Maid of Ludmir

(Hanna Rachel Werbermacher; 1805-1892). Ḥasidic "tsaddik." Born in Wlodzimierz Wolynski (Yid. Ludmir) in the Volhynia district of Poland, Hanna prayed ecstatically and studied religious texts, attracting a large following as a visionary preacher after receiving "a new and sublime soul" in a vision during an illness. She observed male mitsvot, wearing a Tallit and Tefillin during prayer and recited Kaddish for her deceased father. She had her own synagogue and was in the habit of discoursing to her Ḥasidim at the Se'Udah Shelishit. At the the age of 40 she married, subsequently emigrating to Erets Israel, where she continued her mystical studies.

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