Rachele Morpurgo

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Rachele Morpurgo (Luzzatto)

Hebrew: (לוצאטו) מורפורגו רחל
Also Known As: "Rachel"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Death: September 1871 (81)
Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Baruch Benedetto Luzzatto and Berakha Bracha Luzzatto
Wife of Jacob Morpurgo
Mother of Ignazio Morpurgo; Giuseppe Morpurgo; Davide Morpurgo and Perla Morpurgo
Sister of Isaac Luzzatto; David Luzzatto and Allegra Luzzatto

Occupation: poet, financier
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Rachele Morpurgo

http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/1435/Rachel-Morpurgo-Queen-...

Rachel Morpurgo: Queen of the Hebrew SonnetDr. Pearl Herzog In an era when most women could not even read lashon hakodesh, and Turkish was the vernacular in Eretz Yisrael, Rachel Luzzatto-Morpurgo was a prolific poet in the Holy Tongue. Her sonnets, written in lashon hakodesh and spiced with references to psukim and Torah concepts, were published to wide acclaim and popularity. This remarkable woman was two centuries before her time; her poetry is as relevant today as it was then.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Rachel Morpugo

Rachel Luzzatto was born on April 8, 1790, in Trieste (today in Italy, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Eight years earlier, Joseph II had promulgated the famous Edict of Tolerance, affording religious freedom to the Jews and enabling their exodus from the ghettos. The oasis of political peace was mirrored in the privileged home in which Rachel was raised. Rachel’s family was not only steeped in Torah; ink coursed through its veins. Her parents were both Luzzattos, distant cousins of each other. Rachel’s mother Brachah was a granddaughter of Baruch Luzzatto, a brother of the Ramchal. Rachel’s paternal grandfather, Reb Yitzchak Luzzatto, was a medical doctor and a poet. Her father, Baruch Luzzatto, together with his brother-in-law Chizkiyah Luzzatto (Rachel’s mother was Chizkiyah’s sister) owned a lithography business.

Lithography (a method of printing using stone that enabled mass production of paintings and books) was developed in the early nineteenth century, when Rachel was still a young girl. It was a revolution that Rachel’s father and uncle capitalized on, building a thriving business producing lithographs.

Raised in a comfortable home, Rachel had the luxury of spending time growing intellectually. At age twelve, she was taught Tanach by her uncle, her mother’s brother David, and was introduced to the commentaries of Metzudas David and Metzudas Tzion. He also taught her Chovos HaLevavos.

Rachel’s uncle David never married and upon his death, he bequeathed to his nephew (Rachel’s brother, David) a huge library. Rachel would spend hours studying these seforim. With private teachers she studied Rashi on Tanach, and Menoras HaMaor by Yitzchak Abuhav. She also studied the sefer Reishis Chochmah. Her uncle, Chizkiyah Luzzatto, broadened her Judaic studies and taught her math.

An intelligent girl was not excused from the family business, either, and Rachel learned the art of lithography and the craft of turnery on a lathe. Rachel was also a skilled seamstress, and would sew her own clothes as well as those of her mother and, later on, of her only daughter, Perela.


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Rachele Morpurgo's Timeline

1790
April 8, 1790
Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
1826
1826
Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
1871
September 1871
Age 81
Trieste, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
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