Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Biography of Isaac Abravanel
The author had a tradition from his ancestors, also based on a book of his genealogy that was lost in all the upheavals of the expulsion and the persecutions, that this holy and lofty family, whose…
Sefer ha-masa‘ (Book of the Journey)
Let us return to our first matter, because these two territories, which we discussed, Masterdam [Amsterdam] and Igeltiera [England], in all of them they follow the Sephardic rite from the tribe of…
Rulings
And now, you, my brethren, my people of holy communities in all the places you live, for several years I have been unable to send you reproaches and words of ethics and righteousness. . . . And since…
The Amsterdam Residence of Manuel (Isaac Nunes) de Belmonte
Statesman, merchant, and communal leader Baron Manuel (Isaac Nunes) de Belmonte (d. 1704) was the Spanish agent general in the Netherlands from 1664 and resident (consul) of the King of Spain from…
Tales of Asenath Barazani inside an Amulet
Asenath the daughter of R. Samuel Adoni (Barazani) was a wise woman and a great Torah scholar. She studied the secrets of kabbalah and acquired a considerable reputation for performing miracles and…
Amulet for Woman in Childbirth (Germany)
This early printed amulet from Germany, meant as protection for a woman in childbirth, is adorned with woodcuts illustrating the Hebrew months of the year. The main panel, framed by images of the…
Responsum: On Printed Megilot (Scrolls of) Esther
Question: . . . When Rabbi Joseph Ottolenghi was visiting this land, he told me that he printed sixteen megillot on parchment prepared for this purpose [i.e., to be used for the scrolls—Ed.]. When I…
Approbation for a Printing House
“That which is well known needs no proof,” and the root cause is the skilled operating of the printing shop in the holy community of Żółkiew [Zhovkva], may the Rock preserve it, which was established…
Born-where
Around noon they got dressed warmly and went for a walk. The fog stood high, suddenly the sun broke through, Jesuit Meadow was full of snow. As they crossed Rustenschacher Street there was a Breughel…
Gayness and God: Wrestlings of an Orthodox Rabbi
I am an Orthodox rabbi and I am gay. For a long while I denied, rejected, railed against this truth. The life story that I had wanted—wife, kids, and a family that modeled Torah and hesed—turned out…
Lamentations
Alas!
Lonely sits the city
Once great with people!
She that was great among nations
Is become like a widow;
The princess among states
Is become a thrall.
Bitterly she weeps in the night…
We Turn Our Thoughts
We turn our thoughts to yesterday…to a world that lives only in our memory.
As we recall the days gone by, we know the past is irretrievable.
Yet—through the gift of memory, we recapture treasured…