Known as the wisest and holiest woman in Kurdistan, (see side bar on Kurdish Jewry) seventeenth century Osnat (Barazani) Mizrachi was not only renown for her Torah wisdom but both Jews and non-Jews sought her aid because of her miraculous healing powers. Considered one of the rare humans who knew the secret pronunciation of Yud Keh Vav Keh, Osnat was addressed by the title, Tanna’it, the female appellation of Tanna, reserved for sages whose views were recorded in the Mishna, fifteen hundred years earlier. Since that time, no male, let alone female had been honored with that title.
Osnat’s Roots
Osnat Mizrachi was born Osnat Barazani in 1590 in Mosul in Southern Kurdistan. Mosul, considered today Iraq’s third largest city is situated on the west bank of the Tigris river opposite the ancient city of Ninveh.
The surname Barazani is derived from name of the region Barazan in Kurdistan from whence this family seems to have originated. Osnat’s paternal grandfather, Rabbi Nathanel HaLevi Barazani was a prominent dayan who owned a large library of books and mansucripts which was quite rare in Kurdistan.
Many legends abound about him and his son, Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Barazani who were scions of the most prestigious rabbinical family in Kurdistan. A number of these stories are recorded in the 23rd volume of the Yale Judaica series entitled the Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews: An Anthology. Dr. Yona Sahar, a Kurdish Jew and professor at UCLA translated them from Hebrew and Suriyani (neo-Aramaic) and annotated them.
Osnat’s father, Rabbi Shmuel ben Nathanel HaLevi Barazani established yeshivas all over Kurdistan including in Barazan, Akrah, Mosul and Amadiyeh. His disciples filled Rabbinical and other Torah positions in many Jewish communities. He was known for his famous saying “Any community that does not have a Beis Medrash is as if it had no G-d.”
Although many Kabbalistic seforim written by Rabbi Shmuel Barazani have been lost, among his manuscripts that have survived are Avnei Zikkaron on the laws of shechita, Sefer HaIyyun, Sefer Derishot and Sefer Charuzot. A number of his piyyutim and special Yom Tov tefillos have been incorporated into the liturgy of Kurdish Jewry.
During his life Rabbi Shmuel Ben Nathanel Halevy was described as a saint and angel, whose face exuded radiance, comparable to that of Adam Harishon. Non-Jews as well as Jews mourned his passing. His grave in Amadiyeh became a place of pilgrimage.
Osnat’s relationship with her father
Since Rabbi Shmuel Barazani did not have any sons, and this particular daughter, Osnat proved to be exceptionally brilliant, he chose to raise her to become a great Torah scholar. Rabbi Barazani taught her the secrets of the Zohar which he himself had mastered, as well as all the other Torah subjects including Gemorrah. Osnat became known as a Beki’ah Bashas.
Rabbi Shmuel Barazani excused this daughter from doing any domestic chores, insisting her life be only devoted to Torah and to her spiritual growth.
Documents regarding this most unusual female Torah scholar were found in the Cairo Geniza,(see sidebar} as well as in Kurdish amulets and it is from these sources we glean particulars about her extraordinary life.
“Never in my life did I step outside my home, ” she writes about herself. “I was a princess of Israel. I was raised by scholars: I was pampered [not through physical but spiritual sustenance] by my late father who taught me no art of craft other than heavenly matters.”
Osnat’s Super Natural Powers
Osnat’s close relationship with Hashem which her Kurdish coreligionists perceived to be magical, gave birth to a legend about her white pet dove.
There was a nest, just outside Osnat’s front door which a white dove had built. Once while Osnat’s dove was soaring towards the heavens, a hunter shot and killed it. The children in the area came running to view the dead bird that had fallen to the ground. The poor embarrassed hunter brought the dead bird to Osnat and begged her forgiveness.
Osnat took the dead bird from him, entered her house and closed the door behind her. Several minutes later, a fluttering was heard and out flew the bird from her home right back into its nest. Osnat had been able to give life back to the bird. It was said that Osnat not only watched over her dove, but the dove guarded her as well.
Osnat supernatural powers are related in many amulets. One story describes Osnat as not only being very wise but also very beautiful. Once she was hanging laundry to dry on her rooftop. A Gentile spied on her and was taken with her beauty. He began to stalk her, climbing up toward her room. Sensing the danger, Osnat’s dove wailed out a foreboding cry. Osnat rose just in time to find the man outside her window. She immediately placed a spell on the intruder by pronouncing a holy incantation. The intruder suddenly found himself hanging from the beams of Osnat’s roof, frozen in place.
The following morning the townspeople who had gathered around the odd spectacle approached the man attempting to remove him. But lo and behold, no one could penetrate Osnat’s spell and as a result the male intruder continued to be suspended in a frozen state.
After several days had passed, and the Wali (governor) had heard about the occurrence, he came to Osnat and begged her to free the suspended man. She refused saying “Had he only intended to steal my possessions, I would have done nothing. But the man intended to do an evil deed to me and this is the result.”
The governor then promised her that if she would set the sinning Gentile free, he would punish him properly and hang him publicly. She acquiesced to his request. To the amazement of all the townspeople, Osnath removed her spell and set him free, after which, true to the Wali’s word, the culprit was hung from a tree.
Tannait Osnat as the wife and later widow of a Talmid Chochom
Rabbi Shmuel Barazani’s yeshiva attracted Talmidei chochomim from as far away as Egypt and the Holy Land. But when it came to choosing a Chosson for his daughter, he took his own nephew, his prize student Yaakov ben Yehudah Mizrachi Amedi (from the city, Amediya a two day’s walk from Mosul).
Osnat’s father stipulated at the vort that his daughter not be distracted from her spiritual growth by performing domestic duties. Her chosson and first cousin complied with these wishes. Osnat did not cook, bake or engage in the multi colored handiwork of Kurdistani women.
Tannait Osnat writes that since her husband, a great Talmudic scholar, was involved in his Torah learning and did not have time to teach the rabbinical students, she would teach them in his stead. She also composed a commentary on the Book of Mishlei which unfortunately has been lost.
Rabbi and Tananit Mizrach had two children, a son, Shmuel and a daughter. After Osnat’s father passed away, her husband became the head of the yeshiva. Osnnat’s husband died while her children were still small, and so Tannait Mizrachi headed the yeshiva in Mosul till her son was old enough to take it over. It has been related that she requested of Hashem that her menses cease since she wanted to learn in purity. Her wish was granted.
Documents show letters written by her late husband before his dealth appealing for help to support the yeshiva. It seems that a number of donations were made but as a result of the dangers of the road, the money did not reach the family. Thereafter, donors were reluctant to send more funds.
Tannait Mizrachi lived in abject poverty. She describes how because of her debts, her home and belongings were confiscated and she nevertheless continued to teach Torah She believed, she stated, it was inappropriate for her as a woman to travel in search of financial support and she beseeches in letters that people be so kind as to send her aid.
Here is a translation of part of her letter found among the treasures of the Cairo Geniza. She describes how her debtors pursued her:
“And now let me share my own problem with you, They caught me and hit me… They sent an edict with agents who took over my house and they sold everything– my clothes and my daughter’s clothes. They even took the books that were before me! And then they told me that I owed them one hundred grush. I have no place to run or find shelter. Only from your mercy and the mercy of G-d .Please for the sake of the grave of my [late] father and the Rabbi (Osnat’s husband) that their Torah may not be abolished and their names will not disappear from the congregation. Only I remain to teach and preach the Torah.
And this is my problem: I fell into debt as a result of the interest that I mentioned before and I have nothing to sell. I don’t have a grown son or a messenger who can solicit for us in the community, and it is not the custom of a woman to solicit in the community. Her honor is to be a daughter of a king sitting on a throne, wearing gold and rubies.
.Osnat’s Magic Saves People
Tannait Osnat was bombarded by people who came from all over to benefit from her magical healing powers Women who wished to conceive were blessed with children after visiting her and many people who were at death’s door were given a new lease on life.
After her father, Rabbi Samuel died, he often came to his daughter in dreams. He would reveal dangers to her and tell her how to ward them off, saving many lives. On one Rosh Chodesh, as a result of her father’s visit to her in a dream, , she encouraged the Jews of Amadiyah to celebrate the day outdoors,.
As the Jews proceeded with the celebration, they began screaming because of the flames they witnessed shooting up into the air. The synagogue obviously had been set on fire, but fortunately because the congregation had been outdoors, no one had been hurt inside.
When she saw the flames rising, Tanna’it Osenath whispered a secret name that she had learned from her father. The congregation then noticed a flock of angels descending to the roof of the synagogue. The angels began extinguishing the fire by beating the flames with their wings, until every last spark had been put out. Then they rose up into the sky like a flock of white doves and were gone. After the smoke had cleared, the community realized another miracle had taken place: the synagogue had not burned. Not a single letter of any of the Sifrei Torahs was touched by the flames. In gratitude to Tanna’it Asenath, the Jewish community renamed the synagogue after her.
Till her passing at the age of eighty, in 1670, Tannait Osnat continued to teach Torah. Her descendants have followed in her footsteps. In fact one of the piyutim recited regularly on Sukkos by Kurdish Jews was composed by her “ainikel” Rabbi David Barazani..
Sidebar on Kurdistan
Kurdistan is first mentioned in the Torah, and identified as Harei Ararat where Noach’s Tevah rested, in Bereishis 8:4. The mountains of Ararat are translated by Targum Unkelos as Turei Kardu, the mountains of Kurdistan.The Gemora (Bava Basra 91a) relates that Avraham was imprisoned for seven years (out of his ten year term) in Kardu.
Kurdistan which means “land of the Kurds” in Persian, was an area in northern Mesopotamia which today spans the mountainous area of four countries, Northern Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
According to Kurdish Jewish tradition, when Assyrian kings exiled the Jews from Eretz Yisrael in 722 BCE, they were relocated to these mountains.
In his twelfth century diary, Benjamin of Tudela describes the large population of Jews in Kurdistan. He as well as Petachiah of Ratisbonne, another traveler, report that the Jewish population of Amidya or Amadiya was 25,000. They both describe the Jewish communities throughout Kurdistan as being well established with many rabbonim and shuls. The city of Mosul’s Jewish population at the time was 6000 according to Petahia and Benjamin of Tudela claimed 7000. The persecution of the Jews by the crusaders had resulted in many Jews fleeing to Kurdistan
However when the Jewish poet Yehudah Alcharizi came to Kurdistan in the thirteenth century, he indicated that the spiritual level of the communities was not that high and there was much ignorance of Torah. It seems that the general massacres in the area by Mongol conquerors affected their Torah growth.
Once the Turks were victorious against the Persian rulers in 1535, and Kurdistan came under the Ottoman empire, there was a certain measure of stability in the Jewish community. Many Jews would take pilgrimages during Shavuos which was called ed zyara, festival of pilgrimage to the kevorim of the prophets, Nachum in Alqosh, Yonah in Nineveh and Daniel in Kirkuk. There were several local caves that Kurdish Jews believed had been visited by Eliyahu Hanavi and they also frequented them.
The Yemenite Jewish traveler, Yahya (Zecharya) al Zahiri visited several major towns in Kurdistan — Abril, Kirkuk, Mosul Nisib, and Urfa. He found in Urfa (Ur Kasdim) the two columns from which according to local tradition Avraham was cast into the furnace.
Documents and manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza enlighen us about Kurdish Jewry during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which period Osnat Barazani Mizrachi features.
In the following centuries there were messengers from the Holy Land who would sell graves to Jews in Kurdistan consisting of four cubits in the Land of Israel. The messenger would give the buyer a signed document, stating that he was fortunate to own a grave in the Land of Israel and the buyer would treasure it and then upon his death his relative would bury it with his body in Kurdistan
In modern times, when Jewish settlement began in the Land of Israel, the Jews of Kurdistan were the first of the Near Eastern communities to move there. Most settled in Jerusalem in the quarter known as Machane Yehuda, which market till this days is predominantly composed of Kurdish Jewry.
In 1981 The Israel Museum in Jerusalem published in Hebrew a catalogue in conjunction with its exhibit on Kurdish Jewry. The exhibit showcased illuminated manuscripts, ceremonial and ritual objects as well as amulets,clothing metalwork and jewelry of Kurdish Jews. Twenty years later the Israel Museum published in English The Jews of Kurdistan, Daily Life, Customs , Arts and Crafts which 271 pages are replete with photographs of the many items that had been on display at the original exhibit.
There are various Kurdish Jewish records preserved in Tehran in the Iranian Parliament Records Archives.An article entitled “Tehran’s Unmined Archive of Kurdish Jewry, a Field Report”, discussing this very important archive is found in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies. In its footnotes, its author, Mustafa Dehqan provides the scholar with a number of important sources in several languages on this fascinating Jewish community which, sadly, is rapidly disappearing.,
The Cairo Geniza
The word Geniza comes from the Persian word Ganj or Kan meaning “hoard” or hidden treasure similar to “Ginzei Hamelech” mentioned in Megillas Esther. A special hoard of sheimos, seforim kedoshim or pages that contained Hashem’s name were first stored in the attic of the Ibn Ezra Shul in Fustat in Old Cairo probably as a first step to it eventually being buried.
The Ibn Ezra Synagogue, which according to local tradition was the site where Moshe Rabbeinu was found as a baby, was named after Avraham Ibn Ezra who purchased the land for the shul in 882 C.E. for 20,0000 dinars. (He is not to be confused with the Torah commentator who lived three centuries later.)
The second step never took place –we are not sure why– but the Genizah with its more than 300,000 documents in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic ( Arabic written in Hebrew characters) lay dormant for one thousand years till they slowly came to light, beginning in the 1890s.
It is interesting to note that in addition to seforim, and pages containing Hashem’s name, which we are mandated to bury, items that were not holy but were written in the Hebrew alphabet were stored in the Cairo Geniza as well. This included business contracts, wills, letters of correspondence and even grocery lists!
Since the nineteenth century these documents have been analyzed by scholars in academic libraries in Jerusalem, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, New York, Princeton, and Philadelphia
It is these documents that contributed much to our knowledge of Jewish history.
In this Ibn Ezra shul where the Rambam davened one thousand years ago, were found his handwritten letters and manuscripts! Among his letters were one written to Yafeth ben Eliyahu in Acco in which he describes the terrible tragedy of his brother David’s drowning in the Indian Ocean, leaving a young daughter and widow in his care. He writes that it is eight years since his brother died and he is not yet consoled.
Not until correspondence between Chisdai Ibn Shaprut and a King of the Khazar was discovered in the Cairo Geniza did we have documentary proof that the cover ion of an entire kingdom including its King Bulan in Khazaria actually took place.
It is from the Cario Geniza that we also learn about the Tannait Osnat Barazani Mizrachi.