Epitaph from the Tombstone of Rebecca Henriquez da Costa
Rebecca Henriquez da Costa
1771
On the day of my abundant joy
illness suddenly overcame me
Birth pangs and rupture
overwhelmed me
I gave birth and died, like a blossom
I turned away
And the fruit of my womb was
brought with me to the grave
Woe alongside joy, birth pangs
alongside song was what I brought
My kin mourned for me, as did all passers-by
You who pass by, if you have a…
Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Already have an account?
You may also like
Months and Days
[ . . . ] And we get out of their way; we move in the opposite direction, toward where they’ve come from, toward Petroshi.And you see, they do not forbid it. And it may be that in Petroshi, where they…
Tombstone (Padua)
Tombstone of Shifra Tamari (d. 1565), Padua, Italy. In the early modern period, most Jewish tombstones in Italy were Italian Renaissance in style. Hebrew epitaph poems, like the one on this gravestone…
The Book of Jerusalem Journeys
In 1930, Chaim Elazar Shapiro (Spira), the Hasidic rebbe of Munkacs, Czechoslovakia (today, Mukachevo, Ukraine), traveled by rail to Vienna and Trieste and by ship to Alexandria, where he and his…