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.
Lament of the Daughter of Judah
O Russians, you who love your fellow men! You would shudder from the bottoms of your kind hearts if you saw the effect of that terrible accusation which Jews who were eyewitnesses to the unjustified…
Takkanot Kandia (Regulations of Candia): On Purim
May salvation be near, and we be cleansed of great sin. Amen.
I, the undersigned, have witnessed the bad custom practiced among young men on the days of Purim, that in the synagogue during the…
Ner mitsvah (Light of the Commandment): On Hanukkah
And this, too, must be said, that the main reason for establishing the days of Hanukkah is because they [the Jews] were victorious over the Greeks. However, it did not appear that the victory was…
Debate between Wine and Water
“I’m called the offspring of the grape,” said the wine. “People drink me fervently, and I’m very fine. I can make people joke and jibe, I can drive away their terrible pains, I can delight their…
Awake, my heart, from your slumber!
A poem that I, Sa‘adia Longo, wrote to an important and wealthy man from Nicopolis, who came here to Salonika to marry a woman. I was not able to participate in his celebration because I was…
Like a wooer and a husband
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…
Are You
Are you Avraham’s, Yitzhak’s, Yaakov’s?
Are you my mother’s god?
What’s mine of all this?
What did I take by force of hand
and why am I alone
in a city meant to be my city
on account of a mother born…
The Poverty Line
As if you could draw a line and say: below this there’s poverty.
Here’s the bread that turned black in the colorations
Of cheap makeup
And the olives in their little plate
Atop the cloth over the…
Lion-shaped Weight
Lion-shaped weight, Arad, Iron Age II (ca. 980–586 BCE). A balance scale would use weights to measure goods. Weights were usually dome-shaped, but some were shaped like animals. This well-preserved…
Horse with Object on Head
Several horse figurines have objects on the forehead, like this one. The object may represent the horse’s forelock or mane, or perhaps a decorative ornament. This terra-cotta figurine from the City of…
Seal Impression with Prancing Horse
This image, found at En Gedi, depicts a prancing or galloping horse with its head and right foreleg raised. The high level of skill shown in the realistic engraving makes it one of the finest seals…