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.
Midbar Yehudah (The Wilderness of Judah)
We must consider these three things: what great good we had in the past, the great distress and iniquity which we are in today, and…
Prayer
These are the “prayers” that Brites Henriques recited and the notary transcribed.
Every Morning [Prayers]
Praised be the Lord
Who is so enlightened,
May you, My Lord, be served
By making me…
Confession
Prosecutor’s evidence: In Herrera on the twenty-first of May in the year 1500, before the lord inquisitors in the general inquisition.
Witness: Inés, daughter of Juan Esteban, residing in the town of…
Commentary: On Psalms
For the leader. A psalm of David. The fool said in his heart there is no God . . . (Psalms 14:1–2).
Now [the psalmist] declares the reasoning of the fool, and what argument he has…
Socrate, overo, Dell’humano sapere esercitio seriogiocoso (Socrates, or On Human Knowledge)
Socrates’ defence was very carefully heard in the presence of the Academicians in the public assembly over a few days, and it produced no little disquiet in the minds of the judges, whose minds turned…
Enough of girls! I’d rather live alone
Enough of girls! I’d rather live alone
Than touch those reptiles, though they may be fair.
I’m sick and tired of wasting on the air
My strength and every penny that I own.
For once they’re mine…
Perek be-shir (A Treatise on Poetry)
A compilation containing all the techniques of poetry simply put; covering all the principles, meters, rhymes, correct methods, and true rules; sifted and clarified; solid as a bronze mirror, such…
Jephthah Sacrifices His Daughter
When Jephthah set out for the road
He did so full of happiness and joy.
He had a daughter, a solitary cypress,
Her visage fairyborn; two…
Beri‘ah ve-Zimrah (Briyo and Zimro)
Zimro, the son of Tovas [ . . . ] was very good-looking, highly intelligent, and a scholar. Now, the king loved him more than any other member of the royal household. He was the leading figure at…
The Life of Alexander Zilber
He and I rarely spoke of God. He didn’t want to listen to another one of my blasphemous speeches, and I knew it was like talking to a brick wall—you could never convince him of anything.
But once—by…
The Dove Keeper
David and Nicolás raised a dove for me. They had her for about a month in the count’s house, trying to become fond of her because she was from the messenger race, and they wanted me to use her to send…
The Saga of the Marrano
This is the moment Francisco has been waiting for. Day after day and week after week he has imagined the court’s questions, turned them over in his mind, and minutely rehearsed his answers. Now fear…