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.
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…
Sefer ha-ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions): The Soul of the Gentile
In the year 5332 [1572], we went out in the fields and we passed the grave of a gentile that was more than a thousand years old. His Animus was seen on his tombstone and he tried to harm me and kill…
For Opening the Heart
For opening the heart; tested and tried. Take a new glass and write on it:
I adjure you, Patḥiel, to open my heart to all the Torah to learn all that I desire. That my heart should be as an…
Founding Charter
In the year five thousand three hundred twenty-four [1564] of the Creation of the World, when we are returned to the houses of our fathers from the four corners of the world. After the expulsion in…
Me’ah she‘arim (A Hundred Gates)
After we have proved that it is more suitable for man to be careful with the rational commandments than with all other types of commandments, we must say that this exalted commandment, i.e…
Libes briv (Love Letter)
I must first briefly describe human nature. Namely, we people contain within us the four fundamental [elements] like all other species of creation that are below us or inferior to us. It…
Ari nohem (Roaring Lion)
Why this knowledge, which is called “the science of kabbalah” [ḥokhmat ha-kabbalah] contradicts itself, and each one of these names (i.e., “science” and “kabbalah”) is not suitable to it…
Divre Neḥemiah (The Words of Nehemiah)
Thus said the author, Nehemiah Ḥiya, son of my master, my father, Moses Ḥayun: I myself know that all who see this book will be greatly astonished, and they will say, “Look at the…
Letter about the Travels of Abraham Rovigo
Abraham Rovigo (1650–1713) was born in Modena and studied kabbalah under Moses Zacuto in Venice. Rovigo’s wealth enabled him to devote himself to study and to support pious endeavors. Swept up by…
Leḥem Yehudah (The Bread of Judah): On the Fate of the First Edition
I printed my book [Leḥem Yehudah] in Venice at the beginning of for the Almighty Shadai [in gematria = 1553] has dealt very bitterly with me (Ruth 1:20) and the ruler of Rome [the Pope] decreed that…