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.
Letter from Fromet to Moses Mendelssohn
Berlin, 18 July 1777 Berlin, 13 Tammuz 5537
Dear Moses, may you live,
I hope that my letter will find you happy and in good spirits in Königsberg. We are all, thank G-d, well and alive, and when you…
Letters
I often said to a younger girl friend: “If you are marrying without love, after all, do not talk to your husband. Please him as much as your nature can tolerate; do not argue with…
Così Fan Tutte
[A coffee-houseFerrando, Don Alfonso and Guglielmo]No. i TrioFerrando My Dorabella couldn’tDo such a thing:Heaven made herAs faithful as she’s fair.GuglielmoFiordiligi simplyCouldn…
Decree: On Bridal Processions
Text endorsing regulations concerning the playing of instrumental music and other entertainments, and the night-time bridal procession, drafted by me with the powerful endorsement of the sages—may…
The Division of the Kingdom
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to acclaim him as king. Jeroboam son of Nebat learned of it while he was still in Egypt; for Jeroboam had fled from King Solomon, and had…
Building the Tabernacle
When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain. The Presence of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days. On the seventh day He called to…
Fringes
The Lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of…
Erev
In every village in the region, in every farmhouse you’d meet them, the Boyars. The first Boyar, family legend had it, had settled in the Polesian forests many generations ago. His name had been Ezra…
Tractatus de intellectus emendatione (Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect)
[1] After experience had taught me that all the things which regularly occur in ordinary life are empty and futile, and I saw that all the things which were the cause or object of my fear had nothing…
La certeza del camino (The True Path)
Great hazards of the world are these rational brutes, the avaricious rich, as they are…
Seder Eliyahu zuta (The Minor Order of Elijah)
The Sultan Selim loved the Jews very much, for he realized that with their help he could strike nations and kill mighty kings. [ . . . ] And it came to pass on the third day, when the Sultan…
Seder ha-dorot (Order of the Generations)
Behold I request of all standing at the gate to knock,
And he who wishes to enter deep within this composition of mine,
Let him understand and be wise and contemplate the introduction I have composed…