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.
The Thirty-Nine Acts of Labor Prohibited on the Sabbath
The primary labors are forty less one: sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, bleaching, hackling, dyeing…
Providing for the Poor
Happy is he who considers the poor (Psalm 41:2). R. Abba ben Jeremiah said in the name of R. Meir: This refers to one who crowns the good inclination over the evil inclination. Isi said: This refers…
Political Unrest on Shavuot
It was the subsequent arrival of Sabinus which gave the Jews a cause for revolution. [ . . . ] So when it was time for Pentecost (which is the name Jews give to the festival occurring seven weeks…
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…