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.
Sefer ha-ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions): On the Afterlife
That year my wife, Hannah, became extremely ill and one Sabbath she was in a coma and close to death. At night, at the conclusion of the Sabbath, we approached her to witness the departure of the…
Testament (Jamaica)
In the name of God, Amen.
I Moses Cohen DeLara of the parish of Kingston in the Island of Jamaica aforesaid Merchant being sick in Body but of Sound memory and…
Last Will and Testament
In the year fifteen hundred and forty-nine, the seventh indiction, the first day of the month of February, during the time of the pontificate of the Holy Father in Christ Our Lord, Lord Paul III, pope…
Sefer ha-tsava’ah (Book of the Testament): Ethical Will
Now I will give instructions concerning how to look after me from the beginning of my final illness—when the day of judgment comes, during all the period of my illness, and the time of my death, when…
Toledot ha-ari (Life of the Ari)
When [Isaac Luria] was sick, he blessed each companion with a suitable blessing for him, in accordance with the spark of his soul. R. Ḥayim Vital was not there with them at the time of the blessing…
Derashot (Sermons)
And now I will reveal to you why we call the Sabbath before Passover “the Great Sabbath.”
Know that the minister of Egypt is Aries [the ram], and Scorpio, which is with Aries, and its angel is Samael…
Sefer ha-zikhronot (The Book of Memories)
As for myself, I was constantly going back in my studies as well as in manners and conduct. After a while, my father decided to send me to Prague, which was a day’s journey. My older brother was also…
Family Chronicle
When I was born, I was given the name Manuel, after my grandfather, Manuel Alvares Pinto, as was said earlier. For this reason and because I was my father’s eldest son, my grandfather always had me…
Tractatus de intellectus emendatione (Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect)
[1] After experience had taught me that all the things which regularly occur in ordinary life are empty and futile, and I saw that all the things which were the cause or object of my fear had nothing…
Testimony before the Lisbon Tribunal of Inquisition
I was born in July, 1626, in the French city of Tartas to my father Christopher de Lis and my mother Elisabeth de Pas. She nursed me with her own milk, taught, educated, and held me on her own lap…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: On the Edition
One day, I was reading a certain book, which contained eight commentaries on the Song of Songs. More precious than pearls they are; all of their commentaries are sapphires, the words of the living God…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: Story of His Exile
R. Isaac ben Abraham ben Judah ‘Akrish, may he rest in peace, from exile in Spain and Naples, said that he would not receive the proud waters [of baptism; see Psalms 124:5], and was driven out…