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.
The Synagogue as Travelers’ Inn
The dilemma was raised before [the sages: In the case of] two partitions [that] have a roof over them, what is [the halakhah? Is this structure also treated like a house?] Come [and]…
Ben Sira’s Hymn of Thanksgiving
Ben Sira is a wisdom book written in the land of Israel around the 180s BCE (before the Maccabean wars but after the high priesthood of Simon II; see HELLENISTIC PERIOD). The book was written in…
Eleazar’s Prayer for Israel’s Deliverance and Victory
Then a certain Eleazar, famous among the priests of the country, who had attained a ripe old age and throughout his life had been adorned with every virtue, directed the elders around him to stop…
Ḥanina ben Dosa’s Prayers for Rain and Cessation of Rain
R. Ḥanina ben Dosa was travelling when it began to rain. He prayed:
Master of the Universe!
The whole world is at ease while Ḥanina is in distress?!
The rain stopped.
When he arrived at home, he…
An Aramaic Piyyut for Passover
Speaking the Praises of the King of the World,
I will declare [these] nights
before the whole assembly:
He chose for Himself
a singular dove whose name is “My dove” (Song of Songs 1:6)
He saw…
The Admonition to Witnesses in Capital Cases
How did they admonish witnesses in capital cases? They brought them in and admonished them, [saying,] “Perhaps you will say something that is only a supposition or hearsay or secondhand, or even from…
Rabbinic Support for Elementary Teachers
For R. Judah said [that] Rav said: That man shall truly be remembered for good, and Joshua b. Gamla is his name. For without him the Torah would have been forgotten in Israel. For in the beginning, he…
The Obligations of a Sharecropper
If one leased a field from his fellow and the custom of the place was to cut the crops, he must cut them; if the custom was to uproot them, he must uproot them; if the custom was to…
Taxes and Charity
R. Eleazar asked R. Yoḥanan, “When they collect [taxes], do they collect according to the number of people [in a household] or according to the [household’s] wealth?” [R. Yoḥanan] said, “They…
Passover in the Stories of Jesus’ Execution
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were…
Plucking Grain and Performing Miracles on the Sabbath
One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is…
The Seven Blessings
It is taught [in] another [baraita]: One recites the benediction of the grooms in the house of the grooms, and the benediction of the betrothal in the house of the betrothal. [With regard to] the…