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.
God, Man, and History
[ . . . ] Immanuel Kant once wrote: “The true [moral] service of God is . . . invisible, i.e., it is the service of the heart, in spirit and in truth, and it may consist . . . only of intention.” Thi…
Is the Printing Press Harmful? A Rabbi from Sarajevo Responds
How great is the benefit of the printing houses, for thanks to the power of the printing press, the Torah is enhanced everywhere in the world. The rabbis are certainly making the effort to produce…
The Pleasure Trip of Sweethearts Reunited after the Agonies of Love Unrequited in the City of Tiryaq in Iraq
An Explanation of the Plot of this BookNaʿma is the daughter of a caïd of one of the regions in Iraq, and Nuʿman is her paternal first cousin, whom she married while her father was still alive. When…
Plunder of the Ghetto Following the Fettmilch Riots against the Jews of Frankfurt am Main Plunder of the Ghetto
In August 1614, a gingerbread baker named Vincenz Fettmilch (d. 1616) led a mob that rampaged through the Judengasse (Jews’ street) in Frankfurt am Main, injuring and killing two or three Jews…
Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam)
This two-page spread from Elijah ben Moses Loanz’s Toledot Adam (The Generations of Adam) includes examples of some of the kabbalistic amulets and formulae for which he was famous.
Portrait of a Man, Thought to Be Dr. Ephraim Bueno
Rembrandt lived in the part of Amsterdam where the artist’s guild (St. Luke’s Guild) was located; by coincidence, it was home also to a number of Jews. His artworks attest to an interest in the…
Book of Prayers for the Gravediggers Society
This illustration from a book of prayers for the Jewish Gravediggers Society depicts the cycle of life. Figures of men and women in pairs ascend and descend the staircase, progressing from youth to…
Talmud
The twelve-volume “Bermann Talmud'' was financed by the Court Jew Behrend Lehmann (Issachar Bermann Segal), printed in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, by Michael Gottschalk, and published by John…
Haggadah (Mantua)
This Haggadah from Mantua, published by the Christian printer Giacomo Rufinelli under the supervision of Isaac ben Solomon Bassan, relies heavily on the Prague Haggadah of 1526, with the addition of…
Sha‘ar ruaḥ ha-kodesh (The Gate of the Holy Spirit)
A yihud [magical-theurgic “unification”] that my teacher, of blessed memory, taught me to remove an evil spirit: [For] sometimes the soul of an evil person is yet unable to get into Gehinnom because…
For One Who Becomes Possessed
One who becomes possessed by a demon should recite this adjuration three times, and it [the demon] will leave him, God willing.
In the explicit name [Shem ha-meforash] of the God of Israel may His…
A Ruling on the Printing of the Zohar
The earth made noise as did the heavens, and the doorposts are shaking at the voice crying out that it would be wrong to publish hidden and sealed materials and to break through the fence established…