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.
Enoch’s Prayer before the Flood
Then I raised up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One; and I spoke with the breath of my mouth and the tongue of flesh which God has made for the children of the flesh, the…
Cain’s Prayer
Three approached [God] with insidiousness: Cain, Esau, and Manasseh. Cain, as it is written, Is my sin too great to bear? (Genesis 4:13). He said before God:
“Master of the…
Oven of Akhnai
In the talmudic tale of the Oven of Akhnai (b. Bava Metzia 59a–b), divine voices yield to human interpretation and rabbinic authority defines Torah.
A King Who Is Angry with His Wife
I have come to my garden, my own, my bride (Song of Songs 5:1). R. Azariah said in the name of R. Simon: It is like a king who got angry with [his] lady, banished her and sent her out of his palace…
Athenian Sophists
5. A certain man from Jerusalem went to see a merchant in Athens. He came and was received at a tavern, where he found some people who were sitting around and drinking wine. After he had eaten and…
Mishnah Ketubbot
10. There are three lands with regard to marriage: Judaea, Transjordan, and the Galilee.
We do not require [a spouse to move] from a village to a village or from a town to a town…
Yerushalmi Kil’ayim
R. Simeon ben Lakish said: I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 116:9). But are not the lands of the living Tyre and its environs, Caesarea and its environs, [for] there…
Sifra
[But every purification offering whose blood is brought to the tent of meeting to make atonement in the holy place, it shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire…
Alexander’s Death and His Successors
When Alexander, king of Macedon, had put an end to the dominion of the Persians and had settled affairs in Judaea in the manner described above, he died [in Babylon]. His empire fell among many…
Antipater’s Campaigns and Advance to Power
After Pompey’s death Antipater changed sides and began to curry favour with Caesar. When Mithridates of Pergamum, leading an army against Egypt, was held up at Ascalon by notice that the frontier…
Archelaus’ Rise to Power
Archelaus’ obligation to travel to Rome exposed him to a fresh outbreak of disorder. He had kept seven days’ mourning for his father…
Roman Corruption
Felix’s successor as procurator, Festus, set out to deal with the main plague affecting the country: he captured large numbers of the terrorizing bandits, and put a good many to death. But his…