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.
‘Ets ḥayim (Tree of Life)
For I heard slander, fear was on every side [see Psalms 31:14], as the son of the despised maidservant slanders the son of the mistress, saying, “Those miserable Jews, they had a single language from…
Midrash on the Sayings of the Fathers
There was once a king who built a beautiful palace and hired two painters to paint it to the best of their abilities. He would pay them well.
And the painters said, “We will work diligently and…
Torat ha-‘olah (Law of the Burnt Offering): On the Lunar Calendar
I found it written somewhere that the eleven offerings brought on Rosh ḥodesh [the New Moon] correspond to the eleven extra days of the solar year over and above those of the…
Fuente clara (Clear Fountain)
The polemical Judeo-Spanish work (written in Hebrew characters) Fuente clara (Clear Fountain; drawing on Psalm 84) was published in Salonika. Its anonymous author, a philosopher and physician…
A fountain surges from my verse’s house
A fountain surges from my verse’s house.
Its flowing waters quench the thirst of men—
A fountain from the rock of perfect rhyme,
With waters cold to please the yearning man—
A flow unending…
Hana’s Suitcase: A True Story
Ever since she had sent the letter to Toronto, Fumiko had been a bundle of nerves. Would George Brady write back? Will he help us to know Hana? Even the letter carrier who…
Republican Citizenship and Jewish Uniqueness
Political modernity, by making the varied dimensions of existence automatic and, in particular, by separating the political from the religious, posed the problem of Jewish identity in a dramatic…
The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State
Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual, and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and…
Seeking the Jewish Tradition
Is the Jewish tradition inherently liberal or inherently conservative? The answer to this much-debated question is quite simple: yes.
Which is to say that if by “the Jewish tradition” we mean what is…
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting; somewhat like…
It Is Up to Us
It is up to us
To hallow Creation,
To respond to Life
With the fullness of our lives.
It is up to us
To meet the World,
To embrace the Whole
Even as we wrestle
With its parts.
It is up to us
To…