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.
Hand-Washing Basin
Before the priestly blessing is recited in the synagogue, those making the blessing ritually wash their hands. It is also customary for Jews to wash their hands before entering a synagogue for worship…
Postage Stamp
When the company owned by Jacob Abraham Jesurun (1806–1875) obtained a contract for mail delivery within the Caribbean in 1867, it had its own stamps printed featuring the firm’s initials, J. A. J. &…
The Book of Leviticus, Translated and Explained
The present commentary on Leviticus is based on my lectures on Leviticus given at the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin in 1873/4 and 1876/7. This fact explains the approach and the economy of my…
On the Question of All Questions Concerning the Settling of the Land
The Arab Question—with which the youngsters born in this Land have been familiar for many years, and because of which they were subject to disgrace and ridicule by the prominent men within the Yishuv…
When You Suffer, They Shall Find You
The time (in which we live) is truly “a time to work for the Almighty,” and great is the responsibility now falling upon every Jew with the ability to do so. [ . . . ] All the lands of the diaspora…
The Universalism of Judaism: An Italian Sephardic Perspective
Let us first of all point out that the establishment of a universal religion, Judaism’s ultimate aim, necessitated an exceptional strictness and severity in the particularities of Jewish religious…
Letter to Shmuel Niger on the New Jewish Book
Deeply respected Niger,I ask you to endure me in Russian.I want to express to you my happiness that we are approaching the time of the new Jewish book, a book created with love towards [the thing]…
Sefat emet: The Inner Sustaining Point
He looked, and there was a well in the field, and there were three flocks of sheep lying down by it, for from that well the flocks were watered. But the stone was large on the mouth of the well. When…
Ideological Diversity and Unity: Orthodoxy, Nationalism, and Liberalism
Three forces are wrestling now in our camp. The battle between them is especially discernible in Erets Yisrael, but their effect draws from the life of the nation at large, and their roots are…
Who Is a Sephardi?
Haifa 1 Elul, 5724 August 9, 1964 To: His Excellency David Ben-Gurion Sde BokerDear Sir,From your letter of May 19, 1964, I understood that you wish to avoid a comprehensive discussion of the problems…
A Kind of Survivor
For Elie Wiesel
Not literally. Due to my father’s foresight (he had shown it when leaving Vienna in 1924), I came to America in January 1940, during the phony war. We left France, where I was born and…