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.
I was sleeping, but my heart was awake
Hark! My beloved! Here he comes,
Thousands, myriads at his side,
And over me, his banner of love!
I was sleeping, but my heart
was awake within me.
I could hear but…
Protector of Women
Please listen to my words,
Wise, honest, and beautiful women
For my riddle is complete:
Against your faithful crew [of women]
Old men
Raise your shame to the stars
While I protect you,
Defend you…
The Plea
O living and terrible God, replace my prison, this round pit, by a full moon and a goblet. Pray, turn the darkness of my hell into a shining light, and this dwelling-place of dusk into an orchard, a…
All Those Who Love You
I left his house
Of my own volition.
In order to build him a house
Of my own volition.
But it seems my father
Remained solitary
And neglected
Not of his own volition.
I was moving towards my…
The Dancing
In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture
and wrinkled ties and baseball trophies and coffee pots
I have never seen a post-war Philco
with the automatic eye
nor heard Ravel’s “Bolero”…
Russia, Russia Fragments
Oh, Father of great mercy
In sunset’s flame there fades
My cradle land
That was once nearer to me than my salt-crusted shirt
Where with my brother Russian
I shared more than once
A measly bite of…
Bewildering Clarity of Tongues
for Aaron Lebedeff (1873–1960), performer on the Yiddish stage
Bewildering clarity of tongues:
names you never heard, food
you never ate, a wild dance
you never learned, light hanging
in the sky…
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…
The Sisters Rosensweig
Merv:Sara, can I have my shirt? I’ve got a lunch date with the rabbi of Dublin.Sara:Mervyn, you came all the way to Queen Anne’s Gate. Please sit a minute.Tess:Sit down, Merv. I’ll get your shirt. Win…
Evening in Basel
You won’t find the restaurant in the guidebooks, which is a pity. The owner—he was tall and wearing a sport jacket—greeted us at the door. Our table was waiting in the corner.
“And the food is quite…
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…
Your Land, Your Country
What, actually, am I doing here?
I owe myself, and perhaps others, an answer to this question. What, actually, am I doing here? Why do I go on a clear morning to Levinsky, why in zigzags, stopping…