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 about the Travels of Abraham Rovigo
Abraham Rovigo (1650–1713) was born in Modena and studied kabbalah under Moses Zacuto in Venice. Rovigo’s wealth enabled him to devote himself to study and to support pious endeavors. Swept up by…
You, Jerusalem, I can never forget
You, Jerusalem, I can never forget;
Rather, I remember you in my every joy,
With tears in my eyes, which never cease.
I am moved by grief and great sadness,
Not by mockery, nor happiness:
Solely to…
Diálogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains)
Zetim:How blessed and how happy must that manA thousand times be called who acknowledgesOne God alone, a single entity.Gerizim:How happy and how blessed must he beWho in God’s holy Law meditatesBoth…
The Age of Wonders
Autumn came and Father decided to put an end to the growing hostility surrounding us. We were already isolated, friendless, and bankrupt, deep in the heart of a cold, gray season. I was still going to…
The Ritual Bath
“You found the victim?”
She nodded.
“Was she conscious at the time?”
“Yes. Baruch Hashem.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Mrs. Adler was conscious.”
“That’s fine,” Decker said. He faced the uniforms. “Cordon off…
The Circumcision
All the Jewish children’s homes and live-in kindergartens that Robi Singer had been attending since the age of four had something in common. Besides a birth certificate and vaccination papers, they…
Cry of the Peacock
In the women’s prison where the Guards had taken Peacock, six people slept in a cell designed for one. They sat on the floor, occupying every rat-infested inch, blindfolded and handcuffed for weeks in…
Beyond the Pale
Gutke found her journal at the bottom of her midwife’s bag and opened it for the first time that year:
Even with my talent for visions, I never would have guessed half of what happened. I suppose that…
Cuckoo
So, like I said before, the only problem of Pnina was, she couldn’t have children. Everything else, a husband, money, work, vacations, she had. Only no children. Not that she and Yochanan didn’t try…
The Flood Story in the Atrahasis Epic
The flood story in the Atrahasis Epic, Babylonia, 17th century BCE. The epic relates the early history of humanity from creation through the flood. Apart from its polytheistic perspective, it has many…
I Protest
I wipe the dust off my books
with a small t-shirt, an old t-shirt
which was once my son’s. We have
more dust this summer than last,
and its composition is different…
Uzziah’s Reinterment Inscription
Uzziah’s reinterment inscription, Jerusalem. King Uzziah (reigned 785–733 BCE) was a leper and therefore, according to the book of Chronicles, could not be buried in the royal tombs and so had to be…