Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo

Two hundred years ago, when Eretz Yisroel was still under the Ottoman Empire (which official language was Turkish) and Hebrew had not yet been revived as a spoken tongue, it was exceedingly rare for a female to be literate in Loshon Hakodosh. Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo, who penned beautiful Hebrew sonnets in the 1800s in Trieste, was one such outstanding woman and is considered to be the first Hebrew poetess in Modern Jewish History.

Born on April 8th, 1790, in Trieste, (today Italy) Rachel grew up in what was then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Eight years before her birth, Joseph II had promulgated the famous Edict of Toleration, affording religious freedom to the Jews and with it the slow exodus of Jews from the ghettos.

After Vienna, Budapest and Prague, Trieste was considered the fourth largest city in the empire as well as a cultural center for music and literature.

Rachel Luzatto, whose parents were both Luzzattos was a great niece of the famous author of Mesilas Yesharim, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, known as the Ramchal. Rachel’s mother, Bracha Luzzatto was a granddaughter of Baruch Luzzatto, a brother of the Ramchal. The Luzzattos were a very prominent Italian rabbinical family . (See sidebar) Rachel’s paternal grandfather, Reb Yitzchok Luzzatto was a medical doctor and a poet. Her father Baruch Luzzatto together with his cousin and brother-in-law Chizkiah Luzzatto (her mother Bracha Luzzato was Chizkiah’s sister) owned a lithography business. Lithography, which means writing with stone, was invented in the early nineteenth century, when Rachel was still a young girl. Rachel’s father and uncle capitalized on this new invention which enabled the mass production of paintings as well as of books that were already printed. They became turners using lathes for their new thriving business producing lithographs.The lathe is a tool, that was used as far back as ancient Egypt, Assyria, Greece and during the Roman and Byzantine Empires. This once primitive tool would rotate a workpiece on its axis to perform a number of tasks such as cutting (see picture) .

It is interesting to note that the Trieste Haggadah published in 1864 by Avraham Vita (Chaim) Morpurgo (see sidebar about the Morpurgo family) is the only early Haggadah that contained illustrations produced by lithography. It cotains 58 original copper engravings from the artist K. Kirchmeyer, including biblical scenes which had not previously appeared in illustrated Haggadot.

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Raised in a comfortable home, Rachel, who as far as we know had one sibling named David, had the luxury of spending time growing intellectually. At age twelve Rachel studied the Tanach with her mother’s brother, David, and was then introduced to the commentaries of Metzudot David and Metzudat Zion as well as to the Chovos Halevavos of Rabbi Bachya Ibn Pakuda.

Rachel’s uncle David never married and upon his death, bequeathed to his nephew (Rachel’s brother) a huge library of Seforim. Rachel would spend hours studying these seforim. With private teachers she studied Rashi on Tanach and Meorat HaMa’or by Yitzchak Aboav. When she was only fourteen she began studying Talmud Bavli with a prominent Mantua Rav, Rabbi Ben Nadiv. Rachel completed with him the entire Massaches Megillah as well as parts of other tractates.

She also studied the Sefer Reishis Chochmo composed by the sixteenth century Kabbalist Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas. With her uncle Chizkiah Luzzatto, an eminent Talmudist, she studied Gemorrah and math.

In addition to learning lithography and the craft of turnery on a lathe, she was a skilled seamstress and would sew her own clothes as well as those of her mother and later on of her only daughter, Perela.

She became very close to her younger cousin, Shmuel David Luzzatto, who was ten years her junior and had lost his mother when he was only fourteen. Her mother Bracha Luzzatto was a sister to Shmuel David’s father Chezkiah. Both worked together as turners in the printing business with their fathers. They would spend hours together discussing the numerous seforim, they enjoyed perusing in the huge library that Rachel’s brother had inherited.

The Shadal, as Shmuel David Luzzatto was later to become known, would eventually become a Rosh Yeshiva for the Rabbinical School in Padua,Italy. He would always credit his love of Torah to her influence and considered her, his mentor.

Rachel, who was a female would have a different role to play as wife and mother and enjoyed her Torah lessons as enrichment for her soul.

By the time Rachel turned twenty-six, however, she had not yet married and was refusing to meet with any of the prospective shidduchim her parents brought her. She wanted to marry only one person, a young businessman (whom she probably met in the context of her family business) by the name of Yaakov Morpurgo, who hailed from Gorizia, Slovenia. Gorizia was an Austrian town, 22 miles miles northwest of Trieste.

Rachel’s parents were against the Morpurgo shidduch. They believed she could get a better catch, perhaps a wealthy Italian rabbinical scholar, as opposed to some Austrian businessman from a middle class family.

Shmuel David Luzzatto who picked up on the frustration of his aunt and uncle with respect to their daughter Rachel’s refusal to meet other prospective shidduchim, addressed to Rachel a poem in Hebrew. In it he beseeches her to accommodate her parents and consider meeting with other men to see if they were compatible. A talented poet, David only a year earlier had published 37 Hebrew poems at the young age of 15 which were eventually to make up “Kinor Na’im.”

In her charming Hebrew response in the form of a sonnet, Rachel explained that she wasn’t interested in meeting anyone else. She believed that she had the same Torah values as Yaakov (Morpurgo) and insisted that she would marry only him, no one else, not even the Mashiach,

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One would imagine that since Rachel was so adamant about her not marrying anyone else, her parents would yield and consent to the shidduch. Perhaps had they known that members of the same Morpurgo family would soon establish Assicurazioni Generali, which would eventually become the largest insurance company in Europe and second to the largest in the world, they might have been less opposed to Rachel’s marrying him.

Sadly it took them almost three more years to finally agree to Rachel’s zivug. Only three weeks before she turned 29, on March 15, 1819, they took her under the chuppah with her future spouse, Yaakov Morpurgo.

The following is a Hebrew poem Rachel composed in honor of her wedding:

In this poem and many others Rachel writes about Machiach and the Beis Hamikdash for which she yearns that it be rebuilt.

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Rachel and her husband Yaakov had four children together, three sons and a daughter Perla. While busy raising her children and doing housework she would find time in the evenings and on Roshei Chodoshim when she would not work, to compose poetry.

Extremely modest, she would sign her poems, Rachel Morpurgo HaKetana, which acronym was ReMaH, worm.

After more than a quarter of a century had passed, Shmuel David Luzzatto, Rachel’s cousin, learned in 1847, that a Hebrew literary journal had been established in Vienna, Austria, by a Reb Mendel Stern. The journal was called Kochvei Yitzchok.

The Shadal, decided to submit to this new journal, the wonderful Hebrew sonnet Rachel had composed for him thirty years earlier, when he was only a teenager, insisting she would only marry Yaakov. This poem was so well received in Austria, Germany and Italy it launched her career. The Shadal would receive poems from Rachel and then forward them to the journal for publication without initially revealing who she was.

The majority of Rachel’s poems were composed for specific events, Her poem “The Events of the Times,” was inspired by the Austrian Revolution of 1848. She notes the disaster and ruin the war had evoked and expressed her hope that Hashem would bring Mashiach soon.

She composed a poem in honor of Moses Montefiore’s journey to Jerusalem in 1855 when Montefiore’s entourage passed through Trieste. At age 65, she offered to accompany Moses Montefiore and his wife Judith to Jerusalem and be an aid to Judith on their journey but it was not to be.

That same year Rachel wrote about a cholera epidemic that broke out then. Four years later, she wrote about a comet that was seen in the skies.

Rachel created a poem thanking her doctor for operating on her finger. She also composed a poem in honor of the female judge and prophetess Devorah.

During the nineteenth century, there was a halakhic discussion regarding the possibility of sacrificing the Passover offering on the Temple Mount, even without the existence of the Bais HaMikdash itself, This discussion was expressed in one of Rachel’s poems with a “Mi she-Berakh” type prayer in which she expressed her hope that this would soon come to pass.

Another poem by Rachel lauded the bibliophile and poet Joseph Almanzi of Padua who spent the last two years of his life from 1858-1860 in Trieste. Joseph Almanzi was the oldest son of Baruch Chayim Almanzi, a wealthy merchant who had purchased the outstanding library of the CHIDA, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, from the latter’s son, Raphael Yishaya, at Ancona. This library was largely expanded by Joseph Almanzi, with rare editions and manuscripts of seforim. Joseph frequented the Morpurgo home when he lived in Trieste and consulted Rachel on literary matters.

Several rabbis were also the subject of poems by Rachel. She wrote of Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi, Dayan in Trieste, as well as his son-in-law. She also wrote a eulogy commemorating the death of Rabbi Sabbato Graziadio Treves, Chief Rabbi and dayan of that city who passed away in 1856, Fourteen years earlier Rabbi Treves had delivered a sermon in honor of Emperor Ferdinand’s birthday on April 21, 1840. It was published in Trieste, specially for the occasion.

In another poem written by Rachel, in honor of the birthday of another rabbi of Trieste, Rabbi Meyer Randegger, she refers to Flora Randegger (1780-1853) the rabbi’s daughter as having translated the Pesach Hagaddah into Italian. The Hagaddah, printed in 1851 and again in 1853, is believed to have been the first translation of the Haggadah into Italian in Latin characters.

Flora Randegger’s father had the Haggadah published in Vienna without printing his daughter’s name on the cover. It was only after Rachel’s poem was published that the public discovered the translation was actually the work of a woman.

Six of Rachel’s poems were in the form of riddles. One she composed for her cousin Tamar Luzzatto, who was the wife of the rabbi of Padua, Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Gherondi (1799-1852) author of Toledot Gedolei Yisrael, and an avid collector of Hebrew manuscripts. Rachel’s riddle was called Kapos Temarim and the solution was the Lulav, branches of palm trees.

Rachel’s mastery of the Hebrew language, her rhymed and metered poetry combined with her quotes from Tanach Gemorrah and Hebrew literature led readers to believe they were penned by a man. In one poem she referred to herself as a “dead dog” a quote she gleaned from Sefer Shmuel I chapter 24 verse 15. She used the Talmudic expressions “Tafach Ruchi Alai” and “Pelech” (spindle) referring to aphorims that there is no wisdom to women except the spindle (Talmud Bavli Yoma 66b) She also alludes to poetry by the Spanish Shlomo Ibn Gabirol.

In a poem she penned in 1866 entitled “Anaseh ach HaPa’am,” “I will try once again… to depart from the kitchen to compose poetry.” She dramatized her ongoing conflict between the traditional feminine role in the home and her spiritual and literary goals….

Once her identity was revealed an outpouring of letters came praising her poetry. Rachel responded by asserting that her intention was not to have her voice heard but rather that the Torah be made great.

Rabbi Israel Furth, Rav of Straskonig commended her on her resolve to write, pointing out that insofar as most women were interested in jewels she desired to devote her time to Torah and learning. Moshe Finkelstein from Jassy wrote to Kochvei Yitzchak that he had been totally overcome by Rachel’s poems, claiming that she was queen to Hebrew writers. Rabbi Joseph Levi Gatinnara, Chief Rabbi of Casale beckoned all to observe the “Miracle of Hashem” as he alluded to Rachel.

One teacher by the name of Hermann Boss, wrote in to the Kochvei Yitzchok journal, drawing a parallel between Jacob and his wife Rachel Morpurgo and Yaakov our forefather who worked on behalf of Rachel for seven years.

Nine poems appeared in Kochvei Yitzchak in honor of Rachel.

At the age of seventy-five, Rachel suffered a stroke. Nevertheless, she continue to compose poems and write letters. She passed away at the age of 81 in 1871. She had been in the midst of composing a poem and the last word she had written was Hashem. The epitaph on her tombstone had been composed by her when she was only eightteen.

In 1890, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of her birth, Fifty of Rachel Luzzatto Morpurgo’s poems were published in Cracow under the title Ugav Rachel (Rachel’s Flute) by Rabbi Chaim Castiglioni, a student of the Shadal. Rabbi Castiglioni who was to become chief rabbi of Rome in 1903 includes in this publication a biography of Rachel and some of the manuscripts he obtained from her daughter Perla.

Neither Perla, nor her three brothers, all who were businessmen ever married. Rachel Luzzato Morpurgo never merited to have grandchildren. It is only her wonderful poetry that remains of her legacy.