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.
Unequal Treatment under the Law
Simeon ben Shetaḥ was working with flax. His students said to him, “Let us ease things for you. We will buy you a donkey, and you will not have to work as hard.” They went and bought him a donkey from…
Mishnah Ḥagigah
Mishnah Ḥagigah 1:8 reflects the rabbinic view that interpretation itself is a sacred source of authority, allowing even the shortest biblical text to support a vast system of practice.
Tosefta Shevu‘ot
3. R. Simeon used to say: Rendering the sanctuary and its holy things impure is more serious than all other transgressions listed in the Torah.
All other transgressions listed in the Torah are atoned…
Bavli Menaḥot
Rava says: Anyone who engages in Torah [study] need not [bring] a burnt offering, nor a sin [lit., purification—Ed.] offering, nor a meal offering, nor a guilt offering.
R. Isaac said: What [is the…
Esther Rabbah
1:17. The elite of Persia and Media (Esther 1:3): It is taught in the name of R. Nathan about these ten measures: There are ten portions of licentiousness in the world, nine in Alexandria and one in…
In the Wilderness
ExodusChapter 16Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their…
Hezekiah (Samuel-Kings)
In the third year of King Hoshea son of Elah of Israel, Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem…
Ezra Reads the Teaching to the People
When the seventh month arrived—the Israelites being [settled] in their towns—the entire people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the…
Bodily Discharges and Impurity
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
When any man has a discharge issuing from his member, he is unclean. [ . . . ]
When one with a discharge…
Witnesses
A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more. If a man appears…
A Ruling about Deferring Passover
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover…
Comfort for the Exiles in Babylon
Comfort, oh comfort My people,
Says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And declare to her
That her term of service is over,
That her iniquity is expiated;
For she has received at the hand of…