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.
Song of Songs Rabbah
1:1:8. Another explanation: The song of songs, that is what [is meant when] Scripture says: Moreover [ve-yoter], Kohelet was wise (Ecclesiastes 12:9). Had another person composed them, you would have…
Civil War over Hasmonean Succession
The unexpected success won by Aristobulus alarmed his enemies, most notably Antipater, for whom he had a long-standing detestation. Antipater was an Idumaean by birth, and ancestry, wealth, and other…
Olympic Games
Because of this, Herod departed even more from the ancestral customs and gradually corrupted the ancient way of life, which should have been inviolable, through the introduction of foreign practices…
Roman Exposure, Tragedy, and Burning of the Law
After the death of Herod the king of Chalcis, Claudius appointed to the kingship his nephew Agrippa (the son of Herod’s brother Agrippa). As procurator of the rest of the province Tiberius Alexander…
Josephus Rescued from the City
Meanwhile Josephus, still insistently going round outside the city to reiterate his appeals, was struck on the head by a stone and dropped senseless on the spot. The Jews made a dash for his body, and…
Ban on Circumcision
At this time also the Jews began war, because they were forbidden to practice circumcision.
Translated by David Magie.
Epiphanius on a Certain Joseph and the Patriarch
One of them was Josephus—not the ancient Josephus, the author and chronicler, but Josephus of Tiberias, [born] during the old age of the Emperor Constantine of blessed memory. This Josephus…
The Ten Demonic Commandments
By these ten counsels, which are harmful to creatures, and which are in opposition to the ten counsels of Yima, which are beneficial to creatures, he ordered to keep the essential scripture of the…
King Yannai and the Pharisees
[I]t was taught: It once happened that King Yannai [Janneus] went to Kokhalit in the desert and conquered sixty towns there. On his return he rejoiced exceedingly and invited all the Sages of Israel…
Rabban Gamaliel Is Deposed
There was a case in which a certain student came and asked R. Joshua, “What is the law concerning the evening prayer?” [R. Joshua] said to him, “It is optional.” [The student] went and asked Rabban…
Purification at Sunset
The elders of Israel used to go first by foot to the Mount of Olives, where there was a place of immersion. The priest that was to burn the cow was [deliberately] made unclean on account of the…
Pesher Habakkuk
[And justice does not emerge as the winner, for the evildoer accos]ts the upright man (Habakkuk 1:4). [Its interpretation: the evildoer is the Wicked Priest and the upright man] is the…