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.
Toledot ha-ari (Life of the Ari)
When [Isaac Luria] was sick, he blessed each companion with a suitable blessing for him, in accordance with the spark of his soul. R. Ḥayim Vital was not there with them at the time of the blessing…
Derashot (Sermons)
And now I will reveal to you why we call the Sabbath before Passover “the Great Sabbath.”
Know that the minister of Egypt is Aries [the ram], and Scorpio, which is with Aries, and its angel is Samael…
Sefer ha-zikhronot (The Book of Memories)
As for myself, I was constantly going back in my studies as well as in manners and conduct. After a while, my father decided to send me to Prague, which was a day’s journey. My older brother was also…
Testimony before the Lisbon Tribunal of Inquisition
I was born in July, 1626, in the French city of Tartas to my father Christopher de Lis and my mother Elisabeth de Pas. She nursed me with her own milk, taught, educated, and held me on her own lap…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: On the Edition
One day, I was reading a certain book, which contained eight commentaries on the Song of Songs. More precious than pearls they are; all of their commentaries are sapphires, the words of the living God…
Sheloshah perushim (Three Commentaries) on the Song of Songs: Story of His Exile
R. Isaac ben Abraham ben Judah ‘Akrish, may he rest in peace, from exile in Spain and Naples, said that he would not receive the proud waters [of baptism; see Psalms 124:5], and was driven out…
Ayn naye kornayk (A New Chronicle)
[1742] In the week when we read the portion Toledoth of the Pentateuch a proclamation was issued by the…
Dofi ha-zeman (Chastisements of the Times)
May the Almighty make His vaporous dew fall, for the benefit of His people and His servants, and may He, in His mercy, restore the souls to the deceased. Let him who understands hear, and let him who…
Narraçāo da vinda dos Judeos espanhões a Amsterdam (Account of the Coming of the Spanish Jews to Amsterdam)
The illustrious gentlemen, ḥakham R. Mosseh Ury ha-Levi (of blessed memory) and his son, R. Aaron Ury ha-Levi, my father and master: both were residents of Emden, in the province of Oost-Friesland…
Tit ha-yaven (The Miry Clay)
Now we shall begin to describe the confrontation of the King of Sweden with the King of Poland. First, the aforementioned King of Sweden came to the holy community of Posen [Poznań], a major Jewish…
Lament on the Ukrainian Massacre
[To the tune of “Adir ayom ve-nora.”]Come, dear friends, let us cry and lamentThe horrible things that have happened in these times.In the year that Messiah was expected amid tribulation [1648],Cossa…