Telling the forgotten story of Osnat Barzani from Kurdistan, the first female rabbi who lived 400 years ago

Recommendable! Some of her story is quite remarkable! Asenath Barzani was born in Mosul(?), Kurdistan!

"... But centuries earlier, Osnat was born in Kurdistan in 1590. Her story is an astounding one — she was the daughter of a yeshiva leader from Mosul, Rabbi Shmuel b. Netanel Ha-Levi. Osnat inherited her father’s curiosity about Judaism and convinced him to teach her to read and let her independently study the Jewish religious texts. She was considered to be a master of Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah and Hebrew. After the deaths of her father and husband — who was a student of her father, and who married her under the condition that she not be bothered with housework and be allowed to continue her studies — Osnat was made the head of the yeshiva and given the title tanna’it, a rabbinical title that is equivalent to the one her father carried (tannai).

Information about Osnat is scarce. Most of it comes from a few letters, manuscripts and wonderfully enough, Jewish amulets that tell of her supernatural powers. According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, these included “her ability to limit her childbearing to two children so that she could devote herself to her studies.” ..."

Telling the forgotten story of Osnat Barzani, the first female rabbi who lived 400 years ago, is a win for Mizrahi representation - Jewish Telegraphic Agency: As a Mizrahi Jew whose family hails from Baghdad, Sigal Samuel had never seen a female rabbi who looked like her. Then she discovered Osnat Barzani.