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.
Letter from Antiochus V to the Gerousia and the Jews
To the nation the king’s letter was as follows:
“King Antiochus to the senate [gerousia] of the Jews and to the other Jews, greetings.”
Jewish Community of Cyrene
And this same Strabo bears witness in another passage that at the time when Sulla crossed over into Greece in order to wage war against Mithridates, he sent Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that…
Twenty-Four Books
Then I answered and said, “Let me speak in your presence, Lord. For I will go, as you have commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born…
Who May Serve as a Scribe
And that which is taught [in a baraita, which said that] it should be interred, is [the opinion] of this tanna, as [R. Hamnuna,] son of [Rava] of Pashronya, taught: A Torah scroll…
A Pilgrimage for a Rite of Purification
When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us warmly. The next day Paul went with us to visit James; and all the elders were present. After greeting them, he related one by one the…
The Nobility of Priestly Lineage
Now my lineage is not an obscure one, having descended from the priests since the beginning, and just as nobility of birth has a different foundation for each people, among us, membership in the…
Agony and Comfort
In the thirtieth year after the destruction of the city, I was in Babylon—I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra. I was troubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart,
Sanctifying Objects for Use in the Synagogue
14. One who makes a candelabrum or a lamp for a synagogue: until the name of the owners has been forgotten from them, it is not permitted to change them for another purpose; once the name of the…
Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice
For the Master. Song of the sacrifice of the seventh Sabbath on the sixteenth of the month. Praise the God of the exalted heights, O exalted ones among all the divine beings of knowledge. Let the…
Manasseh’s Prayer for Forgiveness
O Lord Almighty,
God of our ancestors,
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and of their righteous offspring;
you who made heaven and earth
with all their order;
who shackled the sea by your word of…
Qumran Blessings
Words of blessi[ng]. Of the Instructor. To bless those who fear [God, do] his will, keep his commandments, remain constant in his holy co[ven]ant and walk with perfection [on all the paths…
Afterlife of the Righteous
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seem to have died,
and their departure was thought to be a disaster,
and…