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How, I ask you, could we have continued to be a nation until the present, and how could we have been able to walk such a great distance along the path of history without losing our unity or having our…
There is a matter well known and widely publicized among all those who have come through the gates of our city, Constantinople [Istanbul], may God preserve it. . . . [I]t occurred about two years…
The Birth of the Ba‘al Shem Tov
One of the greatest phenomena, running like a thread throughout the spiritual history of the Jewish people, is mysticism, a remnant of ancient mythology, which could…
Our master, the holy rabbi, told a tale of the Ba‘al Shem Tov (may his memory be for a blessing to the life of the world to come!). There was once a matter involving great danger to the human life of…
Since the theme of the Noachide commandments has arisen for consideration, I shall mention here what I presented before the assembly of rabbis in the great city [Paris] in the year 5567 [1807], and it…
The Sultan Selim loved the Jews very much, for he realized that with their help he could strike nations and kill mighty kings. [ . . . ] And it came to pass on the third day, when the Sultan…
On the Sabbath a few young girls were [playing] going up and down a ladder in the house of Bella Stella. One of them, Marchigiana, daughter of Aron di Joab, [tripped . . . and] fell; and her virginity…
After these things, Ahmed Shaitan desired of the Jews a hundred and fifty thousand great gold pieces, and he also said, If ye bring them not quickly, I shall kill you with the sword. And when the Jews…
I stayed a long time in Hanau because of the heavy burden laid upon me from teaching youth. Although this is a labor performed for the sake of Heaven, it is nonetheless the case that whoever pleases…
This book seeks to unfold before the reader the scroll of Jewish valor, in both Israel and the diaspora, from the destruction of the Hebrew state to the harbingers of the renaissance of the…