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.
Takkanot (Regulations)
Every householder is required to have his son taught in school at least until he is twelve years old. He must take care of him and pay his tuition as much as he can afford. If he is unable to pay, he…
Takkanah (Regulation): On Rabbinic Ordination
So that the truth may not be lacking, the honorable small committee, may God preserve it, considered it their duty to inscribe in a book that which was not written regarding the ordination of his…
Responsum: On a Dispute over a Shipment of Wax
Question: The following incident occurred in Rhodes: Reuben purchased 530 okes of wax from Simeon via a third party. Reuben did not take this wax into his possession; rather, as soon as he bought it…
Shevet musar (Rod of Correction): Instructions for a Wife
These are the conditions for a proper wife so that she will be cherished by her husband, so that he will not come to set his…
Birth Amulet
Printed birth amulet. The decorative borders are composed of printers’ devices and decorations that were used by printers in Fürth (Bavaria), so it is assumed that this amulet was printed in that city…
Curaçao Cemetery, Gravestone Inscriptions
Italics indicate that the text was written in Hebrew, not Portuguese.
Binah le-‘itim (Understanding of the Times)
First, we will explain the reason for the custom of all Israel to read from Tractate Avot on these Sabbaths. We would like to analyze the meaning of the name of the tractate, why it is called Avot…
Messiah
Son of fruitful Joseph, precious Ephraim,
child of joy, lush grove of magnificence,
you will exult and rejoice—for, with a vengeance,
the Just will arise over the House of the Barren
when the time…
Dedication (to Gracia Nasi): Ferrara Bible
It would not seem proper, most magnificent Lady, that now we are about to print the Bible in our Spanish tongue, translated from the Hebrew word for word—so rare a work never before known until our…
Spanish Translation of the Bible
In his De officiis, most discreet reader, Tullius Cicero writes that nothing can move us so powerfully as to see some form or kind of benefit, which must be esteemed all the more, the less it is of an…
Amude shesh (Marble Pillars)
And with this ethical teaching I saw fit to seal up the pillar of Torah, which in our generation is very much weakened, and on the verge of the abyss, as all its methods of study are corrupt from the…
Midrash Shemu’el (The Midrash of Samuel)
Furthermore, I say that another reason for this [commentary] is that since all of these ethical principles were given to Moses at Sinai and it is necessary to fulfill them, when one hears about them…