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.
Scroll of the Book of Esther
Like Torah scrolls, the scroll of the biblical book of Esther, read ritually in the synagogue on the holiday of Purim, must be completely unadorned. However, in the sixteenth century, for reasons…
The Empty Chair
The empty chair was a recurrent image in the work of Israeli artists. Because of its associations with the (fallen) throne of the biblical King David, it was sometimes used to represent a fallen…
Yosef omets (He Will Be Stronger): On the Ten Days of Repentance
980. It is written in Re’shit ḥokhmah [The Beginning of Wisdom (1579), by Elijah de Vidas]: The name of the Ten Days of Repentance indicates that they were ordained to amend the year. They are days of…
Sefat ha-shulḥan (Rim of the Table)
To cause a blessing to rest within your house, by virtue of your deeds in this world throughout your life; to include [a blessing in] the world to come, as indicated by the length of your days…
Colophon: Seder taharot (Order of Purification)
So said Jacob ben R. ḥayim Ibn Adoniyahu of blessed memory, after completing the proofreading of Seder taharot, I intended to apologize, since the subject is not habitual, and the source texts are few…
The day my heart was troubled doubly
The day my heart was troubled doubly,By your love, O crown unto my head,Delight and joy were mine beside the sheepfolds,When your beauteous traits were joined to me.Lovely are your dancing steps, you…
Upon Leaving Lisbon
Here is the infamous [city] gate,
the one of the olive branch and the sword,
for those who leave, it is so closed
and for those who enter, so open.
If in you peace is exiled
you cannot offer that…
Uncle Isidore
When I observe a toothless ex-violinist,
with more hair than face, sprawled like Karl Marx
on a park seat or slumped, dead or asleep,
in the central heat of a public library
I think of Uncle Isidore…
Burning Holy Books
Holy books, said my friend, angry,
there’s no such thing. Books,
books: let them talk
to us about books.
It was a hot night.
At noon light rips
through the room, and everything’s clear:
over the…
A Prayer
Blessed art Thou, Lord, our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has kept us and protected us,
and supported us until this day
it would be better we had never seen.
You deprived us of nothing,
neither…
Scribe Writing
Scribe writing, Sakkara, Egypt, ca. 2625–2350 BCE. The ease with which Baruch’s scroll was cut and burned in Jeremiah 36:23 indicates that it was written on papyrus, not leather. In this limestone…
To Jewishness
As you were contained in
Or embodied by
Louise Schlossman
When she was a sophomore
At Walnut Hills
High School
In Cincinnati, Ohio,
I salute you
And thank you
For the fact
That she received
My kisses…