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First edition of this work on the role, importance, and place of women in Judaism by R. R. Jehiel Mikhal ben Aharon Tykocinski. The verso of the title page has a table of contents, enumerating the twelve chapters comprising Ha-Ishah Al Pi Torat Yisrael. Each chapter is further subdivided into sections. It begins with the creation of the woman, her characteristics and purpose, subdivided into creation and purpose, her characteristics, the women in education, and lesser strength. Among the following chapters and their subdivisions are matrimony, consisting of the marriage bond, marriage, divorce, and the prohibition against multiplying women; unity of the couple in intellectually and in life; the rights of the woman, property and inheritance, rights of the husband, procreation; honoring women; the holiness of a holy people, modesty in Jewish life, limits on mixing, and thou shalt be holy; and the levels of a woman, in general, in performing mizvot, learning Torah, fulfilling the Torah.
Jehiel Michel Tykocinski, (1872–1955) was born in Lyakhovichi, Belorussia. Orphaned of his father while still young, he was taken to Erez Israel in 1882. He studied under R. Samuel Salant, whose granddaughter he married in 1890. In 1900 he began to take part in the administration of Ez Hayyim in Jerusalem, at first as head of the junior department and then as chief administrator. He contributed greatly to the development of the institution, both when it was in the Old City of Jerusalem, and later when it moved outside. He was also active in the foundation of new suburbs in Jerusalem, and favored the unification of all sections of the Jewish population, new and old. R. Tykocinski specialized in the laws and customs pertaining to Erez Israel, and from 1904 onward published an annual Lu'ah ("calendar") detailing liturgical and other customs for the whole year. This calendar was accepted as the authoritative guide for the liturgical and synagogal customs of the Ashkenazim in Israel; it continued to appear under the editorship of his son even after his death.
R. Tykocinski devoted himself especially to halakhic problems connected with astronomy, in which field he published Tekufat ha-Hamah u-Virkatah (1924); Bein ha-Shemashot (1929); and Sefer ha-Yomam (1943), on the international date line (see Calendar). His other works are: Tohorat Yisrael (c. 1910); Hilkhot Shevi'it (1910): and Sefer ha-Shemittah on the laws of the Sabbatical Year; Gesher ha-Hayyim (1947, 19602) on the laws of mourning; and Sefer Erez Yisrael (1955) on the laws and customs appertaining to Erez Israel. He also published many articles in various journals and left behind in manuscript novellae on the Talmud and responsa. |
