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 Medical Handbook
Aramaic
For a [sick] spleen: let one take seaweed [lit., lying (on the water); reading uncertain] and let one dry it in the shade, and let him [the patient] drink it two or three times per day in wine…
Anatomy of Reproductive Organs
Hebrew
The sages conceptualized a woman’s [sexual organs] through an analogy: a chamber, an entryway, and an upper chamber. The blood of the chamber is ritually impure. If [blood is] found in the…
Combating Witches
R. Eliezer, R. Joshua, and Rabban Gamaliel traveled to Rome. They came to a place and found some children making piles of dirt, saying, “This is how the people of the land of Israel do and say, ‘This…
Dinah and Shechem
Now Theodotus says in his work Concerning the Jews that Sikima took its name from Sikimius son of Emmor, for this man also founded the city. And in his work Concerning the Jews, he describes its…
Daniel’s Thanksgiving for Enlightenment
Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel said:
“Blessed be the name of God from age to age,for wisdom and power are his.He…
Confessional Prayer for Judean Restoration
And you shall say: The Lord our God is in the right, but there is open shame on us today, on the people of Judah, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on our kings, our rulers, our…
Joseph Blesses Aseneth
Raising his right hand, he placed it upon her head, and said:
O Lord, God of my father Israel,Most High, Mighty One of Jacob,Who gave life to all things,And summoned them out of the darkness into…
A Sacred Race of Pious Men
There will again be a sacred race of pious men
who attend to the counsels and intention of the Most High,
who fully honor the temple of the great God
with drink offering and burnt offering and sacred…
Cain and Abel as Gladiators
R. Simeon bar Yoḥai says: It is a difficult thing [even] to say and [almost] impossible for the mouth to speak it explicitly. [The story of Cain and Abel is comparable] to two gladiators who are…
Mishnah Shabbat
If a non-Jew lights a lamp, a Jew may make use of its light. But if [he does it] for the sake of the Jew, it is forbidden. If he draws water to give his own animal to drink, a Jew may water his…
Tosefta Kippurim
Why did he turn aside and weep? Because it was necessary to impose an oath on him. And why did they turn aside and weep? Because they had to impose an oath on him.
And why was there a need to impose…