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.
Philo’s Explanation of Passover
After the New Moon comes the fourth feast, called the Crossing-feast, which the Hebrews in their native tongue call Pascha. In this festival many myriads of victims from noon till eventide are offered…
Philo’s Explanation of Yom Kippur
The next feast held after the “Trumpets” is the Fast. Perhaps some of the perversely minded who are not ashamed to censure things excellent will say, What sort of a feast is this in which there are no…
Neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Counts for Anything
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of…
The and the Grain Offering
[The husband] brings her meal offering in a basket of palm twigs and places it upon her hands in order to weary her. With all other meal offerings, their beginning and their end are in ministering…
The Fear of Death
Rava sat before R. Naḥman and saw that R. Naḥman was slipping into death. R. Naḥman said, “Master, say something to him [the Angel of Death] so he will not torment me.” Rava replied, “Master, are you…
Resurrection for Many
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and…
An Abyss of Fire
Behold, I saw all of them bound; and they all stood before him. Then his judgment took place. First among the stars, they received their judgment and were found guilty, and they went to the place…
A Recipe to See Demons
[Aramaic] If someone wants to know about them [i.e., the demons], let him bring sieved ashes and surround his bed [with them], and in the morning he will see something like the feet of a cock. If…
General Institutions of Hygiene and Health
Hebrew
A scholar should not dwell in any city where the following ten things are lacking: a court of justice [that may impose] flagellation and decree [corporal] punishment; a charity fund collected…
Noah’s Daughters-in-Law
He [Ham—Ed.] built himself a city and named it after his wife Neelatamauk. When Japheth saw [this], he was jealous of his brother. He, too, built himself a city and named it after his wife…
Redeeming David
R. Samuel bar Naḥmani said [that] R. Jonathan said: Anyone who says that David sinned [with Bathsheba] is nothing other than mistaken, as it is stated: And David succeeded in all his ways; and the…