Asenath Barzani: The First Known Woman Rabbi

Israel in Translation

Asenath Barzani, from the Iraqi Kurdistan region, was the first known woman rabbi in Jewish history. Born in 1590, she was the daughter of the eminent Rabbi Shmuel b. Netanel Ha-Levi of Kurdistan. Her father, a scholar and mystic with a large following, aimed to rectify the plight of his brethren, namely, the dearth of educated leaders. He built a yeshiva in Mosul where he hoped to train young men who would become community leaders and scholars. Since he had no sons, he trained his daughter to be a learned scholar of the highest order.

After Asenath's father died, her husband technically became the head of the Yeshiva, but in fact it was Asenath who taught the students who had come for rabbinic training. But she also wrote poetry in Hebrew and was famous for it. Today we'll spotlight some of her poetry.

Text:

Asenath’s Petition, translated by Peter Cole in The Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present. Edited by Shirley Kaufman, Galit Hasan-Rokem, and Tamar S. Hess. New York: The Feminist Press, 1999.

The Kurdish Project

Music:

Kurdit by Reuven Yamin