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.
An Answer to the Slav
I hesitate to sound immodest,
So I must warn you in advance,
If you will listen now in earnest,
Then please excuse my stance.
More startling than other words,
And I will use this…
Family Chronicle
At that time, this story [parashah] was written: a great event happened to the Jews, which caused downfall such as never had been in the world before and never would occur again. They came before the…
Historia de’ riti Ebraici (History of the Jewish Rites): On the Sabbath
- Jews hold the Sabbath, above all other feasts, with the greatest veneration on account of it being named so often in the Scripture and being ordered…
Sermon: On the Holy Land
The three problems that I first asked are explained in regard to all of that which I have said. The first: Why is it called the “Holy Land” and the “Holy Temple”? This is according to the fact that it…
Yiddish Translation of the Bible
Should we not cry and weep that until now our scholars have not concerned themselves to provide us with a 24 [i.e., Bible] in Yiddish, arranged according to the simple meaning of the text, word for…
Dissertaciones sobre el Mesías (Dissertations on the Messiah)
One must not close one’s ears to the heretic, as the orthodox can easily open his eyes. For this reason, pressure and punishment should never be used against any religion. Debates are useful. But…
Nomologia o discursos legales (Nomology, or Legal Discourses)
If, in order to understand the human laws, we utilize the explanations and glosses made by the…
The Prisoner of Desire
Caged in a city of refuge, unredeemed, though the High Priest is already dead; kept alive by the hope of being ransomed; at all times manacled in the chains and bonds of love; struck on the cheek…
As on this month’s last day
As on this month’s last day,
the moon is waning,
make my sins wane, O Lord,
my merits flourish.
I know my heart is hard—
a wicked web whose threads are sin—
and I deserve the fire
for weaving wrong…