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.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
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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, had a substantial Jewish community in the modern era and was a center of Jewish cultural and religious life in the Baltic. The Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn resided there for several years in the late 1920s before relocating his court; Riga was also the birthplace of the scholars Nechama and Yeshayahu Leibowitz.
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, Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, 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, Martin Buber, Jacob Nachum Epstein, Chaim Heller
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Nechama Leibowitz’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.