Objects

A prayer book for Jewish women from the collection of the Regional Museum in Pińczów. It was written in Hebrew, dates from 1875 and has 112 pages. As the Hebrew title Techinot u-Bakashot indicates, there are prayers of supplication and requests. One of the pages bears the signature of the book's owner, Amos Nachum.

There is a footer in Russian with the annotation: "The printing house of the Romm widow and brothers at the junction of Żmudzka Street in house no 327 in flat no 328 in Vilnius".

According to tradition, a woman has fewer mitzvot (religious duties) to observe than a man. She is bound by three commandments: lighting and blessing candles on Sabbath evening, ritual cleansing in the mikveh after menstruation, and separating challah. The ideal Jewish wife is modest, quiet, silent, hard-working, obedient to her husband, caring for her family and fulfilling religious precepts, many of which relate to housekeeping.

More information on women in Judaism can be found in the Polish Judaic Dictionary, https://delet.jhi.pl/pl/psj and in the paper by Magdalena Rzadkowolska: Kobieta żydowska, kobieta czytająca (https://rcin.org.pl/Content/56551/WA248_68659_P-I-2795_rzadkowol-kobieta.pdf).