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.
Yonat ‘elem (Mute Dove)
O God, You have taught me from my youth: and until now I declare Your wondrous deeds (Psalms 71:17)
O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You: my soul thirsts for You. (Psalms 63:2)
When…
Mikveh Yisra’el (The Hope of Israel)
The initial premise of our argument—and the matters of which we speak are of ancient provenance—is that love can be divided into three categories, which are: the love of something beneficial, the love…
Divre Shelomoh (The Words of Solomon)
The portion of Va-yikra’, on the holy Sabbath, 7th Adar II, 5331 [1571]. I delivered this sermon before a large audience, in honor of the King, king of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.
[When any…
Darash Moshe (Moses Expounded)
Says Moses, son of my master, our teacher R. Jacob Albelda:My soul, my spirit, and my breath render most copious thanks, tenfold, unto the Lord of all things, may He be blessed and magnified, for all…
Be’er sheva (Well of the Oath)
One must know that man possesses a greater virtue than the beast, because a beast also has in it the breath of life and likewise has the intelligence to eat and drink, and the desire to lie with the…
Prayer of Thanksgiving after the Portuguese Attack on Recife
And Isaac offered this prayer and supplication before the Lord:
Master of the worlds and Lord of lords, possessed of infinite wisdom and endless understanding, who emanates through His beings which…
Tosafot Yom Tov (The Additions of Yom Tov)
“Moses received the Torah from Sinai” [m. Avot 1:1]:
R. [Ovadiah] from Bartenura has explained this to mean “from the One revealed at Sinai.” And there, when God revealed Himself at Sinai, Moses…
Israelite and Judahite Exiles Named in Assyrian and Babylonian Texts
Israelites in Assyrian Exile (last third of eighth century BCE):
Ahiyau, an “archer,” Nineveh
Hoshea, a slave, Nineveh (680 BCE)
Neriyau, “chief of accounts,” Gozan
Paqaha (Pekah), an estate manager…
Donors to YHW and Other Deities, from Elephantine
On the 3rd of Phamenoth, year 5. This is (= these are) the names of the Jewish garrison who gave silver to YHW the God, each person silver, [2] shekels—
Meshull[em]eth daughter of Gemar[ia]h son of…
Synagogue in K’ai-fêng (Kaifeng, China)
Jews first settled in Kaifeng, the capital of Henan province in central China, before 1127. According to scholars, they had come from India or Persia, spoke Persian, and worked as cotton dyers and…
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
The purpose of the Kol Nidrei proclamation is to forgive those—and tragically there have been many of them—who throughout history have, under threat of torture or death, been forced to renounce the…
Lamentation for Those Who Perished in the Abriyah Earthquake
The Kinah [Lament] in Honor of Those Who Died in the Earthquake
Wail O [professional female] mourners for the suffering of our death.
The earth trembled with the earthquakes. We lost young and old…