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.
Sifte da‘at (Lips of Knowledge): On Genesis
This is the statute of the Torah . . . זאת חקת התורה—It should say זאת חקת הפרה (“this is the statute of the heifer”), as it says elsewhere “this is the statute of the Passover” (Exodus 12:43)! And if…
Gur aryeh (The Lion’s Whelp): On Rashi’s Commentary on the Pentateuch
“R. Isaac said, etc.” In Genesis Rabbah it says: “Even though there is not a single superfluous narrative in the Torah—not even ‘the sister of Lotan was Timna’”—for it says in Sanhedrin Chapter ḥelek…
Ayelet ahavim (Hind of Love): On the Song of Songs
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (Song of Songs 1:2).These are the first spoken words of the student who yearns for the Torah, which is like the daughter of the king of kings with its…
On Sabbatean Kabbalah
This is the secret of the teaching of the sages: “When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world with the attribute of justice, and the world could not subsist—and so too with the attribute of…
Ḥavvot Yair (Villages of Yair): A Curriculum of Study
[Question:] A certain gentleman, a close and trusted friend, a Torah scholar who had read scripture, learned Mishnah, and ministered to many learned talmudic scholars, invited me to come to the holy…
Tafsīr Tehilim (Persian Translation of Psalms)
In your merciful, compassionate name. In the Arabic language they say, “in the name of God, merciful and compassionate.” And in the Persian tongue they say, “in the name of God, generous and…
Introduction: Ladino Translation of the Bible
The Master of the Universe gave us the holy and blessed law so that we would enjoy l’olam haba [the world to come], so that we would know and see the light of eternal life. Study and a good…
Printers’ Preface: Yiddish Translation of Sefer magishe minḥah
With God’s help, we undertook to print the Torah, prophets, and writings with the commentary by Rashi, of blessed memory, and also with a Yiddish commentary, to understand the simple verse as it…
The Return of the Jewish Volunteer from the Wars of Liberation to His Family Still Living in Accordance with Old Customs
This one painting conveys many messages about the benefits of integration and emancipation as well as the inner conflicts they provoked.
Yiddish Translation of Isaac Aboab’s Menorat ha-ma’or
Moses Frankfurt said: The holy Torah tells us that the Holy One commanded Moses to interpret the Torah very plainly (Deuteronomy 27:8), to explain it clearly in seventy languages so that all nations…
Spanish Translation of Judah ha-Levi’s Kuzari
Ḥaver:Do you think languages are eternal, and have no beginning?Kuzari:They are invented and instituted by common consent, rather than natural; this is evident from their composition of nouns, verbs…