People
Tiktiner Rebeka
1550
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This learned woman was born at the end of the first half of 16th century in the town of Tykocin. Her father was Mayer Tiktiner, Rabbi of Tykocin, who published a few works of religious nature in Cracow in 1588. In her young years already Rebeka showed great willingness and aptitude for learning. Her father became her first teacher. She turned out to be such an uncommonly gifted student, especially in the Hebrew language, that at 18 she spoke it fluently and easily read works of Jewish philosophy in the original, working under the tutorship of the learned Rabbi Samuel, whom Rebeka repeatedly mentions in her literary work. Passionate about secular studies, she diligently studied the works of various authors, mainly the moralists, she wrote an excellent work entitled "Meneketh Ribhka" in the Jewish jargon, aiming for it to be accessible to even the least educated Jewish women. The work deals with women’s education and duties. She divided her work into seven chapters, each of which deals with the duties women have towards the country, society and family. The largest chapter deals with the education of children. It says, inter alia, that a child should first and foremost develop physically, and only after 6 years of age can one begin instruction. She supports secular education, which develop the mind. The work was only published after the author’s death, in the Czech Prague in 1609The work is presently very rare. The academic world only found out about the author and her work through Jan Konrad Lufft, a student at a Christian seminary in Nurnberg, who chose the analysis of that very work as the subject of his exam speech titled "Meneketh Ribhka". Lufft’s anaysis was published in Altdorf in 1719, under the title "De Rebecca Polona eruditarum in gente Judaica Foeminarum rariori exemplo". Praeside Gustavo Gergio Zeltner. Ano 1719, 3 Aprile, disputabit Joh. Conradus Lufft - Fischbacco Novie. The place and date of Rebeka Tiktiner's death is unknown, as she lived a lonely life, devoted to literary work.
Translation from the Polish text in: https://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Strona:PL_Słownik_biograficzny_uczonych_Żydów_Polskich.djvu/70
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