Leah Horowitz

Sarah Rebecca Rachel Leah (Sore Rivke Rokhl Leye) was born to Reyzl bat Heshel and R. Jacob Yukil Horowitz (1680–1755, of the well-known Horowitz family) in Bolechów, Poland. Most information about Leah, as she is often known (though sometimes as Sore), comes from Ber of Bolechów’s Hebrew memoir, which describes her as “famous” and very learned; she frequently helped him, a young student of her first husband, with his Talmud studies. Leah’s erudition is evident in her Tekhine imahos (Women’s Supplication of the Matriarchs), which has talmudic, halakhic, and kabbalistic citations, including material from the Zohar. In 1742, Leah moved to Glogau, eventually settling in Krasny (Ukraine) with her second husband, R. Shabbetai ha-Kohen Rappaport. Leah’s tekhine was printed in many editions with Yiddish summaries of her Hebrew introduction and Aramaic piyyut (liturgical poem) included in the original; these were generally absent in later printings likely because most Ashkenazic women could not read these languages.