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.
Coin with Helmeted Deity/Deity on a Winged Wheel
This coin from Yehud, the Persian name for the province of Judah, is larger and heavier than others like it. The helmeted and bearded male on the front is a deity who is usually, though not…
Alms Bowl
The inscription “your brother,” written on the inside of this bowl from Beth Shemesh, may indicate that the bowl was designated for receiving or collecting offerings (perhaps of food) for the poor…
Taste of Life
Scholars say the cultivated olive originated in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean lands, including the Land of Israel.
In the Bible, the olive is first…
Arad Letter (Order Concerning Rations)
Arad letter (Order Concerning Rations), from the remains of the Judahite fortress at Arad, in the Negev, 7th or 6th century BCE. The Arad ostraca provide an impression of the provincial administration…
Isaac and His Family
This is the story of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of…
1949, the First Israelis
Itzhak Refael once warned his colleagues on the Jewish Agency Executive that if they insisted on “regulating” the immigration quotas only the immigration from North Africa would remain for it could…
Ethical and Religious Laws
You shall not tolerate a sorceress.
Whoever lies with a beast shall be put to death.
Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone shall be proscribed.
You shall not wrong…
Providing for the Poor
If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against…
The State of Israel in Jewish Public Thought: The Quest for Collective Identity
At the same time, let it be pointed out that this call for a new Hibbat Zion is directed towards the idea rather than the movement, since the historical Hibbat Zion was a movement which failed and an…
The Levites
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Advance the tribe of Levi and place them in attendance upon Aaron the priest to serve him. They shall perform duties for him and for the whole community before the…
Jeremiah’s Prophetic Commission
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the Lord came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth…
Good and Bad Figs
The Lord showed me two baskets of figs, placed in front of the Temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had exiled King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and the officials…