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.
I was sleeping, but my heart was awake
Hark! My beloved! Here he comes,
Thousands, myriads at his side,
And over me, his banner of love!
I was sleeping, but my heart
was awake within me.
I could hear but…
Protector of Women
Please listen to my words,
Wise, honest, and beautiful women
For my riddle is complete:
Against your faithful crew [of women]
Old men
Raise your shame to the stars
While I protect you,
Defend you…
The Plea
O living and terrible God, replace my prison, this round pit, by a full moon and a goblet. Pray, turn the darkness of my hell into a shining light, and this dwelling-place of dusk into an orchard, a…
All Those Who Love You
I left his house
Of my own volition.
In order to build him a house
Of my own volition.
But it seems my father
Remained solitary
And neglected
Not of his own volition.
I was moving towards my…
The Dancing
In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture
and wrinkled ties and baseball trophies and coffee pots
I have never seen a post-war Philco
with the automatic eye
nor heard Ravel’s “Bolero”…
Russia, Russia Fragments
Oh, Father of great mercy
In sunset’s flame there fades
My cradle land
That was once nearer to me than my salt-crusted shirt
Where with my brother Russian
I shared more than once
A measly bite of…
Ivory Relief of a Woman at a Window
Ivory relief of a woman at a window, Arslan Tash, Syria, ninth–eighth century BCE.
Dancing Musician
On this clay plaque from Dan, from the Late Bronze (Canaanite) period, a man is playing a lute while dancing. The position of the performer’s legs shows that he is doing a lively dance.
Sight Unseen
Jonathan:I know you do. It cracks me up that you do; it amuses me. You know, up till like eight or nine years ago, let’s not forget, I was painting apartments for a living. Apartments. Walls. Rooms. I…
The Sunset of the Titans
The spring of 1998 was kind to the Jezreel Valley. The rain, which was heavy and late, colored the slopes of the Gilboa with bright green and spread carpets of wildflowers on them—red, purple, and…
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…