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.
Lot’s Feud
At the time for words, father, my adonai, leave it in my hands, the
shame that I don’t feel, and assign to me the job of justification,
what they call history.
The fact is that every land has its…
Song of Exile
Foreign to me are trees in bloom
And grass and air and sky
What storms have banished me
From Eden
What blazing fire from the sun
Your wind won’t dry these tears
Land of exile
Your rain won’t…
The Shulḥan ‘Aruk: Enduring Code of Jewish Law
Shulḥan ‘Aruk, a term taken over from early rabbinic exegesis in the Midrash and applied to one of the most influential, truly epochal literary creations of Jewish history, has a double or even triple…
Ben-Oni (Son of Sorrow)
I do not lift my supplicating hands,
O King, O Lord, O Father, yon on high,
To You whose throne dwells in the starry lands,
I neither plead nor yet Your might defy.
I do not ask of You to end my…
Nogah ha-tsedek (Radiance of Justice)
Better still than this is that they should recite the “Verses of Praise,” Yigdal and Adon Olam, and the other exalted prayers on Sabbaths and festivals to the accompaniment of the harp and the sound…
Sefer musar haskel (Book of Moral Lessons)
We translated Musar haskel for the following five reasons:
The first is that our hearts have become so hardened that instruction does not easily penetrate them. This is why we wrote this educational…
The Earliest Extant Minute Books of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, 1728–1786
At a meeting of the Elders and Parnassim this day Mr Heyman Levy paid the fine for refusing serving Parnass Last year, it was at the same time voted by…
The Cry of the Poor Jews of Izmir
We, the poor of Israel, inhabitants of the city of Izmir, may God protect it, slaves of our lord and king, Sultan Abdülmecid, may his name be praised and long live his reign, [are] oppressed and…
Maḥzor
This prayer book for the Rosh Hashanah festival from Crete is elaborately decorated inside with drawings of animals and people and has a colorful title page. Greek (Romaniote/Byzantine) Jews had lived…
If thrones have been seated in heaven: For Rosh Hashanah
This poem expresses the idea that since today is the day when seats are set up [for judgment], since the Jewish people has declared the New Month, therefore we need to run to God and prostrate…
Letter to Raphael Joseph
To our fruit of holiness enwrapped in praise, our man of deeds rich in accomplishment, the exalted prince and honored rabbi. May your light shine like the rising sun, blossom like the flowers! May an…