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 Plea
O living and terrible God, replace my prison, this round pit, by a full moon and a goblet. Pray, turn the darkness of my hell into a shining light, and this dwelling-place of dusk into an orchard, a…
All Those Who Love You
I left his house
Of my own volition.
In order to build him a house
Of my own volition.
But it seems my father
Remained solitary
And neglected
Not of his own volition.
I was moving towards my…
The Dancing
In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture
and wrinkled ties and baseball trophies and coffee pots
I have never seen a post-war Philco
with the automatic eye
nor heard Ravel’s “Bolero”…
Russia, Russia Fragments
Oh, Father of great mercy
In sunset’s flame there fades
My cradle land
That was once nearer to me than my salt-crusted shirt
Where with my brother Russian
I shared more than once
A measly bite of…
Ivory Relief of a Woman at a Window
Ivory relief of a woman at a window, Arslan Tash, Syria, ninth–eighth century BCE.
Dancing Musician
On this clay plaque from Dan, from the Late Bronze (Canaanite) period, a man is playing a lute while dancing. The position of the performer’s legs shows that he is doing a lively dance.
Sight Unseen
Jonathan:I know you do. It cracks me up that you do; it amuses me. You know, up till like eight or nine years ago, let’s not forget, I was painting apartments for a living. Apartments. Walls. Rooms. I…
The Sunset of the Titans
The spring of 1998 was kind to the Jezreel Valley. The rain, which was heavy and late, colored the slopes of the Gilboa with bright green and spread carpets of wildflowers on them—red, purple, and…
Jeremiah’s Prophetic Commission
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the Lord came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth…
Good and Bad Figs
The Lord showed me two baskets of figs, placed in front of the Temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had exiled King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and the officials…
Seeing beyond the Surface
I want to tell you a good story that I heard on the first day of Succos. Someone told me he heard it from his father, a Hasid, and just forgive me, because I have to throw a lot of names at you, but…