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.
Colophon: Elye Bokher’s Petaḥ devaray
And thus was finished the book Petah DebaraiIn the name of the living God my redeemer and rockIn the year of the creation 306On the 29th day of TishriEdited by the Hebrew grammarianElijah the Levita…
Debate between Wine and Water
“I’m called the offspring of the grape,” said the wine. “People drink me fervently, and I’m very fine. I can make people joke and jibe, I can drive away their terrible pains, I can delight their…
Awake, my heart, from your slumber!
A poem that I, Sa‘adia Longo, wrote to an important and wealthy man from Nicopolis, who came here to Salonika to marry a woman. I was not able to participate in his celebration because I was…
Like a wooer and a husband
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…
Manna
Open your mouth
To feed that flesh
Your teeth have bled
Tongue us out
Bone by bone
Do not allow
Man to be fed
By bread alone
“And He afflicted thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with…
They Say ...
inasmuch as men and women / in their infinite goodness /
believe in God / is it possible that God /
in his infinite goodness / believes in men and women
believes in me / right now / when my heart is…
Sderot
It took me twenty years to love
this hole in the middle of nowhere.
The cotton balls spread a white flame
and there was an ill wind in the cypresses
until for the first time I saw,
with a just eye,
t…
Hybrid Creature with Wings on Stone Relief
Hybrid creature with wings on stone relief, Carchemish, 9th century BCE. The creature has the body and head of a lion, an additional human head, and wings, paralleling some of the elements in Ezekiel…
Horse Figurine
Numerous figurines of horses, sometimes including a rider, have been found. Most have traces of paint; it is likely that they were all originally painted. The paint sometimes depicts the horse’s…
Seal of Hamiohel Daughter of Menahem, with Fish
From Jerusalem, this seal is made of bone. The fish image, a motif known only from Hebrew seals, suggests plenty and fertility (cf. Genesis 48:16) and may also allude to the life-giving nature of…
Berlin, Jerusalem and the Moon
Edie:You got it. I can’t be a woman and I can’t be a Jew. And I can’t be either, because I can’t be both. So, you know what I’m gonna be? I am gonna be nothing.Else:Oh, I see, you call all of that…
Small Ceramic Altar from Hazor
This square altar from Hazor is 12 inches (30 cm) high. The offering surface is recessed, and the upper corners have horns that would have held the offering in place.