The world’s first female rabbi finally gets her moment, 350 years after her death

On Oct. 17, at the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards, Montrealer Sigal Samuel won an award for her new children’s book, Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World's First Female Rabbi. It tells the real-life story Osnat Barzani, a Kurdish-Jewish scholar who lived about 400 years ago in Mosul—and had an unconventional upbringing.

Barzani's father ran a yeshiva, but didn’t have sons to share his knowledge with. Instead of forcing his daughter to do chores and get married young, he taught her Torah, the Talmud, midrash, Kabbalah and Hebrew, leading Barzani to eventually become the head of her father’s yeshiva.

Sigal Samuel could empathize with Barzani's story: her Orthodox father also taught her Jewish studies, although despite her training, she didn't become a rabbi. The author and journalist's first novel The Mystics of Mile End also won a Canadian Jewish Literary Award in 2016.

Samuel joins today with Rabbi Lila Kagedan, the first-ever Canadian born Orthodox female rabbi, to discuss Barzani's life and its implications for women rabbis centuries later.

What we talked about:

• Buy Osnat and Her Dove at levinequerido.com/osnat-and-her-dove
• Read: "Canadian Yeshivat Maharat graduate hired by Orthodox synagogue" (thecjn.ca, 2016)

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.