Nehama Leibowitz, Teacher and Bible Scholar (review)

Yael Unterman's recently published volume, Nehama Leibowitz, Teacher and Bible Scholar, is a welcome addition to the series "Modern Jewish Lives." Leibowitz (1905–1997), an extraordinary woman who paved the way for women to be full participants in the discourse of Jewish textual study, is certainly worthy of a comprehensive biography.

Nehama, as the volume, following its subject's own preference, refers to her throughout, was a pioneer in her day. Arriving in Israel in 1930 with a doctorate in biblical studies, a decade of teaching behind her, and newly married to her uncle, Yedidyah Lipman Leibowitz, she immediately immersed herself in teaching. Initially, Nehama taught in the Mizrahi teachers' seminary in Jerusalem, but her fame grew as she began crafting individual worksheets on the Torah portion of the week, which were mailed to anyone who requested them. These worksheets were tackled by students and teachers, farmers and soldiers, waitresses and nurses, judges and laborers throughout the yishuv (Israel's pre-state Jewish community). Subscribers, religious and non-religious alike, enjoyed the weekly challenge and eagerly looked forward to receiving comments from the master herself. For over three decades, while teaching in seminaries and kibbutzim, in universities and in small groups in her home, Nehama diligently corrected devotees' answers, never tiring of this weekly personal correspondence.

Her questions were often provocative, articulating those a modern Jew might raise while perusing the weekly portion. Was Sarai justified in harassing Hagar, who provided Avram with a child? What is the true nature of a man of faith? To what extent must man be responsible for his fellow man? What were the leaders' roles (and responsibilities) in the sin of the golden calf? Why were sacrifices deemed a valuable form of worship? To what end were the chosen people chosen? These issues (and hundreds more) were hammered out through rigorous analysis and close study of biblical, rabbinic and modern exegetical sources. By laboring over Nehama's worksheets, students were assured acquaintance not only with the classic Jewish thinkers and writers of centuries gone by, but also with thinkers, writers and exegetes who informed the Jewish and general cultural milieu of her time.

For those who were privileged to know and study with her, Nehama was a giant—a woman scholar whose knowledge was as vast as it was deep; a charismatic teacher who captured one's attention and maintained it easily; a commanding presence whose classroom became her stage. Yet everyone present in that classroom had an active part to play, and each of her numerous students is convinced of having had his/her own direct relationship with Nehama.

Yael Unterman, who holds degrees in psychology, Talmud, Jewish history and creative writing, defines her biography of Nehama as an "act of collective memory." Admitting never to have studied with Nehama herself, she delves copiously into sources both primary (Nehama's own writings) and secondary (books and articles recently published on Nehama's methodology, pedagogy and educational philosophy). Mostly, however, she depends upon a vast number of interviews that she enthusiastically carried out with Nehama's students—generations of teachers and scholars, rabbis and educational leaders, whose memories of Nehama are clearly etched in both their personal and their professional lives.

Unterman succeeds in capturing Nehama's memorable personality, and in reconstructing her classroom and the lively discussions that took place there. The reader—scholar and non-professional alike—can appreciate Nehama's humility, admire her sharp mind (and tongue) and enjoy the humor that so characterized the rich repertoire of lessons and the countless individual encounters portrayed here.

Nehama's worldview, or her view on the world, as her older brother, philosopher and scientist Yeshayahu Leibowitz, would have it, is well drawn. The reader discovers Nehama's position on core issues, including feminism and feminist hermeneutics. Nehama was not alone among intellectual European women of her day in leaving home to pursue advanced academic studies. From a Jewish point of view, too, her superior Torah education was a characteristic product of the ideological...