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 Praise of the Righteous
[Unite] your souls with the good ones
and with the perfect ones to glorify the Most High.
Join together to make his salvation known
and do not hesitate to proclaim his power
and his glory to all…
Praying in the Synagogue versus Praying Privately
It was taught, Abba Benjamin said: One’s prayer is only [fully] heard in a synagogue, as it is stated: to listen to the song and the prayer (1 Kings 8:28). [It may be inferred that] in a place of…
Rabbinic Personal Blessings
When the sages took leave of the study hall of R. Ammi, and some say [it was] the study hall of R. Ḥanina, they would say to him the following [blessing]: May you see your world, [may…
Writing the Truth Plainly
Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.…
The “Seven Spirits”
And now give heed to me, my children, concerning the things which I saw during my time of penitence, concerning the seven spirits of deceit. For seven spirits are established against mankind, and they…
Physical Labor Is Divine
Do not hate hard labor or farm work, which was created by the Most High.
Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.
Worthy and Unworthy Professions
R. Judah said: An unmarried man must not tend cattle, nor may two unmarried men sleep together under the same cover. But the sages permit it. One whose business is with women must not be alone with…
Deed of Gift from Babatha’s Husband, Judah, to His Daughter
In the consulship of Publius Metilius Nepos for the second time and Marcus Annius Libo sixteen days before the kalends of May, according to the compute of the new province year twenty-third on the…
Shavuot as the Date of the Giving of the Torah
The sages taught: On the sixth [day] of the month [of Sivan], the Ten Commandments were given to the Israelites. R. Yosi says: On the seventh [day] of [the month]. Rava said: Everyone agrees [that the…
A Post-Mosaic Festival
R. Jeremiah in the name of R. Samuel bar R. Isaac: What did Mordecai and Esther do? They wrote a letter and sent [it] to our rabbis. They [Mordecai and Esther] said to them [the rabbis], “Do you…
Legal Bills of Divorce
Any get which is not written [expressly] for the woman [for whom it is intended] is invalid. How is this so? If a man was passing through the street and heard the voice of a scribe dictating, “So-and…
Menstrual Impurity
1. Shammai says: For all women it suffices [to reckon] their [period of menstrual uncleanness from] their time [of discovering the flow].
Hillel ruled: [Their period of uncleanness is to be reckoned…