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.
Responsum: On Technology and Jewish Law
In the main portion of this work I spoke of the use of an electric light. Here I shall discuss the law of whether one is permitted to speak on Shabbat by means of a machine called a “telephone.”…
The Tale of the Ba‘al Shem and the Dybbuk
This is no fairy tale, it really happened.
In our shtetl, there was a bright young man named Móyshele. He was as smart as a whip, and also a good-for-nothing. Then all at once he disappeared, and no…
A Child
I have a friend, a teacher, with shaggy hair black as pitch.
He has a child (his wife is still a child too)
and when he comes home, difficult and gloomy,
she runs to meet him, like a quivering wave:…
Midrashim of Redemption
And I will wait upon the Lord,
who hides His face from the house of Jacob,
and I will look for Him. (Isaiah 8:16)
I endeavored to place before the educated reader all the literature of redemption…
Dina’s Braids
Dina has reached the age of seventeen, but her mind and manners are far beyond those years. She is comely and demure and full of charm. Two modest eyes and two wild braids. Why wild? Because they have…
My Blue Piano
At home I have a blue piano,
I, who cannot play a note.
It stands in the gloom of the cellar door,
now that the world has grown coarse.
The four hands of the stars play there
—the moonwife sang…
Choose Yourself a Hebrew Name!
Excerpt from the Order of the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense:. . . It is recommended that all commanders (from platoon leader to head of staff) change their family names—be they German, Anglo…
Six Million Accusers
When I stand before you here, Judges of Israel, to lead the Prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I am not standing alone. With me are six million accusers. But they cannot rise to their…
Dani: In Memoriam
From his earliest childhood, Dani was happy, sociable, and cooperative. When he was in Tova’s kindergarten, he loved to sit together with the children and sing: “Yulla yulla, what’ll we do without our…
Remove Your Shoes
Remove your shoes from your feet and, barefoot, feel the earth!
Whatever was in the past and be what may now—today the land is ours, the heavens are ours, and the sea is our sea.
Let us go out to the…
The Ma‘abarah (The Immigrant Transit Camp)
Pounding, heavy feet climbed the muddy path up the hill that looked out over wild bushes. The walkers’ steps sank in the earth next to each other and on top of each other on the path upward, in the…
The Silver Platter
A State is not handed to a people on a silver platter.[Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel]. . . and the land was silent. The incarnate sunFlickered languidlyAbove the smoldering borders.And a…