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.
Sexual Morality
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
I the Lord am your God. You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of…
Civil and Domestic Life
A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.
If, along the road, you chance upon a bird…
A Legal Complaint
May my lord, the governor/commander, listen to the word of his servant! As for your servant, your servant was harvesting in Hatsar-asam. And your servant harvested and finished/measured and stored it…
The Place of the Bible in Israeli Society
The Bible, once at the center of the cultural scene, has become marginalized, its magic has faded. A new Israeli generation no longer believes that, to be considered educated, one must be well-versed…
The Vision of the Dry Bones
The hand of the Lord came upon me. He took me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the valley. It was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many of them spread over…
How to Draw Guidance from a Heritage: Jewish Approaches to Mortal Choices
The progress made by medical science over the last half century has been astounding. In the area of therapeutic medicine alone, developments have been nothing short of miraculous. […] Life-support…
Revolutions in Halakhah
The process that ultimately enabled women to serve as pleaders in the rabbinical courts began thanks to the initiative of one woman, Ruth Margarit Neiger of Raananah…
The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The Second Cycle
Zophar the Naamathite said in reply: [ . . . ]
Do you not know this, that from time immemorial,
Since man was set on earth,
The joy of the wicked has been brief,
The happiness of the…
He Cast a Look and Went Mad
He Cast a Look and Went Mad depicts traditional East European Jews in some sort of religious setting but invokes in its title the classic talmudic legend of the sage who “looked and was injured” when…
Mortality
Though Jacob Steinhardt came to be best known for his woodcuts depicting biblical and Jewish subjects, this print, made during World War I, evokes the horrors he witnessed on the battlefield. Much of…
Messages between the Opponents of the Jews and Nehemiah
When word reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a breach remained in it—though at that time I had not yet set up doors in the…
Aid for Two Benefactors
To my lords Jedaniah, Uriah and the priests of YHW the God, Mattan son of Jashobiah and Berechiah son of, . . . from your servant Mauziah.
May the God of Heaven seek after the welfare of my lords…