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.
‘Olam hafukh (The World Upside Down)
Although the troubles worsened and the city of Padua was in a state of turmoil [see Esther 3:15], there remained hope and divine mercy for the Jews, as not one person in the ghetto was dead or ill…
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…
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…
Moshia‘ ḥosim (Savior of Those Who Take Refuge)
On the signs of the plague and the poisonous fever that is called pestilence, and how a person should conduct himself to guard himself from them, in accordance with the nature of this lower…
Novelot ḥokhmah (Fallen Fruit of Wisdom)
[ . . . ] Now you know and are witness that I have composed several works on various topics. However, I did not write them in order to publish them; rather, I prepared them for my own use, to…
Lament on the Fire of Salonika
And yet she was the jewel of perfection to all far and near
Who had not seen such splendor, all who came from north and south
From all lands and gathered there, the distinguished
Who were drawn to…