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.
Genesis Rabbah on Theodicy
8:5. R. Simeon taught: At the time when the Holy One was about to create the first human, the ministering angels formed factions and parties [of divided opinions concerning humankind’s creation]. Some…
Rededication of the Temple
And now that the generals of Antiochus’ armies were defeated so many times, Judah assembled the people together and told them that after these many victories that God had given them, they should go up…
Herod’s Arrival in Rome and Appointment as King of Judaea
His ship came into serious distress off Pamphylia, and most of the cargo had to be jettisoned, after which it could just limp to safety in Rhodes, an island deeply traumatized by the war with Cassius…
Herod Agrippa I
Now when Agrippa arrived at Puteoli, he wrote a letter to Tiberius Caesar, who was then living in Capreae, informing him that he had come so far in…
Nero Appoints Vespasian to Suppress Revolt
News of the reverses in Judaea naturally came as a fearful shock to Nero, though he concealed it well. His public reaction was one of dismissive irritation, claiming as he did that what had happened…
Triumphal Procession in Rome
While it was still night all the military had marched out under their officers by companies and cohorts, and taken up their position, which was not on this occasion round the gates of the Upper Palace…
Emperor Justinian and the Nea Church
Such were the works of the Emperor Justinian in Cilicia. And in Jerusalem he dedicated to the Mother of God a shrine with which no other can be compared. This is called by the natives the “New Church”…
Jews and the Sasanian Queen
At this time, it so happened that the queen fell ill. Since she was favorably inclined to the enemies of the cross, the Jews, they told her, making their customary false accusation: “The sisters of…
Alexander Bows to the High Priest
On the twenty-fifth day of [the month of Tevet], [known as] the day of Mount Gerizim [on which it is forbidden to eulogize], on that day the Samaritans asked Alexander the Macedonian [for permission]…
The Martyrdom of Hannah and Her Seven Sons
As for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm 44:23). And R. Judah said: This [verse applies to the] woman and her seven sons [who died as martyrs…
King Shapur II and Rav Ḥama Debate Jewish Burial Practices
King Shapur [once] said to R. Ḥama: From where in the Torah is there a hint to [the commandment of] burial? [What proof is there that the dead must be buried and not treated in some other manner? R…
The Essene Settlement West of the Dead Sea
On the west side of the Dead Sea, but out of range of the noxious exhalations of the coast, is the solitary tribe of the Essenes, which is remarkable beyond all the other tribes in the whole world, as…