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.
Fringes
The Lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of…
Imposition of a Judicial Oath
On the 18th of Phaophi, year four of Artaxerxes the king in Elephantine the fortress, Malchiah son of Jashobiah, an Aramean, hereditary-property-holder in Elephantine the fortress of the detachment of…
The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity
Some time ago, as I sat down to work in a Tel Aviv café in the area where I live, an elderly man suddenly approached me. “You are the son of Eliahu Shaharabani, of blessed memory,” he said, half…
From “The Proverbs of Solomon”
Better a dry crust with peace
Than a house full of feasting with strife.
A capable servant will dominate an incompetent son
And share the inheritance with the brothers.
For silver—the crucible;
Fo…
Advice and Further Reflections
When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. For He has no pleasure in fools; what you vow, fulfill. It is better not to vow at all than to vow and not fulfill. [ . . . ]
If…
Nijinsky as the Faun
The cover of the theater program for the Ballets Russes’ seventh season is illustrated with an image of Vaslav Nijinsky wearing a costume designed by Léon Bakst for the ballet L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune…
David’s Letter to Joab
In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, which he sent with Uriah. He wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he…
Portrait of Marc Chagall
Yehudah Pen painted this portrait of Marc Chagall soon after Chagall returned to Vitebsk from Paris in order to marry his sweetheart, Bella. While he was there, World War I broke out, and Chagall was…
Complaint about Demoralizing the Troops
To my lord, Yaush, may YHWH cause my lord to see peace at this time! Who is your servant, a dog, that my lord sent him the king’s [lette]r [and] the letters of the officers, saying, “Please read!” And…
Adam and Eve
David Yakerson’s Adam and Eve dates from a time before his turn to the much more abstract style of suprematism. In this illustration, Adam and Eve blend in with other decorative elements in a…
Esarhaddon’s Prism Nineveh A
I mobilized the kings of Hatti and “Beyond-the-River”: Baal, king of Tyre; Manasseh, king of Judah; Kaus-gabri, king of Edom; Mutsuri, king of Moab; Tsilli-Bel, king of Gaza; Mitinti, king of Ashkelon…
KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, Chicago, Detail of Decoration at the Balcony Level
In designing this synagogue, Alschuler drew on photographs of the remains of a second-century Byzantine synagogue in Tiberias. He wrote that he designed the synagogue “not in sense of slavish…