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 Return of the Jewish Volunteer from the Wars of Liberation to His Family Still Living in Accordance with Old Customs
This one painting conveys many messages about the benefits of integration and emancipation as well as the inner conflicts they provoked.
Yiddish Translation of Isaac Aboab’s Menorat ha-ma’or
Moses Frankfurt said: The holy Torah tells us that the Holy One commanded Moses to interpret the Torah very plainly (Deuteronomy 27:8), to explain it clearly in seventy languages so that all nations…
Spanish Translation of Judah ha-Levi’s Kuzari
Ḥaver:Do you think languages are eternal, and have no beginning?Kuzari:They are invented and instituted by common consent, rather than natural; this is evident from their composition of nouns, verbs…
Declaração das seiscentas treze encomendanças da nossa Santa Ley (Declaration of the 613 Commandments of Our Holy Law)
Don’t overshadow anyone. Know that you have an obligation to observe 613 commandments, because many of them you have to perform, but they can be done conjointly; so that when one commandment is…
Ladino Translation of Baḥya Ibn Pakuda’s Ḥovot ha-levavot (Duties of the Heart)
A book titled in Ladino Obligasyon de los korazones [Duty of the Hearts] because it is translated from a text written by the pious gaon, our master Baḥya the judge, of blessed…
Re’shit bikure katsir (First Fruits of the Harvest)
I have examined the matter carefully, to see whether I should uphold that which they have already done, in nullifying the custom [of reciting the priestly blessing after dark, during the Ne…
Regulations: On Purchasing Copies of the Talmud
502. Since our eyes have seen the great neglect of Torah among schoolchildren, caused by [not] printing of folios of the Gemara [with Rashi’s commentary], because the…
Colophon: Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah
The great work called Mishneh Torah by the rabbi, our master, Moses ben Maimon of blessed memory, comprises fourteen books.
Were it not that the Lord was with us (Psalms 124:1), the Torah might have…
Sefat emet (True Speech)
However, in our many sins, she is Zion, there is none who cares for her (Jeremiah 30:17). Consider the question you asked, speaking like an enemy without knowledge [see Job 34:34]. For it follows the…
Letter to Modena
From the rabbis and geonim of the holy city of Safed, may it be speedily rebuilt in our days, sent to Modena, may God protect it, in 5370 [1610]He shall be called a holy man [see Isaiah 4:3]; the…
Sermon: On the Holy Land
The three problems that I first asked are explained in regard to all of that which I have said. The first: Why is it called the “Holy Land” and the “Holy Temple”? This is according to the fact that it…