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A foolish, misunderstood order by the Board of Education about cutting out “mandlen” [tonsils] from children’s throats is interpreted to mean a command to slit childrens’ throats and causes a wild…
A yihud [magical-theurgic “unification”] that my teacher, of blessed memory, taught me to remove an evil spirit: [For] sometimes the soul of an evil person is yet unable to get into Gehinnom because…
A healthy mind lives in a healthy body!This old Latin adage never received proper attention among us Jews, although we do not doubt its truth. Accepted in theory, its thought did not…
This is the book of the generations/children of man, those that were born by my hands among the Hebrew women. I came to them, I the midwife, for they are vital [Exodus 1:15–19] and give birth to a son…
Art, which gives men the means to persevere and cure some sicknesses, seems nowadays to depend on philosophy, which is that great and clear source that produces all that is luminous and useful. I am…
Nothing contributes more to the elegance and refinement of a lady’s appearance than delicate hands; and it is surprising how much it is in the power of all, by proper care and attention, to…
Although the troubles worsened and the city of Padua was in a state of turmoil [see Esther 3:15], there remained hope and divine mercy for the Jews, as not one person in the ghetto was dead or ill…
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…
I was in the midst of a large group of people who were there, close to a hundred people, among them scholars and heads of communities. And two men, who knew adjurations and many things, approached the…
Behold, I am aged and my eyes are dim and my hands heavy and shaky, and at a time when my strength, enabling me to remain standing upon my watch, is ebbing away—with the yoke of the…