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.
Lament on the Ukrainian Massacre
[To the tune of “Adir ayom ve-nora.”]Come, dear friends, let us cry and lamentThe horrible things that have happened in these times.In the year that Messiah was expected amid tribulation [1648],Cossa…
‘Ets ḥayim (Tree of Life)
These are the generations of Isaac ben ḥayim ben Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac (Genesis 25:19) ben Joseph among the kohanim who trace their family back to Pinehas, son of Eliezer, son of Aaron the…
Memoirs
[ . . . ] Let us return to my maternal grandmother, Matte, of blessed memory. After she married off my late aunt Ulk, she was left penniless with the fatherless child my mother, may she live…
Yesh noḥalin (Some Inherit)
Again, I caution you: when you go to some feast in celebration of the performance of a mitzvah, do not focus only on eating and drinking. Rather, you should first ask some sort of praiseworthy…
Capitoli (Regulations) of Rome
These are the statutes created by the entire association of the Jews of Rome—Italian and foreigners—organized by Daniel da…
Minute Book
In the Name of the Blessed God Amen
Whereas on or about the Year 5466 [1706] certain wholesome Rules and Restrictions have been made By the then Elders of our Holy Congregation, to Preserve Peace…
Responsum: On a Dispute over a Vineyard
Question: From Rhodes. When the Lord expanded the borders [see Deuteronomy 19:8] of the dispersion of the diaspora and granted us a remnant and remainder in the kingdom of Turkey, He treated us with…
Liturgy for the Ashmoret ha-boker (Morning Watch) Confraternity
The Zohar, in the portion of Naso on the verse and in the night His song shall be with…
Bet Yehudah (The House of Judah)
The Hakham Rabbi Abraham Monson, may God protect him, was a resident of Tétouan, where he was born and raised among his siblings and relatives. When he reached the appropriate age he married a woman…
Nishmat ḥayim (Breath of Life)
Behold, we have before us the head of the rationalists [or “rational theologians”], Maimonides, may his memory be for a blessing. In chapter three of Hilkhot teshuvah [Mishneh Torah, Laws of…
Letter to Jarig Jelles
From B. d. S.
[Dear Friend],
As far as Politics is concerned, the difference you ask about, between Hobbes and me, is this: I always preserve natural Right…
Letter to Isaiah Bassan
O great mountain (Zechariah 4:7), the exalted and raised (Isaiah 52:13), precious cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16), my teacher, my rabbi, may the Merciful One guard and bless him, may God protect him and…