The Yiddish book, Meneket Rivkah, “The Nursemaid of Rebecca”, was likely the first book written by a Jewish woman. This book of ethics for women, first printed in 1609, is often talked about, but this edition now makes it accessible to English speaking readers. Frauke von Rohden provides a Yiddish text with a separate English translation and detailed scholarly commentary as well as an extensive introduction. This gives us an understanding of the life and times of Rivkah bat Meir, often known as Rivkah Tiktiner, and shows us how the book relates to other books of ethics and morals directed at women. She concludes that in many instances this text presents a uniquely positive view of women and female piety. The title of the book is a play on the author’s name and refers to the phrase in Genesis 35:8 which notes the death of Rebekah’s nurse, Devorah, who traveled with her mistress when she left her home to marry Isaac. There is something of the unraveling of a mystery story as Dr. von Rohden traces what we know of this important writer and her book, how it was first printed posthumously, was studied and written about by Christian Hebraists in the early 18th century and was even the subject of a dissertation in Latin. She describes how the two extant copies were rediscovered; one, now in the German University of Erlangen from the Prague 1609 edition, and one from the second edition, published in Cracow in 1618, which is in the JTS library in New York. Interestingly, the memorial book of the Altneushul in Prague refers to Rivkah Tiktiner as “Rabbanit,” and it is unclear whether this means “female rabbi” or “female teacher” (on the title page of the book, she is referred to as the darshanit, or “female interpreter”). It is clear from the memorial book entry, and as well from the text of her tombstone in the Old Prague Cemetery that this exceptional woman was highly esteemed as a teacher and preacher during her lifetime. To quote from the printer’s introduction to the first edition in 1609:
Whoever has ever heard of or seen such a novelty; has it ever happened in countless years, that a woman has written something of her own accord… (She) named the book Meneket Rivkah to be a commemoration for herself and in honor of all women. It shows that a woman can also compose works of ethical instruction and good biblical interpretations as well as many men.