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.
Shevet musar (Rod of Correction): On Contemplating Death
The enlightened will awaken, and he who understands will rise up to waken his soul, which will speak to his body; and his body will speak with his evil inclination.
And thus, the soul will…
Sefer ha-zikhronot (The Book of Remembrances)
[ . . . ] And all the more so with our brethren the people of Israel who come from the lands of the dispersion, who do not know and have not seen the way in which every person called by the name of…
Confession
I admit my guilt that about a year ago I was in the home of Juan Estevan when his daughter Inés said to me: “Come here, cousin, would you like to see your mother who is long deceased? and to save your…
Letter about the Coming of the Messiah
I received your letter, and since you believed that I sent to you concerning matters of our Messiah of Truth, I shall fulfill the wishes of your heart and your feelings of deficiency, and I shall tell…
Colophon: Tefilah le-Moshe (Prayer of Moses)
All the letters in this beautiful new prayer book,
from beginning to end, I set with my own hands.
Gele, daughter of R. Moses the printer
and Frau Freide, who bore me among ten children, may they…
Sefer meyrav (Book of Abundance)
Now the daughter of the King of the Kittim, on hearing this, became highly enraged, and she said, “Is there any room to defend the cause of these people who were lacking in wisdom and set down a…
On the Glory of the Eggplant
Various eggplant recipes have been passed down to us.
the first is one inherited from the late Morena:
you cut it into slices and throw them into the main dish
for that is how she was taught her by…
The Prisoner of Desire
Caged in a city of refuge, unredeemed, though the High Priest is already dead; kept alive by the hope of being ransomed; at all times manacled in the chains and bonds of love; struck on the cheek…
As on this month’s last day
As on this month’s last day,
the moon is waning,
make my sins wane, O Lord,
my merits flourish.
I know my heart is hard—
a wicked web whose threads are sin—
and I deserve the fire
for weaving wrong…
Metsaḥ Aharon (Aaron’s Forehead)
An event occurred to a person named Samuel, who was a great wise man down on his luck. He converted from Judaism and became one of the uncircumcised, accepting their religion. He learned their…
Crackpot
[…] Didn’t she go to all the weddings in the neighbourhood? All that she got wind of, anyhow, and that were big enough for the dance to be given in a hall or a synagogue basement. A lot of them took…
Oh Sabbath!
You, my dear, will survive me and remember.
How could it be otherwise?
—From a letter
Old people? What can you write about old people?
They barely feel anything!
—From a conversation