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…
Me‘il tsedakah (Robe of Righteousness)
Regarding that which is written: a man’s gift [makes room for him] (Proverbs 18:16), this means that the gift itself, which one personally gives to the poor, will make room for him. When you provide…
A Zarqa Table
In this table, giving the notation for chanting the Torah, the musical notes indicate the melody of each cantillation mark, while the Hebrew words below them indicate the name and shape of the mark.
Petitionary Prayer
Peh
Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter into them, I will give thanks to the Lord (Psalms 118:19);
He has regarded the prayer of the destitute and has not despised their prayer…
Amulet with Coat of Arms
Silver amulet typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Italian Jewish homes. This example from Venice is unusual in that it contains an unidentified family coat of arms whose main feature is a…
Colophon: Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Mivḥar ha-peninim
And the work was finished on the eve of Sabbath, in
the month of Shebat, in the year 307, in the great
city of Venice which is under the rule of
the Signoria, may God increase their
glory, and in the…
Compendia de las sheḥitot (Compendium of the Laws of Kosher Slaughtering)
This is a short compendium of the sheḥitot [rules for kosher slaughter] taken from Rabbenu Moshe [Maimonides] and Rabbenu Ya‘akob [Jacob ben Asher], without any errors about what is required, and with…
‘Ets ḥayim (Tree of Life)
For I heard slander, fear was on every side [see Psalms 31:14], as the son of the despised maidservant slanders the son of the mistress, saying, “Those miserable Jews, they had a single language from…
Midrash on the Sayings of the Fathers
There was once a king who built a beautiful palace and hired two painters to paint it to the best of their abilities. He would pay them well.
And the painters said, “We will work diligently and…
Torat ha-‘olah (Law of the Burnt Offering): On the Lunar Calendar
I found it written somewhere that the eleven offerings brought on Rosh ḥodesh [the New Moon] correspond to the eleven extra days of the solar year over and above those of the…
Fuente clara (Clear Fountain)
The polemical Judeo-Spanish work (written in Hebrew characters) Fuente clara (Clear Fountain; drawing on Psalm 84) was published in Salonika. Its anonymous author, a philosopher and physician…