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.
Old Age
So appreciate your vigor in the days of your youth, before those days of sorrow come and those years arrive of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; before sun and light and moon and…
Job Curses His Birth
Afterward, Job began to speak and cursed the day of his birth. Job spoke up and said:
Perish the day on which I was born,
And the night it was announced,
“A male has been conceived!”
May that day…
God Curses the Serpent and the Ground, the Man, and the Woman
They heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God called out to…
Letter to King Artaxerxes and the King’s Reply
And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia, a letter written in Aramaic and translated.
Aramaic: Rehum the commissioner and…
The Itinerary in the Wilderness
These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as…
Three Things . . . Four Things
The earth shudders at three things,
At four which it cannot bear:
A slave who becomes king;
A scoundrel sated with food;
A loathsome woman who gets married;
A slave-girl who supplants her…
Hillel and Shammai: Sacred Debate in the Talmud
In b. Eruvin 13b, a divine voice declares both Hillel and Shammai correct, revealing how the Talmud sanctifies disagreement and pluralism in law.
The Conquest of the Promised Land
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant:
“My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan…
Josiah (Samuel-Kings)
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. He…
The Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem
At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites, wherever they lived, were sought out and brought to Jerusalem to celebrate a joyful dedication with thanks-giving and with song, accompanied…
Prohibition of Eating Blood
And if anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside among them partakes of any blood, I will set My face against the person who partakes of the blood, and I will cut him off from…
Family Laws
If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, but the first-born is the son of the unloved one—when he wills his property to his…