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Not wishing for her memoirs to deify her name, she notes early on that they should not be considered a book of morals or guides for her children, as the Torah already contains all the necessary steps for living an ethically perfect and exemplary life, but her memoirs did serve as a living legacy for Gl\u00fcckel, her beliefs, hopes, fears and ethical code, as well of course, as her life story.<\/p>\n
In her memoirs, which begin with her birth \u2013 a somewhat obvious starting point \u2013 Gl\u00fcckel documents that she was born into a life of privilege in Hamburg in 1646. Her father was a diamond trader and a leading member of the Jewish community, who had amassed not only great wealth but also respect amongst both Jews and non-Jews alike. In fact, he was so well-regarded in Hamburg that when the government allowed the entry of Jews into the city, Gl\u00fcckel\u2019s father was the first one permitted to live there!<\/p>\n
Gl\u00fcckel had one brother and five sisters, but straying from convention, her father ensured that all of his children no matter their gender were educated at cheder<\/em>, learned to read Hebrew, and knew all about the rules and rituals of Judaism. His wish was to have pious and educated children, and in this he succeeded, at least to the best of his abilities in a society without any higher education or gender equality. Gl\u00fcckel also spent many pages documenting the memorable events from her youth, such as the bubonic plague which claimed the life of her grandmother, or her sister Hendele\u2019s betrothal to the son of a prominent rabbi, in which her dowry of 1,800 Reichsthalers shocked the community by being the highest sum ever paid for a wife!<\/p>\n At the ripe old age of twelve, Gl\u00fcckel\u2019s father decided that she was mature enough to run her own household, and he arranged a marriage for her with young Chayim of Hameln. Chayim came from another wealthy and well-known family, constituting a perfect match, and two years later the couple were married and all set to move in with Chayim\u2019s parents – after all, they were only 14! Gl\u00fcckel felt afraid and alone as a new wife in a far-off place, and described Hameln as being \u201ca dull shabby hole\u201d and a \u201cback-country place\u201d, so it is safe to assume that she didn\u2019t much like the town. However, her parents-in-law were extremely kind and caring towards her and she developed an unexpectedly nice kinship with her father-in-law Joseph.<\/p>\n More settled now in her new home, and enamored by her loving husband, Gl\u00fcckel wrote happily of her days as a newly-wed. She gave birth to three daughters but not content with being a housewife, she soon became interested in her husband\u2019s business. An educated woman, she quickly learned the ropes of entrepreneurship and became Chayim\u2019s right-hand lady! She would give him financial advice and she even wrote that he listened to no one else but her in matters of business. Although his name was on the company (you know, with women not being able to own property or money and all that), Gl\u00fcckel was really the brains behind the operation, and often carried out Chayim\u2019s duties and signed professional contracts in his name.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t all fun and games. Soon Chayim fell ill and despite seeing many doctors, nothing fully cured his ailments. This may have been because the \u201cdoctors\u201d he saw were mainly barber surgeons with no medical training, but who can say for sure? Gl\u00fcckel\u2019s two oldest daughters also fell ill, and her middle child, Mata, died aged three. Her oldest, Tzipporah, did recover however, lending her a mysterious charm as a miracle child.<\/p>\n Gl\u00fcckel also wrote about the rise and fall of the false messiah Shabbtai Tzvi and the upheaval he caused within her community, as well as the continuing development of the plague. She described how the trade and mail services were affected by inter-city runners who were particularly susceptible to the disease and often had the misfortune of expiring before they could complete the transfer of goods or letters. Pretty inconvenient.<\/p>\n At this point, it\u2019s surprising that Gl\u00fcckel had time for anything other than bedrest, as she was giving birth every two years on the dot. She describes this as difficult which was perhaps an understatement, yet she carried on regardless, eventually birthing a mighty grand total of 16 kids, 12 of whom survived past infancy! But it seems that between all of the babies, she still had time for housework and business \u2013 supermum or what?! She mentions firing her servant \u201cClumsy Sam\u201d, no awards for guessing why he was fired, and instead she hired a new servant called \u201cElegant Sam\u201d, naturally a much better choice. She also documents the steady downturn of her husband\u2019s company, as he steadily lost most of the family wealth in bad deals.<\/p>\n In the meantime, her children were growing up fast! Her oldest daughter got engaged at the age of 12, taking after her mother, and a large and lavish wedding took place, enthusiastically documented in detail by the excited Gl\u00fcckel. Her oldest son Nathan also started helping out with the family business, but it seems that he didn\u2019t manage to turn around their bad financial luck either. And to top off all the excitement, Gl\u00fcckel casually mentions that pirates are now rife off the coast of Hamburg, wreaking havoc on their society in ways that only a pirate can!<\/p>\n But even if pirates and poverty sound pretty bad, the real struggles were still yet to come. Gl\u00fcckel\u2019s father, and both of her parents-in-law, died in fairly quick succession, leaving her distraught. Despite the men in her life technically now being heirs to all of her inherited fortunes, Gl\u00fcckel\u2019s progressive family left the money to grieving Gl\u00fcckel herself, as her loving children gathered around to take care of her. But in 1689 a tragedy struck which she could not overcome: the death of her beloved husband. Left alone with eight unmarried children and a failing business, Gl\u00fcckel fell into a deep depression.<\/p>\n It was during this depression that she had the idea to write down her memoirs, which provide all the contents for the tale that you are currently reading. The idea was to comfort herself with writing – a common therapeutic practice throughout history and to this day. Thankfully she stuck with it, for now we have a wonderful insight into the life of a 17th<\/sup> century Jewish woman.<\/p>\n Gl\u00fcckel documents her husband\u2019s traumatic decline and death in detail. Wanting privacy, Chayim decided not to consult a doctor after falling on a sharp stone, and when he was finally convinced to seek help, he decided once again to put his life in the hands of a chirurgeon-barber, the old-timey untrained \u2018doctors\u2019 who you hear about in horror stories, cutting off limbs willy-nilly and replacing patients\u2019 blood with milk or leaches, or something else plainly unhelpful. Of course, the barber in a doctor\u2019s coat did not heal Chayim. In his dying days, Gl\u00fcckel tried to comfort her husband with sexual acts, but a holy man, he refused her body, for she was still a niddah<\/em> (spiritually impure), and had not yet gone to the mikve<\/em> (cleansing bath). Chayim recited the traditional Shema<\/em> prayer as he passed away the following Shabbat, and the family went into a deep mourning period.<\/p>\n Despite leaving Gl\u00fcckel in 20,000 Reichsthalers of debt, Gl\u00fcckel cleared her husband\u2019s name using her inheritance within just one year, and slowly she started to recover from her loss. Only one chapter later she is again consumed with documenting the ups and downs of regular life: the little disagreements with her children, the state of affairs in her hometown, and the lifecycle events which were so important to the Jewish mothers of the 17th<\/sup> century, and of course those of the 21st<\/sup> century too!<\/p>\n Enter Cerf Levy into the picture, a man from out of town who was hailed as a wealthy businessman who had also recently lost his wife. I\u2019m sure you can see where this is going! In June 1699, Gl\u00fcckel received a proposal of marriage from Mr. Levy, but she was hesitant, for not long had passed since the death of her beloved Chayim. Eventually she agreed to the marriage but from day one, she realized her mistake. She felt that she had betrayed Chayim and her promise to G-d to only love one man, and she saw the hardships of this second marriage as punishment for breaking her first wedding vows.<\/p>\n Cerf Levy came with baggage. He had rude children and \u201clackey\u201d staff, and it turned out that he was neither rich nor bright. Twelve years later, dissatisfied and deprived, Cerf died on July 24.\u00a0 Poor Gl\u00fcckel was left with nothing. She never wanted to burden her children with an old and incapable mother, but after repeated offers, she finally moved in to her daughter Esther\u2019s family home three years later in 1715, the exact end to her life that Gl\u00fcckel had \u201csought to avoid\u201d.<\/p>\n As her days drew to their inevitable culmination, it seems that Gl\u00fcckel did not know what an astounding, bright, and good woman she truly was. She describes her life as “containing both pleasures and pains, as does the world itself.” Her seventh and final book closes with a foresight of her own death: “In the month of Nisan, 5479, a woman was kneeling by the bank of the Moselle River, washing her dishes. It was ten o’clock at night, and all of a sudden it became as light as day, and the woman looked up to the Heavens, and the Heavens were opened and sparks flew therefrom; and then the Heavens closed, as one closes a curtain, and all was dark again. G-d grant that it be for good!”<\/p>\n Gl\u00fcckel was a singular woman, so very bright, and so very holy. But more important than that was the fact that she is able, nearly 400 years later, to teach people today about ordinary German Jewish life during her era, while providing us with an extremely rare female perspective. She is not praised because of how distinct she is, but in fact because of how normal she is. How she loved a good wedding. How she hired and fired her staff. How she felt joy, loss, guilt \u2013 all the human emotions. How she struggled with her morals and how she longed to follow her dreams. How she coped with hardship. How she lived, as we all do, day to day, with \u201cpleasures and pains, as the world itself.\u201d We today are not so different to the Yiddishe Jews of old. After all, we\u2019re all human.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/g2-300x200.png\")
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