Bella Perlhefter

Beer Eybeschütz adopted the more prominent family name of his wife, Bella bat Jacob Perlhefter. Beer, a follower of the Sabbatean Abraham Rovigo (ca. 1650–1713), was among his close circle in Modena. Becoming disillusioned, he returned to Germany, teaching Hebrew at the Altdorf court of the Christian Hebraist Johann Christoph Wagenseil (1633–1705). The couple’s Be’er sheva (Well of the Oath) is a Yiddish-language ethical work by Beer with an introduction by Bella, who writes that, after finding consolation in her husband’s words on the death of their seven children, she urged him to commit them to writing for the benefit of a wider audience.