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.
Letter to His Bride
Most magnificent and honored bride, my lady I gaze upon you:
Since I left Piacenza, I can honestly say that I am far away from my life. Oh, how can I live, and how can I hold up my limbs when I am so…
Paraḥ mateh Aharon (The Staff of Aaron Had Sprouted)
The rich and honorable Moshe haCohen, resident of the city Castoria may God protect it, says as follows: he has been given a bad wife, and that during their marital life…
Bet Yosef (The House of Joseph): Introduction
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who created His world for the purpose of mankind, and, from all the different sorts of men, chose for Himself a nation as a special treasure—namely…
Path Jumping
For contracting the path [magically speeding one’s travel—Ed.]: take a kosher parchment and write on it in purity and cleanliness. This requires great intention [kavanah] in the names: “In the name…
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…
Ta‘ame sukkah (Discourse on Sukkot): Account of His Printing Problems
And in it they will find a commentary appropriate to everyone and in it many precious midrashim, sharp pilpulim, light and weighty, Sinai and uprooter of mountains (Berakhot 64a, that is both breadth…
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…
On Life’s Deception and Disillusion
Sad is the man who forgets God
without waking from the dream of his error,
and of the evil that awaits him is never aware
until his sin of his death is the cause.
In his obstinate and…
Tsaḥut bediḥuta de-kiddushin (A Comedy of Betrothal)
Amon and Deborah His WifeAmon:Proclaim to the citizens of our city that in joy and gladness we propose to marry our daughter Beruriah to the handsome Jedidiah, Sholom’s son. Our most…
Voices from a Time
I have no memory of that train trip, probably because there was nothing to remember. Our arrival in Vienna, on the other hand, impressed me. That city reminded me somewhat of Trieste, with its wide…
Multiculturalism versus Pluralism in Israel
Do Israelis have one culture or many cultures, or both one culture and many cultures? This question stems from three directions.
One direction is political. The Rabin assassination exposed a deep…
Ruling on the Kosher Lamp
I was asked by a resident in London concerning a portable electric lamp called “Kosher Lamp” which has a separate upper part which is made to direct the light or to cover it up altogether by twisting…