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.
Jeremiah’s Letter to the Jewish Exiles in Babylonia
This is the text of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the priests, the prophets, the rest of the elders of the exile community, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar…
The Israelite Census
On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:
Take a…
The Qualities of God’s Teachings
The teaching of the Lord is perfect,
renewing life;
the decrees of the Lord are enduring,
making the simple wise;
The precepts of the Lord are just,
rejoicing the heart;
the instruction of the Lord…
Beruriah: A Woman of Wisdom in the Talmud
Beruriah’s wit, insight, and authority, preserved in texts like b. Eruvin and b. Pesaḥim, challenged rabbinic norms and expanded the bounds of Torah study.
In the Wilderness
ExodusChapter 16Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their…
Hezekiah (Samuel-Kings)
In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem…
Ezra Reads the Teaching to the People
When the seventh month arrived—the Israelites being [settled] in their towns—the entire people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the…
Bodily Discharges and Impurity
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
When any man has a discharge issuing from his member, he is unclean. [ . . . ]
When one with a discharge…
Witnesses
A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more. If a man appears…
A Ruling about Deferring Passover
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover…
Comfort for the Exiles in Babylon
Comfort, oh comfort My people,
Says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And declare to her
That her term of service is over,
That her iniquity is expiated;
For she has received at the hand of…
The Worthlessness of Others’ Gods, and the Everlasting Power of God
Hear the word which the Lord has spoken to you, O House of Israel!
Thus said the Lord:
Do not learn to go the way of the nations,
And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky;
Let the nations be…