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.
A Bag of Lies
Our associates claim—and in moments of weakness we tend to agree—that this compilation has no need for introduction because the subjects speak for themselves. In addition, we cannot…
Toldot Ya‘akov Yosef (The Offshoots of Jacob Joseph)
I heard from the venerable rabbinic scholar, R. Nahman, an interpretation of the words of [the Besht] that one should intend in every word that he utters submissiveness…
Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, or the Religious Question in the Nineteenth Century
In all times of transition such as the one we are now undergoing, on every occasion when human society passes from one era to another era, from one way of doing things to another way of doing them…
Phaedon
Following the example of Plato, I have Socrates in his last hours relate the arguments for the immortality of the human soul to his students. The dialogue of the Greek author, which has the name Phaed…
Outside #3
In one of her early photography projects, Rovner took Polaroids of an abandoned Bedouin shack in the desert and reprinted them in different ways. Here the shack appears blurred, ghostly, as if seen…
Group of Soldiers
Based on an earlier (1992) image with soldiers in mixed media, this painting depicts soldiers in a setting that does not suggest a particular place. Instead, the yellow background with various insects…
Sheloshah tso‘akim (Three Who Cry Out)
Hear, O Israel, descendants of holy ones: see that newcomers have recently arrived intending to make grapes, but instead have produced wild grapes [see Isaiah 5:2]. There is no local foundation for…
Memórias do estabelecimento e progresso dos judeus portuguezes e espanholes nesta famosa cidade de Amsterdam (Account of the Establishment and Progress of the Portuguese and Spanish Jews in This Famous City of Amsterdam)
On the night of 20 Iyar 5503 [May 14, 1743], the sad news was announced regarding the death of the most exemplary ḥazan [cantor] R. Sem[uel] Rod[rigue]s Mendes, in…
Yam shel Shelomoh (Sea of Solomon)
Solomon of yore said in his wisdom, “More than these, my son, beware of making many books without limit” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Our rabbis interpreted this in Tractate Eruvin that it teaches the…
Tet/Nine
The one who whispers in automobiles
Causes streetlamps to tremble with thanksgiving as he kneels
And brings their harsh hauteur low as they boast
At the hour of perfect darkness
At the height of the…
Jeremiah’s Symbolic Purchase of Land
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging…
The Death of Ezekiel’s Wife, a Portent
The word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, I am about to take away the delight of your eyes from you through pestilence; but you shall not lament or weep or let your tears flow. Moan softly…