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.
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
Captain Wolfgang Hoffmann was a zealous executioner of Jews. As the commander of one of the three companies of Police Battalion 101, he and his fellow officers led their men, who were not SS men but…
Condemnation of Scoffers and Redemption of the Humble
Ha! Those who would hide their plans
Deep from the Lord!
Who do their work in dark places
And say, “Who sees us, who takes note of us?”
How perverse of you!
Should the potter be accounted as the…
Working for the Present: Essays on Contemporary Israeli Culture
Gentile is a category of difference. It is the point of departure, something self-evident. The Jew at prayer declares this daily: “Thou hast chosen us from all the…
Punishment by a Distant Nation
Lo, I am bringing against you, O House of Israel, A nation from afar
—declares the Lord;
It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation;
A nation whose language you do not know—
You will not…
Condemning Neighboring Nations, Judah, and Israel
The words of Amos, a sheepbreeder from Tekoa, who prophesied concerning Israel in the reigns of Kings Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.…
Shemot 8: The Elders Slipped Out One by One
The whole of chapter three and part of four are taken up with the Divine call to Moses, his preparations for undertaking the mission, the overcoming of all his hesitations, from the historic promise…
Eternity Utters a Day
The modern world never whispers. As I drive in my car, the shrill voice of the announcer, punctuated by the even more urgent voice of the commercial, demands attention. On each street corner…
Psalm 51
For the leader. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had come to Bathsheba.
Have mercy upon me, O God,
as befits Your faithfulness;
in keeping with Your abundant…
Jehoash’s Fable
He [Amaziah] defeated ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he captured Sela in battle and renamed it Joktheel, as is still the case. Then Amaziah sent envoys to King Jehoash son of…
Praise of the Man’s Body
My beloved is clear-skinned and ruddy,
Preeminent among ten thousand.
His head is finest gold,
His locks are curled
And black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves
By watercourses,
Bathed in milk…
Train-Shaped Besamim Box
In Jewish tradition, the end of the Sabbath (or a festival) is marked by the ceremony of Havdalah, which includes the ritual smelling of spices (besomim). Many Jewish cultures approached the box…
The Rape of Europa
The rape of Europa is a story from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus seduces the princess Europa and, taking the form of a bull, carries her on his back to the Mediterranean island of Crete. The…