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.
A Dirge for the Ninth of Av
Let us chant, my brothers,
this dirge together,
for God severed our hands
by this disaster.
A Sermon contra Naphtali Herts Wessely
Beware! This man, Wessely, is an impious man. Beware, do not draw near to him! God, the Lord of Hosts, knows that for the sake of the glory of your Holy Torah I have come this day to hew down he who…
Lament of the Daughter of Judah
O Russians, you who love your fellow men! You would shudder from the bottoms of your kind hearts if you saw the effect of that terrible accusation which Jews who were eyewitnesses to the unjustified…
Takkanot Kandia (Regulations of Candia): On Purim
May salvation be near, and we be cleansed of great sin. Amen.
I, the undersigned, have witnessed the bad custom practiced among young men on the days of Purim, that in the synagogue during the…
Ner mitsvah (Light of the Commandment): On Hanukkah
And this, too, must be said, that the main reason for establishing the days of Hanukkah is because they [the Jews] were victorious over the Greeks. However, it did not appear that the victory was…
Debate between Wine and Water
“I’m called the offspring of the grape,” said the wine. “People drink me fervently, and I’m very fine. I can make people joke and jibe, I can drive away their terrible pains, I can delight their…
Awake, my heart, from your slumber!
A poem that I, Sa‘adia Longo, wrote to an important and wealthy man from Nicopolis, who came here to Salonika to marry a woman. I was not able to participate in his celebration because I was…
Like a wooer and a husband
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…
Are You
Are you Avraham’s, Yitzhak’s, Yaakov’s?
Are you my mother’s god?
What’s mine of all this?
What did I take by force of hand
and why am I alone
in a city meant to be my city
on account of a mother born…
The Poverty Line
As if you could draw a line and say: below this there’s poverty.
Here’s the bread that turned black in the colorations
Of cheap makeup
And the olives in their little plate
Atop the cloth over the…
Horse and Rider Figurine
This terra-cotta figurine from Lachish is very schematic, and the rider’s legs are not shown. The rider cannot represent an average person because people—even kings—more often rode on donkeys and…