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.
‘Ir giborim (City of Heroes)
It is known that in the case of any proper work to be accomplished or any project to be achieved, the essential point is the end goal [תכלית] of the project…
Colophon: Tikune ha-Zohar (Mantua Edition)
The peaceable and faithful in Israel (2 Samuel 20:19), the heads of the exile of Ariel, the same are the mighty men of old, the men of renown (Genesis 6:4), wise men of understanding [see Deuteronomy…
They call him Meir
When I heard that Meir the teacher had exchanged his glory for futility, I said:
They call him Meir, but he has no light, for all the lights around him have gone dim.
Indeed, he has a thick cloud…
Her Hair
O peerless beauty, veil your hair, lest you play havoc with the world, without lifting a finger! They are famous throughout the world, they ring in the ears of all who hear of them. The weakest…
To His Gadabout Wife
Only three exits are becoming to every woman, big or small. The first is when she exits from the womb, dirtied, as if from a deep swamp. The second is when she exits from her woman’s tent and enters…
Like the Root
You’ve grown
but not
grown up
You’re ripe
as earth is raw
where roots probe deep
Like all roots
you probe
in deep darkness
Translated by Marcia Falk.
Exercises in Practical Hebrew
“Are you at peace? Hast thou killed and also taken possession?”
(examples of interrogative sentences in a grammar book)
Vishniac’s Windows
How long this staring through a window
In an alley-way by few remembered,
Into the obscure, into a room
Empty of all but its walls
Where pictures hang all in shadow
But for one of mild eyes wide,
As…
Cult statues in Assyrian relief
Cult statues in Assyrian relief from the Palace of Tiglath-pileser III (reigned 745–727 BCE) in Kalhu/Calah (today’s Nimrud, Iraq). Although no Mesopotamian cult statues have been found, reliefs such…
Lamelekh Seal Impression with Four-winged Scarab Beetle
Some lamelekh impressions, like this one from Lachish, have a four-winged scarab beetle as their central image. The scarab beetle was an important mythological symbol in Egypt, associated with Khepri…
Words of Ahiqar
Words of Ahiqar, Elephantine, 5th century BCE. This Aramaic manuscript contains the oldest-known version of Ahiqar, a wisdom book that includes proverbs similar to those found in the biblical book of…