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.
She’elot u-teshuvot yeshanot (Old Responsa): On Marital Deception
This rabbinic responsum, a “response” to a question of Jewish law, addresses the issue of marital deception and its legal ramifications.
Bet Yehudah (The House of Judah)
The Hakham Rabbi Abraham Monson, may God protect him, was a resident of Tétouan, where he was born and raised among his siblings and relatives. When he reached the appropriate age he married a woman…
Mapah (Tablecloth) to Shulḥan ‘arukh
Says Moses, son to my Master, my father, R. Israel—may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing for the world to come—seeing that the illustrious author [Joseph Karo] of the Bet Yosef [Th…
To Know If an Evil Spirit Has Possessed a Person
To know if an evil spirit has possessed a person, utter three times in his right ear:
TsIP"A TsIP"A TRAYY"T GWTAN"T, that is to say: Of the Rock that begat you, you are unmindful, etc. (Deuteronomy 32…
Adjuration for a Person in Shock and Falling Sickness
An adjuration for a person in shock and for a person with the falling sickness [epilepsy—Ed.]. When you go to a person in shock or a person with the falling sickness recite the following:
In the…
Nishmat ḥayim (Breath of Life)
Behold, we have before us the head of the rationalists [or “rational theologians”], Maimonides, may his memory be for a blessing. In chapter three of Hilkhot teshuvah [Mishneh Torah, Laws of…
Livro da união geral da nacão: On a Book by Manuel de Pina
Joining the meeting [of the Mahamad; board of governors] was ḥakham [R.] David Cohen who reported that it was brought to his attention that a very scandalous book from…
Sefer ha-ḥayim (The Book of Life)
In which it is explained that the essence of the Torah is the performance of the commandments, not intellectual knowledge; and also the reason why it is called the Talmud…
Letter to Jarig Jelles
From B. d. S.
[Dear Friend],
As far as Politics is concerned, the difference you ask about, between Hobbes and me, is this: I always preserve natural Right…
Letter to Isaiah Bassan
O great mountain (Zechariah 4:7), the exalted and raised (Isaiah 52:13), precious cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16), my teacher, my rabbi, may the Merciful One guard and bless him, may God protect him and…
Epitaphs
I have set this stone as a weight, not as a memorial, over my wife’s grave, lest (God forbid!) she rise from the dead and come back home.
Shilte ha-giborim (Shields of the Mighty)
The kinnor, called in a foreign tongue arpa (harp), is a wooden instrument made in the likeness of a wide-open entrance without their being doors on it, and its upper threshold is broad and its lower…