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.
Tseror ha-mor (Bundle of Myrrh) and Eshkol ha-kofer (Cluster of Henna)
When I was in Castile in the city of Zamora, tranquil and secure in my abode, I set my mind to inquire and explore matters of Torah and began to compose a book yielding lovely…
Letter to Ludovico Antonio Muratori
To satisfy your doubt concerning my signature, I have to tell you, in all philosophical frankness, that I was born with a burning desire and the greatest curiosity to know, more as a way to get to…
Documentos para todo estado e ydade, e em particular para abituar bem os moços desde sua moçidade â vertude (Documents for Every State and Age, and in Particular to Accustom Young Men from Their Youth to Virtue)
Turn from evil and do good. Beloved Son. The great esteem in which I hold you and my intense desire for your welfare have prompted me to draw up this list of virtues as an antidote against the…
Masa‘ot erets Yisra’el (Travels in the Land of Israel)
Safed is in the upper Galilee, in the Naftali region, with the bulk of the city atop the mountain. Surrounding the city’s mountain are some four mountains; on two of them, all the people are…
Release from Excommunication
In the presence of all the rabbis and the entire council (qri’ah) of Rome, the Scuola Catalana-Aragonese [Catalan-Aragonese Congregation] agrees to release Giuseppe Picciotto from a ban (niddui). The…
Takkanot Fiorda (Regulations of Fürth)
1. A head of household, student, or youth—be he local or a foreigner, whether he eats for free, or pays for his food—may not wear a camisol [vest] of gold cloth or brocade with…
Appointment of Jacob Abendana
In the Name of the Blessed God.In consideration of the fact that it is needful for the prosperity of this Kaal Kados [congregation—Ed.], which God bless, to have the service of a Haham who should…
Ḥayye ‘olam (Eternal Life)
Chapter 15. In Explanation of Bills of Exchange Called Cambii and of Maritime Insurance
We could have dispensed with the discussion of bills of exchange which are called in Italian cambii since they…
Reflexoens politicos tocante a constituaçāo da Naçāo Judaica (Political Reflections Concerning the Constitution of the Jewish Nation)
No matter what the body of the Nation, be it in the form of a kingdom or a republic, it comprises various classes of people; as for the nobles, who make the state blossom through commerce, increased…
Responsum: On Arranging for an Eruv
With God’s Help.
From one generation to the next, our ancestors have removed obstacles from the path of the people so that they not unwittingly stumble into sin [Isa 57:14], particularly [with respect…
Mishpat u-tsedakah be-Ya‘akov (Judgment and Righteousness [Are] in Jacob)
It has been a long, sorrowful time that Mr. Solomon Ha-Kohen of Tangier (may God protect him) has been living here with us in Fez (may God protect it), upset angry, and bitter. We did not know what…
Vikuaḥ mayim ḥayim (Dispute of “Living Waters”)
And just as a person finds pleasant only such food as he has prepared himself, in accordance with what he wishes to eat, and has no desire whatsoever to depend upon his neighbor’s table, so too, he…