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.
Hybrid Creature with Wings on Stone Relief
Hybrid creature with wings on stone relief, Carchemish, 9th century BCE. The creature has the body and head of a lion, an additional human head, and wings, paralleling some of the elements in Ezekiel…
Hybrid Creatures with Four Wings Supporting Deity in Persian Seal Impression
Hybrid creatures with four wings supporting deity in Persian seal impression, 6th or 5th century BCE. Biblical imagery and ancient Near Eastern iconography offer some parallels to the creatures…
Four Biblical Scenes
These four etchings were made by Rembrandt van Rijn for Menasseh Ben Israel’s book, Piedra Gloriosa (Glorious Stone), a messianic treatise. Clockwise from upper left, they illustrate the biblical…
The Wonder-Working Rabbi of Barcelona
During the weeks that Eleazar spent in pious contemplation in old Asia, the people of Barcelona took pains to persecute the Jews. It was they, once again, who made it hard for Spanish merchants to…
Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man
According to the colophon, Natan Hammerschlag’s Ilan de-adam kadmon (Sefirotic Diagram of the First Man) was copied from the writings of Ḥayim Vital, the most prominent disciple of Isaac Luria…
Monish
Life is like a river;we are fish.The water’s wholesome and freshand we would swim forever,but for a black figureon the riverbank.There Satan stands,in his handsa fishing rod,and catches fish.With a…
Todah w’simrah (Music of Thanksgiving)
For decades, my efforts have been directed at purifying the old modes [die alten Weisen]. Through [general] use and arbitrary treatment they have suffered tactless changes and distortions. I…
Peraḥ Levanon (Flower of Lebanon)
I will print this book in ink as a remembrance and a sign, a memorial for my dear children. For now I will reveal their strength with words, as a reminder for them and their children…
Ohale Ya‘akov (The Tents of Jacob): On a Betrothal
Question: The following incident occurred: The gentlemen, R. Abraham Vidal, may he rest in peace, was married to the modest lady, Estrella, sister of the fine young man, R. David Pinto, may God…
Mif‘alot Elohim (The Works of God)
A baby that has fallen from a high place and become mute, his mother should take his hand and place it in her womb and afterwards thrust that hand into the mouth of the baby. After that, the woman…
To Kill a Foe
To kill a foe: write these twelve names on deerskin or calfskin parchment on Monday evening at the third or fourth hour, or at those times at night. And this is what you shall write:He who gives forth…
Dedication (to Gracia Nasi): Ferrara Bible
It would not seem proper, most magnificent Lady, that now we are about to print the Bible in our Spanish tongue, translated from the Hebrew word for word—so rare a work never before known until our…