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.
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…
Yado ba-kol (His Hand Against Every Man)
A song I engraved on the tombstone (matzevet) of my master, my father, may he be remembered for the life of the world to come. The holy seed shall be its stock (matzavtah; Isaiah 6:13), is it not the…
Letter of Conversion
My brothers, my children, and my friends know this: I understood with great clarity that the True One, whom I alone have known for many generations and for whom I have strived so much, wants me to…
Letter to Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
“I, too, have authority, the authority of the Lord, blessed be He, of the Shekinah and all the members of the Heavenly Academy.”
[Padua, 16 March 1730]
Oh, thou great Prince, lofty pillar, Gaon R…
Letter to Yemenite Chief Rabbi Shalom Iraqi
To the city of Yemen, Sheikh Shalom, on the 4th of Shevat [9th January 1742] from the Constantinople officials, may the Lord protect them.
The son of a valiant man, who had done mighty deeds, of…
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…
Las alabanças de santidad (Praises of Holiness): Spanish Translation of Psalms
Having with fervent desire sought to reflect on the meaning of our sacred scriptures according to their original and true meaning—since, being the word of God, in this lies all of…
Respuesta a un tratado que escrivio un docto predicante de la religion reformada (Response to a Treatise Written by an Erudite Preacher of the Reformed Religion)
The main foundation that you propose for your doctrine consists of the sin of Adam, in which you believe sin was perpetrated by all of the human species, which was contained in Adam, and of the sole…
A Tale of Mainz
I’ve been told that years ago a rich man lived in Mainz as a leader of the Jewish community. He had a beautiful wife, who, however, died, leaving him their son. A short time…
Jonen dalim (He That Has Mercy on the Poor)
Offstage, Edom and Jonen Dalim.Edom:Chase that filthy beggar away from my door!Jonen:God punishes those who despise the poor.Israel:Edom sees my tatters and feels disgust…