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.
Mordecai’s Day and Nicanor’s Day
Then the man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his people, the man who maintained his youthful goodwill toward his compatriots, ordered them to cut off Nicanor’s head and arm and carry…
A Summary of Jewish Divorce Law
He who desires to be divorced from his wife who lives with him, due to any possible cause—and many such causes occur among men—let him confirm in writing that he will never live together with her, for…
Mourning Rituals
7. [Mourners] do not rend [their clothes] or bare [their shoulders, and others] do not provide a meal [for them] except for the relatives of the dead. And they do not provide a meal except on an…
Weighing Good Deeds and Sins
One who performs mostly good deeds inherits the garden of Eden. One who performs mostly transgressions inherits Gehenna.
R. Yosi bar Ḥanina said: It does not say [God] “who forgives transgressions [pl…
The Essenes on Immortality of the Soul
They are indifferent to danger, overcome pain by the power of their will, and think that a death which comes with honour is better than eternal life. [ . . . ] The reason for this is their firm belief…
The Medical Handbook
Aramaic
For a [sick] spleen: let one take seaweed [lit., lying (on the water); reading uncertain] and let one dry it in the shade, and let him [the patient] drink it two or three times per day in wine…
Anatomy of Reproductive Organs
Hebrew
The sages conceptualized a woman’s [sexual organs] through an analogy: a chamber, an entryway, and an upper chamber. The blood of the chamber is ritually impure. If [blood is] found in the…
Combating Witches
R. Eliezer, R. Joshua, and Rabban Gamaliel traveled to Rome. They came to a place and found some children making piles of dirt, saying, “This is how the people of the land of Israel do and say, ‘This…
Dinah and Shechem
Now Theodotus says in his work Concerning the Jews that Sikima took its name from Sikimius son of Emmor, for this man also founded the city. And in his work Concerning the Jews, he describes its…
Daniel’s Thanksgiving for Enlightenment
Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel said:
“Blessed be the name of God from age to age,for wisdom and power are his.He…
Confessional Prayer for Judean Restoration
And you shall say: The Lord our God is in the right, but there is open shame on us today, on the people of Judah, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on our kings, our rulers, our…