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.
Synagogue Judaica
This is the frontispiece of a 1661 edition of Synagoga Judaica, a study of the customs and culture of German Jewry by Christian Hebraist, and polemical critic of Judaism, Johannes Buxtorf the Elder…
Tombstone of Mordechai Franco Mendes and His Wife Sara Franco Mendes
This gravestone in the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands (est. 1614), that of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam, is inscribed in memory of Mordechai Franco Mendes (d…
Bomberg Babylonian Talmud
Printing, which Jews adopted immediately after its invention, helped to unify far-flung communities. Where previously Jewish learning had been transmitted through the individual copying of manuscripts…
Introduction: Simeon bar Tsemaḥ, Sefer ha-tashbets
This is both Sinai and the uprooter of mountains, the book Sefer Hatashbeṣ, which was composed by the king, the great eagle, the renowned sage, the grand prince, the light of…
Letter to His Son
To be given to my dearly beloved and pleasant son-in-law—who fears sin and all whose deeds are worthy—the respected Mr. Falk.
He who delivers this letter, on him be blessing.
From the holy community…
Pardes rimonim (Garden of Pomegranates)
One who uses the Ineffable Name in this world will have a great punishment, and the reason for this is that he mentions holy letters in impurity, and combines that which is holy with that which is…
Seder tefilot yesharot u-varot (The Order of Upright and Pure Prayers)
Kabbalists prayed using the basic Jewish prayers, but added certain elements according to their own tradition. The prayers are often presented with kavanot (special devotional forms, meanings, and…
Colophon: Pentateuch with Rashi and Other Commentaries
From the day that God confused all the languages of the land [see Genesis 11:9], through the bitter and rapid exile of the expulsion from Spain, since then all good things have ended for us; our glory…
Printer’s Preface: Tsene rene
God, blessed be He, knew very well that the people of Israel would be scattered among the nations and that most of them would not be able to understand the holy tongue [Hebrew]. Therefore our sages…
Shāhzada va Ṣūfī (The Prince and the Sufi)
In the Name of God, May We Endeavor and Succeed.
I Behold God before my Eyes at All Times.
A Dedication to My Master, My Father, May He Live Forever.
Bottles
Mom was taken away, I don’t know exactly where. Dad says she is in a nice place where they take good care of her. I miss her…although I understand. Dad says she suffered from a sickening love for…