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.
Anthology of Persian Songs from the Creations of Iranian Jewry
The acquaintance between the Iranian and Jewish peoples began approximately 2,500 years ago. Historical and linguistic evidence supporting this…
Sefer goralot
These illustrated pages are from a manuscript copy of Sefer goralot (Book of Lots), a treatise on geomancy, which was a method of divination popular in the medieval world. The text was attributed…
The Pleasure Trip of Sweethearts Reunited after the Agonies of Love Unrequited in the City of Tiryaq in Iraq
An Explanation of the Plot of this BookNaʿma is the daughter of a caïd of one of the regions in Iraq, and Nuʿman is her paternal first cousin, whom she married while her father was still alive. When…
De la divina providencia, ó sea naturaleza universal (On Divine Providence, or Universal Nature)
Reuben:You are right, for there is no way out of such dilemmas and they allow no subterfuge. However, returning to our topic, before I show you the true definition of this noun Nature, I must explain…
Ḥovot Yehudah (The Duties of Judah)
It was explained earlier in part 2 that faith is [like a] possession that is, it is a possession that belongs to man’s soul, the way knowledge belongs to the soul…
Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being
Love:I see, Brother, that my being and perfection depend entirely on your perfection; and since the perfection of the object you have conceived…
Sefer ha-ḥayim (The Book of Life)
In which it is explained that the essence of the Torah is the performance of the commandments, not intellectual knowledge; and also the reason why it is called the Talmud…
Dialoghi d’amore (Dialogues of Love)
[ . . . ] Philo: I have already told you that the cognition of the generating nature is meant to direct them towards their natural perfection, without any other…
Astronomical Illustration
This diagram of the cosmos is from a treatise on astronomy, Sefer mareh ha-ofanim (The Appearance of the Heavenly Beings), by Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor. The treatise was mostly a translation of…
Letter to the Friends of Lessing (On the Spinoza Conversations between Lessing and Jacobi)
Our friend’s devotion to Spinozism is not to be seen as a mere hypothesis (as the Patriarch in Nathan puts it), postulated simply in order to discuss its pros and cons. Herr Jacobi, a man of…
The Kabbalah, or The Religious Philosophy of the Hebrews
At a time when the worship of the dead letter degenerated into idolatry; at a time when men passed their lives in counting the verses, the words and the letters of the Law, at a time when the official…
In the Valley of Death
Human wisdom has limits—stupidity has none.
God created a world with gifts and blessings for all: earth and water, sun and air in plenty, rye and wheat in abundance, a potato for everyone, a roof…