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.
Ari nohem (Roaring Lion)
Why this knowledge, which is called “the science of kabbalah” [ḥokhmat ha-kabbalah] contradicts itself, and each one of these names (i.e., “science” and “kabbalah”) is not suitable to it…
Divre Neḥemiah (The Words of Nehemiah)
Thus said the author, Nehemiah Ḥiya, son of my master, my father, Moses Ḥayun: I myself know that all who see this book will be greatly astonished, and they will say, “Look at the…
Letter about the Travels of Abraham Rovigo
Abraham Rovigo (1650–1713) was born in Modena and studied kabbalah under Moses Zacuto in Venice. Rovigo’s wealth enabled him to devote himself to study and to support pious endeavors. Swept up by…
Leḥem Yehudah (The Bread of Judah): On the Fate of the First Edition
I printed my book [Leḥem Yehudah] in Venice at the beginning of for the Almighty Shadai [in gematria = 1553] has dealt very bitterly with me (Ruth 1:20) and the ruler of Rome [the Pope] decreed that…
You, Jerusalem, I can never forget
You, Jerusalem, I can never forget;
Rather, I remember you in my every joy,
With tears in my eyes, which never cease.
I am moved by grief and great sadness,
Not by mockery, nor happiness:
Solely to…
A Lovely Song about an Event in Hamburg
Which tells how a certain man took up with a prostitute in Hamburg, his first wife hearing of this came from Poland, how he was forced to give her a writ of divorce and this almost cost him his life…
Diálogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains)
Zetim:How blessed and how happy must that manA thousand times be called who acknowledgesOne God alone, a single entity.Gerizim:How happy and how blessed must he beWho in God’s holy Law meditatesBoth…
The Age of Wonders
Autumn came and Father decided to put an end to the growing hostility surrounding us. We were already isolated, friendless, and bankrupt, deep in the heart of a cold, gray season. I was still going to…
The Ritual Bath
“You found the victim?”
She nodded.
“Was she conscious at the time?”
“Yes. Baruch Hashem.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Mrs. Adler was conscious.”
“That’s fine,” Decker said. He faced the uniforms. “Cordon off…
The Circumcision
All the Jewish children’s homes and live-in kindergartens that Robi Singer had been attending since the age of four had something in common. Besides a birth certificate and vaccination papers, they…
Cry of the Peacock
In the women’s prison where the Guards had taken Peacock, six people slept in a cell designed for one. They sat on the floor, occupying every rat-infested inch, blindfolded and handcuffed for weeks in…