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Idol-quickening instructions, Babylonia, 6th century BCE. The “mouth-washing” ritual was a ceremony for transforming a newly manufactured idol into a living deity. The instructions include these…
On the day of my abundant joy
illness suddenly overcame me
Birth pangs and rupture
overwhelmed me
I gave birth and died, like a blossom
I turned away
And the fruit of my womb was
brought with me to…
The first Jewish community was established in Kingston, Jamaica by refugees from Spain and Portugal after 1492. This tombstone in the cemetery of She‘are Shalom Synagogue marks the grave of Abraham…
Mikri (“little one”) Wife of Yehuda Hamon (d. 1642)
Yesterday I was playing on the earth, in my husband’s embrace, like a tiny lamb, And an angel came and preyed upon me in his wrath…
The text on this inscription, dating from the establishment of the Rema Synagogue in Krákow, reads, in part: “The man, R. Israel ben Joseph (of blessed memory), gathered his strength, for the honor of…
In the eponymate of Dayan-Ashur, on the 14th of Aiaru (Iyyar), I set out from Nineveh . . .
I set out from the Euphrates and approached Aleppo. They (i.e., the inhabitants of Aleppo) were afraid of…
Caption Translated by Mordechai Cogan.
Neḥama wife of Shalom Uri
Buried on Sunday, the 11th of Tevet 5337
This stone is a witness between us:
That death has climbed up into our window:
And eclipsed the…
Here is a man who revered The Name with loveWhose name was known For his generous spiritHe gave to charity To failing soulsFrom his pocket and his wealth Until…
Italics indicate that the text was written in Hebrew, not Portuguese.