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 Resorting to Non-Jewish Law Courts
And now we see that the number of servants breaking away from their Master, our Heavenly Father, increases daily, in that whenever they have a quarrel with their Jewish brothers or sisters they have…
Takkanot (Regulations)
They that went before were affrighted (Job 18:20); [they took] a path that many have trod, princes most honorable (Numbers 22:15); the customs of our fathers are in our hands [b. Shabbat 35b], and it…
Letter
And so let it be known to your Excellency what happened to the letter that your Excellency sent me with the etrogs [citrons]. The letter was not handed to me until the [week of the] Sabbath of Vayetze…
Seder taḥanunim u-fiyutim u-fizmonim ve-kinot (Order of Additional Daily Hymns and Prayers)
The princes of the peoples gathered together [see Psalms 47:10] to restore the crown to its former glory and to pray in the great synagogue before sunrise, as was done previously and in past times…
Tales of Asenath Barazani inside an Amulet
Asenath the daughter of R. Samuel Adoni (Barazani) was a wise woman and a great Torah scholar. She studied the secrets of kabbalah and acquired a considerable reputation for performing miracles and…
Amulet
This early printed amulet from Germany, meant as protection for a woman in childbirth, is adorned with woodcuts illustrating the Hebrew months of the year. The main panel, framed by images of the…
Sefer ha-yashar (Book of the Upright)
And it happened that one day, the sons of Jacob went to graze their sheep in Shechem, for they still grazed in Shechem in those days. And when the sons of Jacob were grazing their flock in Shechem…
I am your God and Lord
I am your God and Lord
Who with infinite power
Freed you from Egypt
Where you lived in suffering
And harsh despair.
Do not revere
Foreign gods before me,
And make no trophies
In the likeness of the…
Letter to Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
“I, too, have authority, the authority of the Lord, blessed be He, of the Shekinah and all the members of the Heavenly Academy.”
[Padua, 16 March 1730]
Oh, thou great Prince, lofty pillar, Gaon R…
Letter to Yemenite Chief Rabbi Shalom Iraqi
To the city of Yemen, Sheikh Shalom, on the 4th of Shevat [9th January 1742] from the Constantinople officials, may the Lord protect them.
The son of a valiant man, who had done mighty deeds, of…
Shete yadot (Two Hands): Or Torah (The Light of Torah)
The first “finger” is called Or Torah (The Light of Torah), as it consists of my notes on the Torah. Now, these notes will be useful for all people, but will provide their fullest benefit only to…
Shirat dodi (Song of My Beloved)
“An accepted custom in Israel has the status of a biblical command” [see Tosafot on b. Menaḥot 20b], and we are required to study it [see, e.g., b. Megillah 28a], in order to…