My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland

Sefer Mitzvot Nashim (Eyn Schoen Frauenbuechelein) by Rabbi Benjamin Slonik was the most popular of the Yiddish books written for Jewish women in the 16th century to explain how the women’s mitzvot, (niddah, taking of hallah and candle lighting) were to be observed First printed in 1577 in Cracow, the text was reprinted many times and also translated into Italian. It has a very intimate style and begins: “My dear Daughter, see and mark well what I am teaching you here”, incorporating much ethical and didactic literature. Although there had been opposition in the past to the popularization of the laws for women in Yiddish for fear that women would ignore their rabbis’ instructions, Slonik, pupil of both the Rema and the Maharshal, saw the importance of women understanding the details of the laws that applied to them. He even says that sometimes ignorance of the law led to unnecessary stringencies. Edward Fram, senior lecturer at Ben Gurion University, has produced a splendid and illuminating volume. The second part gives the entire Yiddish text on facing pages with its English translation. The first expertly discusses the history of halakhic handbooks, the implication of printing for literacy, women’s education and the roles of Jewish women at the time of Slonik’s writing in Eastern Europe, and shows how Slonik incorporated the recently published Shulhan Arukh. This is a wonderful book that makes accessible a valuable primary source and puts it in context for the modern reader.