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.
Sermon: On Zionism
Upon a lofty mountain ascent, O herald of Zion, raise your voice with strength, O herald of Jerusalem, raise your voice, fear not; say to the cities of Judah: “Behold your God” (Isaiah 40: 9).Friends…
Apology for Judaism
The Messiah of Israel does not come to redeem men from some original sin they never committed, nor from sins which they can liberate themselves of every day, through divine mercy and their own powers…
Handbook for Establishing a Jewish Library
The library should be set up in the center of the district it serves, preferably on a quiet street where there is less noise and dust. Dry premises must…
The Dispersion of Israel
I have observed that on account of our many sins these days, very many Jews have…
Instruction, Law, and Nation: A Critical Historical Inquiry into the Essence of Judaism
Since Judaism is law, the doubts of the Jewish youth are not an evil, at least per se they are not an evil. If Judaism were only instruction, the doubts raised by the instruction would…
Bar Mitzvah Sermon: On Jewish Education and Secularization
[ . . . ] Some [Jewish] people have children who may be likened to seeds, others who can be likened to vegetables, and yet others, to thorns. When parents raise their children in the ways of Torah…
We’re Laughing Our Heads Off
We’re laughing our heads off:
None of us wears a top-hat
We just go around with heads—or without heads—
But the Rabbi of Uman
Holds up a mirror to the sun.
We laugh our heads off
When a gang comes…
Verses to a Dictionary and to the Neckerchiefs (Worn by the Gauchos)
With you, it is not impossible to define
creatures and things with the simplicity
of the fish whose scales streak the sea with blue and gold,
Or of the sea itself that swells with the gracefulness of…
The Killers of the Fields
In ascetic silence, in stony skirts,God’s handmaid falls on her face—Flash of an empty night, a forlorn desert waste,Shards of sunset upon the rocks.This land. Trodden, just like this, by a wandering…
The Madonna in the Subway
Across from me in the subway sat the madonna
Crossing her legs,
Bending over a tabloid.
She read about a cashier-girl who jumped into the water
When her bridegroom left her with a rising belly.
The…
O Quickly, Messiah
O quickly, Messiah, come quickly at last,
The world is engirdled with serpents, in vast
Poisonous circles of famine and care,
Terror and torment, decay and despair;
The earth has denied men the…
Moments of Hope
Jews, let us be cheerful!
It won’t be long, don’t fear—
The war will soon be over.
Their end is very near.
Cheerful, don’t you worry.
Don’t go around so sad.
Have both hope and patience—
Bear things…