Rachel (Grandmother of The Alter Rebbe)

Rebbetzin Rachel was the paternal grandmother of the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi), and the daughter of Rabbi Baruch Batlan.

Life edit

Rebbetzin Rachel was born in 5453 (1693) in the city of Pozna (Poznań), to her father Rabbi Baruch Batlan. Her mother came from a distinguished family in Pozna that traced its lineage to the great halachic authority Rabbi Shlomo Luria, known as the Maharshal.

At the age of nineteen she married Rabbi Schneur Zalman.

She was a woman of remarkable character — learned in Torah, devoted to acts of charity and kindness, and deeply committed to raising her children in meticulous observance of the mitzvos and fear of Heaven^[1]. Her father Rabbi Baruch was careful to ensure that his daughter Rachel's Torah learning not become widely known; yet shortly after her marriage, her husband discovered her secret.

In the years that followed, the family relocated from Pozna, and Rabbi Schneur Zalman and his wife settled in Vitebsk, where he earned a modest living as a teacher, though they lived in considerable poverty and hardship.

Rebbetzin Rachel passed away in Vitebsk, leaving behind her husband and their two children: Devorah Leah, and Yisrael Baruch Pozner, who would become the father of the Alter Rebbe. Shortly thereafter, her husband Rabbi Schneur Zalman also passed away.

External Links edit

Ateres Malchus

References edit

↑ Among her notable practices: she was particularly careful about washing hands upon waking — netillas yadayim — following the teaching of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem. Even before an infant was a month old, she would wash his hands every time he woke, whether by night or by day. Through the night she kept a vessel of water beside her bed, and whenever she needed to nurse the infant she would first wash her own hands, then the infant's hands, and only then nurse him.

[1] Among her notable practices: she was particularly careful about washing hands upon waking — netillas yadayim — following the teaching of Rabbi Yoel Baal Shem. Even before an infant was a month old, she would wash his hands every time he woke, whether by night or by day. Through the night she kept a vessel of water beside her bed, and whenever she needed to nurse the infant she would first wash her own hands, then the infant's hands, and only then nurse him.

[1]