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.
Abraham’s Return to His Ancestors
What is the meaning of: But you shall go to your fathers in peace, being nourished in a fair old age (Genesis 15:15)?
He here clearly indicates the incorruptibility of the soul: when it transfers…
Healthy Ways of Living
Hebrew
If one does the following six things, he will die immediately: if one comes weary from a journey, let blood, entered a bathhouse, drank and became drunk, slept on the floor, and had intercourse…
External Factors That Affect the Fetus
Aramaic
A woman who has intercourse in a [public] mill will have epileptic children.
[A woman] who has intercourse on the ground will have children with dislocated legs.
[A woman] who treads on donkey…
Aseneth Succumbs to Joseph’s Charm
Aseneth [ . . . ] despised and rejected all the men who courted her, and she was arrogant and superior to everyone. Indeed, no man had ever seen her, because she resided in a tower which adjoined…
David’s Praise for Deliverance
Spoken by David After Receiving God’s Grace When He Delivered Him from the Lion and the Wolf and Those Two He Killed by His Hands.
Praise the Lord, all you nations;
glorify him and bless his name;
…
Daniel’s Penitential Prayer for Judean Restoration
In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years…
Lament for Sitis, Job’s Wife
Who is not amazed that this is Sitis, the wife of Job?
Who used to have fourteen draperies sheltering her chamber and a door within doors, so that one was considered quite worthy merely to gain…
The Grapevine in the Garden of Eden
And the angel said to me, “When God made the garden and commanded Michael to gather two hundred thousand and three angels so that they could plant the garden, Michael planted the olive and Gabriel…
A Young Wife and an Old Wife
R. Ammi and R. Assi sat before R. Isaac Nappaḥa. [One] sage said to [R. Isaac Nappaḥa,] “Let the Master say [words of] halakhah,” and [the other] sage said to [R. Isaac Nappaḥa,] “Let the Master say…
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…