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.
Ethical and Religious Laws
You shall not tolerate a sorceress.
Whoever lies with a beast shall be put to death.
Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord alone shall be proscribed.
You shall not wrong…
Providing for the Poor
If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against…
The Levites
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Advance the tribe of Levi and place them in attendance upon Aaron the priest to serve him. They shall perform duties for him and for the whole community before the…
Buying a Calf
One calf, two years old, white, the top of its humpback is cleft (?). Haraa, daughter of Talimmu, sold to Neriyama, son of Ahiyakam, for 23 shekels of white silver, 1/8 per shekel impure, of average…
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…
Isaiah’s Vineyard Poem
Let me sing for my beloved
A song of my lover about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard
On a fruitful hill.
He broke the ground, cleared it of stones,
And planted it with choice vines.
He…
Jotham’s Fable
All the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo convened, and they proclaimed Abimelech king at the terebinth of the pillar at Shechem. When Jotham was informed, he went and stood on top of Mount…
A Proper Time for Everything
A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:
A time for being born and a time for dying,
A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted;
A time for slaying…
Curse in Burial Cave at Khirbet el-Kom (Makkedah) #6
Cursed be Hagab! Son of Hagab
To YHWH of the Hosts
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s Hebrew edition.
Assignments Completed and Watching for Fire Signals
May YHWH cause my lord to hear, this very day, tidings of good. And now, according to everything my lord has sent, thus has your servant done. I wrote on the sheet according to everything you sent to…