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.
The Amsterdam Residence of Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mazes Curiël)
The wealthy merchant and diplomat Jeronimo Nunes da Costa (Mozes Curiël; 1620–1697) was born in Florence. In 1627, his family settled in Hamburg, where his father, a businessman, became an important…
Minhage Vormeiza (Customs of Worms): On Tishah be-Av
The people recite teḥinot [supplications] during the morning prayers on the eve of the Tishah be-Av (Ninth of Av). They then dine before entering into the synagogue for the…
Pesak (Decision): On a Secret Marriage
At a sitting of three judges we the undersigned sat as a court on the fourth day of the month of Adar 2 in the year 5376 [1616] here in Vercelli after permission was given to us from his excellency…
Amulet for the Evil Eye
Amulets for the evil eye; tested. Write on either a kosher or deerskin parchment, on a day of [reading from] the Torah, before eating anything. And calculate in that hour which day it is and which…
Igerot ha-remez (Epistles of the Secret)
To the eminent sage, his honor our rabbi, R. Samson Bacchi of Casale, may the Compassionate One keep and preserve him
Colophon: Tefilah le-Moshe (Prayer of Moses)
I set the Yiddish letters with my own hands.
Elle, daughter of the respected rabbi Moses from Holland.
I am not more than nine years old.
Among six children I am the only daughter.
Therefore, if you…
Commentary: On the Jerusalem Talmud
With a brief commentary and some Tosafot (additions) which were balanced, refined, and written by the Torah scholar, the great rabbi, R. Elijah ben Judah Loeb, who dwells in the land of Fulda, based…
Responsum: On Reciting the Shema‘ in the Presence of Bareheaded Women
‘Arukh ha-shulḥan, oraḥ ḥayim § 75:7And now come and let us shout out against the licentiousness of our generation, on account of our many sins. For it has now been many years that the daughters of…
Responsum: On Civil Marriage
I set the Lord before me always. Karcag [Hungary], eve of the holy Sabbath, the week of [the reading of] Koraḥ, 5659 [June, 1899]. Abundant blessings and rejoicings to my dear friend, the eminent…
Responsum: On Civil Marriage
Question: Whether in those marriages contracted under civil marriage law—without betrothal according to the rite of Moses and Israel—the woman can leave without a get [Jewish religious writ of divorce…
A Zionist Manifesto
To the Jewish People: The second of November, 1917, is an important milestone on the road to our national future; it marks the end of an epoch, and it opens out the beginning of a new era. The Jewish…
Nerves
A perfumelike smell, which came from the low clumps of acacia trees, or “mimosas,” as some liked to call them, scented the air of the small Jewish colony in southern Palestine. In the expanse of sky…