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.
Letter to Her Daughter
If we should lack nothing else than veils, it would be all right.
May peace and healthy days be your lot always; to you, my much beloved daughter, may you live long, you who are pious and virtuous…
Shulḥan ha-panim (The Shewbread Table) or Meza de el alma
This book is a translation of all the Laws that are necessary for people of whatever sort. Translated from the book written by the accomplished sage who edited and expanded the Law in…
Shevet musar (Rod of Correction): On Contemplating Death
The enlightened will awaken, and he who understands will rise up to waken his soul, which will speak to his body; and his body will speak with his evil inclination.
And thus, the soul will…
Confession
I admit my guilt that about a year ago I was in the home of Juan Estevan when his daughter Inés said to me: “Come here, cousin, would you like to see your mother who is long deceased? and to save your…
Letter about the Coming of the Messiah
I received your letter, and since you believed that I sent to you concerning matters of our Messiah of Truth, I shall fulfill the wishes of your heart and your feelings of deficiency, and I shall tell…
Appointment of the Jerusalem Officials
Copy of the authorization of the honored Officials sent from the holy city.
We, the undersigned, the sages and elders and patrons and officials and leaders of the holy city of Jerusalem, attest a…
Metsaḥ Aharon (Aaron’s Forehead)
An event occurred to a person named Samuel, who was a great wise man down on his luck. He converted from Judaism and became one of the uncircumcised, accepting their religion. He learned their…
Crackpot
[…] Didn’t she go to all the weddings in the neighbourhood? All that she got wind of, anyhow, and that were big enough for the dance to be given in a hall or a synagogue basement. A lot of them took…
Oh Sabbath!
You, my dear, will survive me and remember.
How could it be otherwise?
—From a letter
Old people? What can you write about old people?
They barely feel anything!
—From a conversation
The Galician Woman
Do you know what was being discussed today on the radio talk show where everyone can call in and take part in the conversation? We, all of us, are crazy, a certain professor, a psychiatrist, said. So…
The Rabbi of Lud
[…] There I am, a kid in Chicago. Not from a particularly religious family. On top of the world, in the middle of the middle class. Ten years old and an only child. The war over half a decade and the…
The Flight of the Dove
The light passes through the curtain and brightens it, spreading a dull glow over the night-table and drawing a single shining line over the edge of the ashtray. The woman’s one eye follows it until…