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.
For Becoming Invisible
For becoming invisible: write the following on a deerskin parchment, wrap it in three layers of leathers, and wear it: Glospats Tsamarkhad, Kilkel, YHWH. Take a rooster in the month of March and put…
Amulet for a Newborn Girl
Printed amulet for an infant girl from Germany. It was (presumably) printed alongside its companion amulet for a male child (see “Amulet for a Newborn Boy”). However, the pair were separated. A woman…
Tombstone Inscriptions (Padua)
What shall the passive and lackluster do
if the pious and accomplished are swiftly felled by angels?
Quake, nations, and rich and poor fear ye the judgment day.
When the…
Letter about Martin Luther
Behold, at this time, faithful Jews from the lands of Ashkenaz and Bohemia came to Jerusalem from nearby—with letters from both of these lands—as they came to attest and tell of their interest in a…
Zikaron li-vene Yisra’el (Memorial of the Children of Israel)
We return now to the narrative of our Lord’s doings.
After he had put the pure turban on his head, he made love to his Ashkenazi wife. She conceived; she bore him a son. On…
Selections from the Kurant
Lisbon, July 26. Here three rich Portuguese were detained on suspicion of secretly having practiced their faith. And their lives would have been spared if, God forbid, they would have…
Responsum: On Philosophy
On the thirty-third day of the counting [of the Omer, i.e., Lag b’Omer]. May there be tranquility and pleasantness in your chamber of Torah. May God continuously save the beautiful pearl, for whom the…
Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being
Love:I see, Brother, that my being and perfection depend entirely on your perfection; and since the perfection of the object you have conceived…
The Letter of Consolation
The peace of the Almighty God be with you and with all those who in their faith hope for and desire His grace and mercy.
Dear and good friends and brethren of Israel.
In your letter, you complain…
Circular Letter to the Italian Jewish Communities
When there came to our notice the work composed and recently published by R. Azariah de’ Rossi, entitled Me‘or ‘enayim, which contains the sections: “The Voice of God,” “The Glory of the Elders,” and…
The West Indian Tale
We have a lovely tale at hand,
It’s come to us from a distant land,
That land is West India, and
Many people in the world
Call that area the New World.
Our tale’s about a wife who let her spouse
Leav…
Shevaḥ ha-nashim (In Praise of Women)
If I was indeed engaged in my youth with singing and the musical art, surely it is the most magnificent of the arts, and I have elucidated its beneficial effects in the Abir Ya‘akov in this commentary…