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 Eruv
An eruv is a symbolic boundary around a certain area, which extends the boundaries of the home on the Sabbath, when carrying objects in public spaces is forbidden by Jewish law. Calle used the concept…
Tsiltsele shama‘ (Resounding Cymbals)
And therefore, with that, I, the young man, said that I will make a little book of my “Hymns for the Cantor with My Tunes” for the public benefit. Perhaps the one who makes use of them will do so for…
Bine’ot deshe’ (In Green Pastures): On Passover
On the eve of the fourteenth [of Nisan], after reciting the evening prayer, you must light a wax candle and recite the blessing on removing your leavened foods. Then you must search in your room and…
Sha‘ar ma’amare Rashbi (The Gate of the Sayings of R. Simeon bar Yohai)
Human prayer that is properly intended is above, in the supernal depths, according to the secret of the point of Zion; and there is the secret place of the holy…
Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews
We have already said, that wheresoever a competent Number of those of our Nation, were settled into a standing Community, the first thing they took care of, was the Erection of a publick School. Now…
I hope in the Lord at all times
I hope in the Lord at all times,
And to the fearsome, awful One,
I cry: Grant redemption, Thou
Who dost not slumber, dost not sleep.
My soul, all weary and exhausted,
Longs and yearns,
For it…
Slingers and Slingstones
Slingers attacking Lachish, 701 BCE, from Assyrian relief in the Nineveh palace of Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 BCE). Members of the Assyrian army are depicted with slingstones piled at their feet…
Ivory Stopper Shaped Like an Ibex Head
The stopper is perforated at the bottom so that liquids, probably perfumes, can be poured from the jar through the male ibex’s mouth. The horns curl tightly back to the neck, perhaps to prevent them…
Seven-spouted Ceramic Oil Lamp
Its multiple (seven) spouts and pedestal make this lamp from the sanctuary area of Tel Dan unusual. Lamps like this could be as tall as 9 inches (23 cm) and as wide as 6.7 inches (17 cm) in diameter…
Silver Jewelry and Beads
This is an assemblage of jewelry that was deposited in a burial cave in the Ketef Hinnom cemetery in Jerusalem (see Tombs from Ketef…
King Solomon (Samuel-Kings)
King David was now old, advanced in years; and though they covered him with bedclothes, he never felt warm. His courtiers said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought…
Past Prophetic Warnings Have Not Deterred Sin
The word which came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, which was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. This is…