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)
Inasmuch as the association of balbirer [artisan barbers] have seen boys break away from their masters and think of themselves as expert physicians, and, on account of which, they have failed in…
Ohale Ya‘akov (The Tents of Jacob): On Prayer Customs
To the city of London, to the complete sage R. Solomon Ayalon, in the year 1697.
Appointment of Isaiah Horowitz as Communal Rabbi
We have accepted upon ourselves the rabbi, aluf, the gaon, our teacher and master R. Isaiah ben R. Abraham ha-Levi, of blessed memory, to serve as our av bet din [head of the court] and rosh yeshiva…
Letter to the Community of ‘Akron (Kurdistan)
Blessed are you to God . . . You the holy congregation of ‘Akron, may your Rock and Creator preserve you; inform us about your concerns and tell us about your happenings, for I and the Minister, the…
Takkanot Kandia (Regulations of Candia): On Cursing
A protective fence against those who curse the public and open their mouths without restraint with foul language.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things…
Diario di un viaggio in Terra Santa (Diary of a Journey to the Holy Land): On the Jews of London
“There are two synagogues of the German Jews, and one of the Portuguese, twenty-four cubits broad and forty-two long. Each one has its own management; thus the income of one is not mixed with that of…
Darkhe Tsiyon (Paths to Zion)
There are several ways to get to Jerusalem, as follows. One route is via Vienna, which is a point of departure for group travel to Constantinople, with traders going from Vienna to Ofen [Budapest]…
Sefer ha-ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions): The Soul of the Gentile
In the year 5332 [1572], we went out in the fields and we passed the grave of a gentile that was more than a thousand years old. His Animus was seen on his tombstone and he tried to harm me and kill…
Sefer ha-ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions): On the Afterlife
That year my wife, Hannah, became extremely ill and one Sabbath she was in a coma and close to death. At night, at the conclusion of the Sabbath, we approached her to witness the departure of the…
Testament (Jamaica)
In the name of God, Amen.
I Moses Cohen DeLara of the parish of Kingston in the Island of Jamaica aforesaid Merchant being sick in Body but of Sound memory and…
Last Will and Testament
In the year fifteen hundred and forty-nine, the seventh indiction, the first day of the month of February, during the time of the pontificate of the Holy Father in Christ Our Lord, Lord Paul III, pope…
Sefer ha-tsava’ah (Book of the Testament): Ethical Will
Now I will give instructions concerning how to look after me from the beginning of my final illness—when the day of judgment comes, during all the period of my illness, and the time of my death, when…