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.
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…
R. Ḥisda’s Daughter
[And in] what [way was prophecy given] to children? [It was] like this [incident involving the] daughter of Rav Ḥisda, [who when she was a child] was sitting on her father’s lap. […
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…
Bavli Bava Kamma
Why [pay compensation]? The Merciful One says an eye for [taḥat] an eye (Exodus 21:24). Perhaps one should say it refers literally [to putting out] the eye [of the offender]?
Let this not enter your…
Ecclesiastes Rabbah
2:24:1. Nothing is good for a person but to eat and drink (Ecclesiastes 2:24). R. Tanḥuma says it [in the name of] R. Naḥman the son of R. Samuel bar Naḥman, and R. Menaḥema [says it in the name of] R…
Oppression and Exodus
From movies to civil-rights movements, the Exodus stands at the center of Western thought and culture. You will still be surprised by what is, and what isn’t, in the account.
Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha
Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, and Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. Ahab…
Nehemiah’s Prayer
The narrative of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:
In the month of Kislev of the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress of Shushan, Hanani, one of my brothers, together with some men of Judah, arrived…
Sacrifice
The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them:
When any of you presents an offering of cattle to the Lord, he…
Kingship
If, after you have entered the land that the Lord your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you decide, “I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,”…
Asylum Cities
The Lord spoke further to Moses: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities…