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.
The Zahiris
It cannot be doubted that the two designations ahl al-ḥadīth and ahl al-ra’y originally referred to branches of legists occupied with the investigation of Islamic law: the former were…
Heder Riddles and Puzzles among Lithuanian Jews
A peasant was transporting a large cart of hay. He had to pass through a low gateway, but the cart couldn’t pass under it. People advised the peasant to wear glasses with magnifying lenses, so that…
Notser ḥesed to Avot (Preserving Mercy [Commentary to Ethics of the Fathers])
As a general rule, however, the spirit and illuminating power of the zaddik affect and inspire only those of his generation who are favorably disposed toward him. They have…
Silliness and Sanctimony
Yetkhen:And how crude he was with me! He wants to arrange with Papa to marry me! How do you like that? I’d like to meet the man who’ll force me to marry someone! No! No father can do that—I have…
Me’ore or (Luminescence of Light)
Since the theme of the Noachide commandments has arisen for consideration, I shall mention here what I presented before the assembly of rabbis in the great city [Paris] in the year 5567 [1807], and it…
Nogah ha-tsedek (Radiance of Justice)
Better still than this is that they should recite the “Verses of Praise,” Yigdal and Adon Olam, and the other exalted prayers on Sabbaths and festivals to the accompaniment of the harp and the sound…
Yosef omets (He Will Be Stronger): On the Ten Days of Repentance
980. It is written in Re’shit ḥokhmah [The Beginning of Wisdom (1579), by Elijah de Vidas]: The name of the Ten Days of Repentance indicates that they were ordained to amend the year. They are days of…
Derashot ḥatam sofer (Sermons of Ḥatam Sofer)
A sealed Torah was given to us; it is doubtless a Torah of Truth but it is disguised. Every day the Holy One, blessed be He, renews those who study it for its own sake and they find a new taste in it…
Sefer luḥot edut (Tablets of Testimony)
For it is not against me that these men have sinned, for what am I and what is my life? My days have passed like a transient shadow, and fly away as does a dream—like a dream upon…
Memoirs of the Life of Daniel Mendoza
Few events of a similar kind ever attracted the attention of the public, in such a degree, as the contests between Mr. Humphreys and myself. The long correspondence which passed between us previous to…
Saada the Wife of Abraham Benchimol and Préciada, One of Their Daughters
In 1832, after the French conquest of Algeria, French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) traveled to North Africa, creating a series of paintings and drawings that exoticized scenes of daily life in…