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.
Die Erschaffung des Menschen (The Creation of Man)
Die Erschaffung des Menschen (The Creation of Man) is an illustration by Ephraim Moses Lilien for the 1902 German translation of the Yiddish poems of Morris Rosenfeld, Lieder des Ghetto (Songs of the…
Letter to Hugo Boxel
From B. d. S.
Sir,
Yesterday I received your letter, which was very welcome to me, as much because I wanted to hear some news from you as because I see that…
Letter to Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
“I, too, have authority, the authority of the Lord, blessed be He, of the Shekinah and all the members of the Heavenly Academy.”
[Padua, 16 March 1730]
Oh, thou great Prince, lofty pillar, Gaon R…
Shi‘ur komah (Dimensions of the [Divine] Body)
The essence of divinity is found in every single thing—nothing but it exists. Since it causes every thing to be, no thing can live by anything else. It enlivens them; its existence exists in each…
Woman from the Earth
When God created the first man, Adam, and realized that he was all alone, God said: It is not good for a man to be alone and he created a woman for Adam and named her Lilith. From the beginning…
Ark of Covenant and Cherubs
These are modern reconstructions of the Ark of the Covenant. Chests with images on top and with carrying poles are known from ancient Egypt. The depictions of the cherubs here are based on winged…
A Story with a Hermit and a Little Goat
It was a bright and frosty winter night, moon and stars in the sky, snow, bedded snow, in the fields, and no sound from the paths, no horse and sleigh, no bell from the way, just field and peace…
The Tale of the Ba‘al Shem and the Dybbuk
This is no fairy tale, it really happened.
In our shtetl, there was a bright young man named Móyshele. He was as smart as a whip, and also a good-for-nothing. Then all at once he disappeared, and no…
Departure
The rain cleaned off the steep facade of houses;
I write upon the white and stony sheet
And feel how my tired hand so softly rouses
From love poems that always, sweetly, were a cheat.
I wake in the…
Dream Question
A dream question: clean yourself from all impurity and abstain from eating meat, drinking wine, and lying with a woman. And lie in a clean bed after ritually immersing—a stringent immersion, because…
Igerot ha-remez (Epistles of the Secret)
To the eminent sage, his honor our rabbi, R. Samson Bacchi of Casale, may the Compassionate One keep and preserve him
To Ask a Question So as Not to Leave Empty-Handed
More for the aforementioned [recipe so as not to leave empty-handed]: wash your hands and feet in warm water and file the toenail of the left or right hallux with a new knife. Using a needle—not ink…