when I grow up and have children, I will do as much for them as you did for me.» Then the father bird said, «You have spoken well and wisely, my son, and I will spare your life and bring you safely to shore.»

From her diary, we know that Glückel had a traditional Jewish education. From her personal reading, she not only gleaned dozens of stories and parables that she included in the text, but also the foundations of her worldview and her Judaism. It is also a historical testimony of what the Jewish world was like at that time. The diary of Glückel of Hameln is more than her personal history.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Java Turniansky: “Glückel of Hameln”