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.
Do Not Rely on Egypt, Rely on God
Ha!
Those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely upon horses!
They have put their trust in abundance of chariots,
In vast numbers of riders,
And they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel,
They…
Recreating the Canon
The ancient Judaic midrash paved the way for a certain type of biblical hermeneutics while also using the master pre-Text as a pretext for creating a new tale. The midrash is the prototype of creative…
Israel’s Rebellious Past and Its Future
In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, certain elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat down before me. And the word of the Lord came to me:
O mortal, speak to the…
Seventy Faces: Divided We Stand, but It Is Time to Try an Idea That Might Help Us Stand Taller
The predictions of an unbridgeable and cataclysmic rupture within the Jewish community agitate all of us who love and care for and worry about our Jewish people and its future. The twin issues of…
Cause and Effect: When God Warns, the Prophet Is Compelled to Deliver the Warning
Hear this word, O people of Israel,
That the Lord has spoken concerning you,
Concerning the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt:
You alone have I singled out
Of all the families…
The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet’s Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India
In late October 1990, I traveled to Dharamsala, a remote hill town in northern India. I came to write about a religious dialogue between a group of Jewish delegates and the XIV Dalai Lama…
Psalm 72
Of Solomon.
O God, endow the king with Your judgments,
the king’s son with Your righteousness;
that he may judge Your people rightly,
Your lowly ones, justly.
Let the mountains produce well-being…
Hannah’s Prayer after Giving Birth to Samuel
And Hannah prayed:
My heart exults in the Lord;
I have triumphed through the Lord.
I gloat over my enemies;
I rejoice in Your deliverance.
There is no holy one like the Lord,
Truly, there is none…
Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza, the Portuguese-Jewish philosopher considered one of the most important thinkers of the early modern period, served as a “countercultural” icon for many Jewish artists and intellectuals…
Train-Shaped Besamim Box
In Jewish tradition, the end of the Sabbath (or a festival) is marked by the ceremony of Havdalah, which includes the ritual smelling of spices (besomim). Many Jewish cultures approached the box…
Moses’ Death
Mendes da Costa was best known for the reliefs he sculpted for buildings in Amsterdam (many of which were figures of animals) in the style of the Niewe Kunst, the Dutch variant of Art Nouveau. But he…