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.
There’s No Place Like Israel
Sometimes, when I return from a trip abroad, I try to imagine that I am a new immigrant. You know, the first time that I arrived in Israel from the Diaspora, with all the pekelech and hopes, and…
King Saul and the Rise of David
Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over His people Israel. Therefore, listen to the Lord’s command!
“Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I…
The Last Kings of Judah
The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king instead of his father in Jerusalem. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king and he reigned three months in…
If There Is No Jerusalem: Essays on Hebrew Writing in a Cultural-Political Context
During the century from the beginnings of the Yishuv Hadash [Modern Zionist Settlement] until the present, the competition between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv has played a critical role. Although Tel Aviv…
Property Offenses
When a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it, the one responsible for the pit must make restitution; he shall pay the price to the…
The 1948 Generation: Myth, Profile and Memory
Berl Katznelson did much to foster the awareness of “Yizkor” and its literature in the twenty years after Tel Hai, through an explicit reference to the chain of Jewish martyrology and heroism and a…
Tithes
You shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field. You shall consume the tithes of your new grain and wine and oil, and the firstlings of…
The Sabbath
In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the…
A Dispirited Rebellion
Much has been written about the split that occurred in Zionist ideology after the removal of the immediate existential threat in the Six Day War—a split that grew increasingly wide with the Yom Kippur…
Egypt’s Defeat and Conversion
The “Egypt” Pronouncement.
Mounted on a swift cloud,
The Lord will come to Egypt;
Egypt’s idols shall tremble before Him,
And the heart of the Egyptians shall sink within them.
“I will incite…
What Was the Holocaust?
Is the Holocaust definable? Is it desirable to define it? After all, definitions are abstractions from reality and are useful only insofar as they help us to better understand the world around us. Any…
Rejoice with Jerusalem
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
All you who love her!
Join in her jubilation,
All you who mourned over her—
That you may suck from her breast
Consolation to the full,
That you may…