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.
Ner mitsvah (Light of the Commandment): On Hanukkah
And this, too, must be said, that the main reason for establishing the days of Hanukkah is because they [the Jews] were victorious over the Greeks. However, it did not appear that the victory was…
Debate between Wine and Water
“I’m called the offspring of the grape,” said the wine. “People drink me fervently, and I’m very fine. I can make people joke and jibe, I can drive away their terrible pains, I can delight their…
Awake, my heart, from your slumber!
A poem that I, Sa‘adia Longo, wrote to an important and wealthy man from Nicopolis, who came here to Salonika to marry a woman. I was not able to participate in his celebration because I was…
Like a wooer and a husband
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…
Manna
Open your mouth
To feed that flesh
Your teeth have bled
Tongue us out
Bone by bone
Do not allow
Man to be fed
By bread alone
“And He afflicted thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with…
They Say ...
inasmuch as men and women / in their infinite goodness /
believe in God / is it possible that God /
in his infinite goodness / believes in men and women
believes in me / right now / when my heart is…
Sderot
It took me twenty years to love
this hole in the middle of nowhere.
The cotton balls spread a white flame
and there was an ill wind in the cypresses
until for the first time I saw,
with a just eye,
t…
Lion-shaped Weight
Lion-shaped weight, Arad, Iron Age II (ca. 980–586 BCE). A balance scale would use weights to measure goods. Weights were usually dome-shaped, but some were shaped like animals. This well-preserved…
Horse with Object on Head
Several horse figurines have objects on the forehead, like this one. The object may represent the horse’s forelock or mane, or perhaps a decorative ornament. This terra-cotta figurine from the City of…
Seal Impression with Prancing Horse
This image, found at En Gedi, depicts a prancing or galloping horse with its head and right foreleg raised. The high level of skill shown in the realistic engraving makes it one of the finest seals…
Berlin, Jerusalem and the Moon
Edie:You got it. I can’t be a woman and I can’t be a Jew. And I can’t be either, because I can’t be both. So, you know what I’m gonna be? I am gonna be nothing.Else:Oh, I see, you call all of that…