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.
Christian Prayer Sequence Modeled on the Rabbinic Tefillah
Our eternal Savior:
the King of the gods,
who alone is Almighty and Lord,
the God of all…
Qumran Covenant Ceremony Blessings and Curses
And the priests shall bless all the men of the lot of God who walk perfectly in all his ways, saying: “May he bless you with all good, and preserve you from all evil! May he lighten your heart with…
Preexistent Wisdom as Torah
Wisdom praises herself,
and tells of her glory in the midst of her people.
In the assembly of the Most High she opens her mouth,
and in the presence of his hosts she tells of her glory:
“I came…
Mastering the Emotions
It is evident that reason rules even the more violent emotions: lust for power, vainglory, boasting, arrogance, and malice. For the temperate mind repels all these malicious emotions, just as it…
Wisdom versus Labor
How can one become wise who handles the plow,
and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
and whose talk is about bulls?
Translation from the New…
Synagogue Seating according to One’s Craft
R. Judah [b. Ilai] said, “Whoever has never seen the double stoa [i.e., colonnade] of Alexandria has never in his life seen the glory of Israel. It is a kind of large basilica, a stoa within a stoa…
Disputes between Babatha and Her Co-Widow, Miriam
Before the attending witnesses who also affixed their signatures, Babathas (sic), a Maozene woman, daughter of Simon, summoned Miriam, an En-gedian woman, daughter of Beianos, to accompany her in…
Philo’s Explanation of Sukkot
The last of the annual feasts, called Tabernacles, recurs at the autumn equinox. From this we may draw two morals. The first is, that we should honour equality and hate inequality, for the former is…
The Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av
6. There were five events that happened to our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz and five on the ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were shattered, the tamid offering was…
Condition-Free Divorce
If a man divorces his wife and said to her, “You are free to marry any man but so-and-so,” R. Eliezer permits her [to marry on the strength of this get], but the rabbis forbid her. What should he do…
Ritual Bath
1:1. There are six types of bodies of water [that may be used for immersion], one superior to another, and another one superior to that one. Water in cisterns: If an impure person drank [from it] and…
A Heavenly Messiah
And I saw there one who was Ancient of Days [lit., Head of Days], and his head was white like wool, and with him was another whose face had the appearance of a man. His face was full of…