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.
Hear my cry, O Lord
Hear my cry, O Lord,Treat Zion well, with favor, speedily.Have mercy, fight my battle for me,For they have turned Jerusalem into ruins.Long have I inhabited a foreign land,Afflicted with bloody…
O age! Here’s something new
O age! Here’s something new that I have filledWith old, like fine oil in a flask.A kind of verse to please men’s mouths and mindsI have invented for exploring love.I provide a model of the differenceB…
Hymn to Bar Yohai
Blessed are you, Bar Yohai, you were anointed by your brethren with the oil of joy:Bar Yohai, with the oil of a sacred shareyou were anointed through holy measure, sanctity’s bud you wore like a…
Megilat Esther (The Scroll of Esther) in Ottava Rima
In those days, a terrible thing happened,
for two officials of the king committed an offence
against their master, and with a flask,
they plotted to poison the king without delay.
Mordecai, who had…
Tratasse sobre o capitulo 53 do propheta lesaya (Treatise on the Message of Isaiah 53)
In this chapter, the prophet speaks mainly of life and spiritual death, and your scholars concede this, as is seen in Nicolão de Lira’s exposition on the same chapter. And thus, you await greater…
The Physician’s Prayer
[ . . . ] Since, therefore, Thou hast favored me with kindness and hast crowned me with honor and glory and Thou hast made me worthy of knowing a bit of the science of medicine, therefore I wish to…
‘Ets ḥayim (Tree of Life)
The Rambam [Maimonides] wrote: The reason why the laws of women precede the laws of damages is in keeping with the order of the verses, as it is stated: If a man sell his daughter as a maidservant…
Yonat ‘elem (Mute Dove)
O God, You have taught me from my youth: and until now I declare Your wondrous deeds (Psalms 71:17)
O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You: my soul thirsts for You. (Psalms 63:2)
When…
Mikveh Yisra’el (The Hope of Israel)
The initial premise of our argument—and the matters of which we speak are of ancient provenance—is that love can be divided into three categories, which are: the love of something beneficial, the love…
Divre Shelomoh (The Words of Solomon)
The portion of Va-yikra’, on the holy Sabbath, 7th Adar II, 5331 [1571]. I delivered this sermon before a large audience, in honor of the King, king of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
[When any…
Darash Moshe (Moses Expounded)
Says Moses, son of my master, our teacher R. Jacob Albelda:My soul, my spirit, and my breath render most copious thanks, tenfold, unto the Lord of all things, may He be blessed and magnified, for all…
Be’er sheva (Well of the Oath)
One must know that man possesses a greater virtue than the beast, because a beast also has in it the breath of life and likewise has the intelligence to eat and drink, and the desire to lie with the…