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.
Tekhine imohos (Women’s Supplication of the Matriarchs)
Riboyne shel oylem, Almighty God, You created heaven and earth and all creatures with great compassion within six days and with only ten words. And on the seventh day, which is shabes koydesh, You…
Tsurat bet ha-mikdash (Shape of the Temple Sanctuary)
The Lord to the prophet Ezekiel (may he rest in peace): you, son of man, show the House to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the…
Printer’s Introduction: Bomberg Bible, Second Edition
Thus saith the humble Jacob ben Chajim ben Isaac Ibn Adonijah: “He entereth in peace, where the righteous rest upon their couches, who walked in uprightness.”
Praised be the Creator, who exists and…
Editor’s Apology: She’elot u-teshuvot Maharil
Thus said the editor [megihah], who bursts forth [megi’aḥ] in prostration from his place, and offers his greeting of peace with a bow and while kneeling. His labor is for all those who are wise of…
Introduction: Ladino Translation of the Bible
The Master of the Universe gave us the holy and blessed law so that we would enjoy l’olam haba [the world to come], so that we would know and see the light of eternal life. Study and a good…
Dod Mordekhay (Uncle of Mordechai)
Before we write the answers to the wise man’s questions we will cite the questions he posed in his writings, so that the answers can be positioned opposite the…
The Portrait of Susannah
Although a beautiful shock of golden hair swings across her forehead
And love finds nourishment in her eyes
The chaste Susannah never strays from the right path
And harbors not one thought without…
Sreyfe-lid (The Song about the Burning)
Nothing else makes me really rage
as when a poor man does something [wrong]
he is lost here and there
everyone would happily drink his blood.
But what the rich do here
is always all right
people let…
The Ass’s Complaint
Why is my back loaded with fine flour, while in my mouth there is no bread at all, but only straw? I drink well-water, though I carry wine. And the stick goes on fracturing my skull!
I live in rubble…
The Story of Amīnā and His Wife
Listen, my friends, pay attention!
Be silent, do not restrain me,
Nor say, “That fellow Amīānā’s been unfaithful,
His heart and tongue in two directions pull;
If not, why did he leave his native…
Europe
I have always backed off from the word.
In the Thirties Europe meant French. But was it only then? Not in earlier centuries? A bloody lesson learned that Europe was Balmazújváros as well as Notre…
Mother’s Day, Coney Island: Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Home
And veins web her temples,
and my father pins on the orchid,
and my card names her the best mother.
But Alzheimer’s or arteriosclerosis (the end is the same)
praises him ad nauseum,
but accuses my…