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 Priests’ Blessing
The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them:
The Lord bless you and protect you!
The Lord deal kindly and graciously with…
From Adam to Noah
This is the record of Adam’s line.—When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God; male and female He created them. And when they were created, He blessed them and called them Man.—When…
God’s Attributes
The Lord came down in a cloud; He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed: “The Lord! the Lord!a God compassionate and gracious, slow to…
Law as Story and Prayer in Leviticus Rabbah
Leviticus Rabbah 27:6 turns a legal question into narrative, showing that the Shema‘ can be recited anywhere.
Antiochus III Rewards the Jews
King Antiochus to Ptolemy [probably Ptolemy, son of Thraseas, governor of Coele-Syria under Antiochus III] sends a greeting.
“Since the Jews, upon our first entrance into their country, demonstrated…
Parthian Invasion, Phasael’s Death, and Herod’s Flight to Rome
Two years later, Barzaphanes, the Parthian satrap, together with the king’s son, Pacorus, occupied Syria. Lysanias had now inherited the principality of Chalcis on the…
Antipas as Tetrarch
Now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favor with Tiberius, built a city and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth, which is near a village called…
Revolt in the Galilee
When the Jews who had pursued Cestius returned to Jerusalem, they either forced or persuaded any remaining pro-Romans to join their movement, and held a mass meeting at the temple to appoint further…
The Sack of Jerusalem
Now masters of the walls, the Romans planted their standards on the towers and clapped and sang in joyful celebration of their victory. They had found the final stages of the war much…
Constantine’s New Jerusalem
Such was the situation when another memorable work of great importance was done in the province of Palestine by the Godbeloved [Constantine I]. It was this. He decided that he ought to make…
Rava and the Queen Mother
Ifra Hormiz, the mother of King Shapur, sent blood before Rava. Rav Ovadiah was sitting in front of him. [Rava] smelled it. He said to her, “This is blood of desire.” She said to her son, “See how…
Alexander the Great and Simeon the Just
The hare: this refers to Greece; because it chews [lit., raises up] its cud (Leviticus 11:6): for it raises up righteous individuals. Alexander the Macedonian, when he saw Simeon the Just, rose up on…