Analysis of Gluckel Hameln

Gluckel of Hameln was a seventeenth century Jewish woman from Hamburg who wrote a lengthy memoir in Yiddish. While she was not a famous person in her time, Gluckel's memoir has been regarded as one of the most important documents for European Jewish history, of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and the earliest autobiography written by a Jewish woman. Beginning in 1690, Gluckel's diary of a German Jewish widow is addressed to her fourteen …

…heart, without falsehood or sham, not giving out to people that you are one thing while, God forbid, in your heart you are another. Say your prayers with awe and devotion. Moreover, put aside a fixed time for the study of the Torah as best you know how. Then diligently go about your business, for providing your wife and children a decent livelihood is likewise a mitzvah-the command of God and the duty of man.