Studies in the Weekly Parashah (Iyunim)
Jerusalem
נל
Nechama Leibowitz
Nechama Leibowitz
1905 CE–1997 CE · Modern · Riga
Nechama Leibowitz (1905-1997) was the greatest Torah pedagogue of the 20th century — and the most widely studied female Torah scholar of any era. Born in Riga, she made aliyah in 1930 and taught at Mizrachi Teachers' Seminary, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University. From 1942 she produced her weekly Gilyonot — single-page study sheets on the parsha sent by post to subscribers worldwide. Over five decades she sent out roughly 3,500 gilyonot and personally graded the returned answers of 20,000+ correspondents.
Her Studies in Bereshit / Shemot / Vayikra / Bamidbar / Devarim — compilations of her gilyonot with Rishonim/Acharonim commentary analysis — became standard reference for any serious student of Mikra. She received the Israel Prize for Education in 1956. Her famous instruction to obituary writers: 'Please write only — Nechama Leibowitz, teacher.' Sister of Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz.
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Stop 1 of 31905–1919Born
RigaריגהLatvia
What they did here
Born in Riga into an observant family (sister of Yeshayahu Leibowitz).
About Riga
Riga, the capital of Latvia, was founded in 1201 as the seat of the bishop of Livonia, joined the Hanseatic League in 1282, and was later ruled by Sweden (1621-1710) and the Russian Empire (1710-1917); its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The chemist Wilhelm Ostwald was born there and taught at the Riga Polytechnic. Riga had a substantial Jewish community: the Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn lived there in 1927-29 and 1930-34, and the scholars Yeshayahu and Nechama Leibowitz were born there. Under Nazi occupation its Jews were forced into a ghetto, and some 24,000 Latvian Jews were murdered at Rumbula in 1941.
In Riga at the same time
Across the traditions, in Riga at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Nechama Leibowitz’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Dovid Tzvi Hoffman, Bernhard Jacobsohn, Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, Julius Theodor, Eduard Baneth, Minhat Yehuda, Zelig Reuven Bangis, Rav Kook, Moshe Mordechai Epstein, Imrei Emes, Yehuda Leib Chasman, Isser Zalman Meltzer, Yaakov Chaim Sofer (Kaf HaChaim), Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, Yechiel Michel Tukatchinsky, Yisrael Zev Mintzberg, Tzvi Pesach Frank, Yitzchak Isaac Sher