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.
The National Mission of the Working Class
The Hebrew worker did not come here as a refugee seeking shelter wherever it could be found, looking for any available means of survival. He went up into the land as an emissary of the nation, and as…
Speech: On the Organization (National Council of Jewish Women)
Indeed, woman is only just awakened to the realization of her true part and function in the economy of the universe, she has only begun to feel her real power and to exert it for the progress of her…
In the Land of Israel
I traveled from Odessa by boat for eleven days until we arrived in Jaffa—this was the path taken by the Russian company’s ships. However, this was not the true length of the journey, which was in fact…
The Light of the Messiah
[ . . . ] That sacred foundation, which constitutes the main theme of all this great vision, contains within it a hidden ray of the light of the Messiah, the redeemer who is revealed and concealed…
An Anti-Zionist’s Comment to the Polish Jewish Intelligentsia
I was born a Jew, and as I attained self-awareness, I realized that almost four thousand years of human history were working to present me with questions: How was I to understand myself as a Jew, how…
Issues of the Hour
This period of time is marked by four phenomena. Three of them concern everyone, and one concerns religious youth specifically.
1. Despair…
An Open Letter about Literature
To the editorial board of Ha-Nir, greetings.For some time, I have wanted to tell our honorable writers what a simple householder [ba‘al ha-bayit] like me wants from our literature.By using the term si…
An Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language
Ahead of the first verses of the Eastern European Jewish poets, I would like to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, how much more Jargon [Yiddish] you understand than you believe you do.
I am not actually…
The Rinsed Fences . . .
The rinsed fences dry themselves in the wind.
The kneaded black earth turns softer under my feet.
Soaked soil, tousled and wanton wind,
What more can I want from you today?
It seems to me that I’ve…
Toil
Dress me, good mother, in a glorious robe of many colours, and at dawn lead me to [my] toil.
My land is wrapped in light as in a prayer shawl. The houses stand forth like frontlets; and the roads…
The Machine
The machine, the tool.
Walls without bricks—my cage.
My hands’ holy blood
Drips from the walls.
But the blood of my soul
Drips beyond the threshold
Both out there and in here
Drips the blood of…
Jeshurun
Jeshurun sings when they see him
Tender beauty in her youth
She plays and her violin is on her bosom
And its singing brings gladness to the heart of the gloomy
An unadorned graceful gazelle
Embellish…