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.
Notarial Acts of Rome: On Unkosher Meat
Menasce was asked about the taref (non-kosher) meat. And he said that Sabato di Perugia had told Salomone di Capena that the meat the latter had was taref. In fact…
Haskamot ha-‘ir Yerushalayim (Regulations of the City of Jerusalem)
On this day, 25th Adar, 5490:
- A ban, enforceable by excommunication, on producing…
Ohale Ya‘akov (The Tents of Jacob): On Prayer Customs
To the city of London, to the complete sage R. Solomon Ayalon, in the year 1697.
Explicasion de las armas de Lopes y Suaço (Explanation of the Arms of Lopez and Suasso)
I, Don Pedro Alberto de Launay Cau, gentleman of the Royal House of King Charles II, in charge of the heraldry and chronicles of his Spanish realms, of provincial arms, and, earlier, of his estates…
Ordinance: On Lending Money
In view of the fact that many interfere with their neighbors’ vested rights to have sole privilege of lending money at interest in certain localities, and very often the agency of the non-Jewish…
Ḥavvot Yair (The Villages of Yair): On Ceremonial Objects
Question: A woman pledged, when she lay ill, to give her disukia, which is embroidered with gilt silver thread, to be made into a ceremonial object for the synagogue. The disukia is what is called in…
Deed of Mediation between Husband and Wife
With the Almighty’s assistance.It having been the case that the esteemed and exalted R. Joseph Fico, may his Rock and Redeemer protect him, has been perpetually quarreling with his esteemed wife, Mrs…
Letter to His Mother
May the Lord who dwells in Zion protect you from any grief and sorrow. To my beloved mother, the crown of my head, the pious Mrs. Rachel, may she live long. [ . . . ] You should know, my dear mom…
Two Authorizations Given to Female Slaughterers
Stronger than the lions’ den [see Song of Songs 4:8; 2 Samuel 1:23], raise a banner over Mount Zion [see Isaiah 13:2], they are the mighty ones [see…
Sha‘ar ruaḥ ha-kodesh (The Gate of the Holy Spirit)
A yihud [magical-theurgic “unification”] that my teacher, of blessed memory, taught me to remove an evil spirit: [For] sometimes the soul of an evil person is yet unable to get into Gehinnom because…
For One Who Becomes Possessed
One who becomes possessed by a demon should recite this adjuration three times, and it [the demon] will leave him, God willing.
In the explicit name [Shem ha-meforash] of the God of Israel may His…
Ma‘aneh lashon (Expression of the Tongue)
Peace unto thy beautified and pious soul, beloved and affectionate mother, who hast given me birth, and who hast reared me. Thou who hast loved, fostered, and…