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.
Baruch’s Prayers for Divine Mercy on Israel
And it happened after seven days that I prayed before the Mighty One and said:
O Lord, you summon the coming of the times,and they…
Saul and the Necromancer
To what was Saul comparable at that time [when he swore by God that no harm would come to the necromancer]? [It is comparable] to a woman who is with her lover and swears by her husband’s life.
Em, Abaye’s Teacher
R. Yoḥanan [never saw his parents]. When his mother was pregnant with him, his father died; [and when] she gave birth to him, his mother died. And the same [is…
Tosefta Ketubbot
They force [a spouse] to move from a town that has a gentile majority to a town that has a Jewish majority, but they do not force [a spouse] to move from a town that has a Jewish majority to a town…
Bavli Bava Metsi‘a
Until when is he [the defrauded party who has been given a worn coin] permitted to retract [the transaction and return the coin]? In towns, until he can…
Song of Songs Rabbah
1:1:8. Another explanation: The song of songs, that is what [is meant when] Scripture says: Moreover [ve-yoter], Kohelet was wise (Ecclesiastes 12:9). Had another person composed them, you would have…
Pater Synagōges
As with several titles (including the seemingly parallel mater synagōges, “mother of the synagogue”), the exact meaning carried by the term pater synagōges (“father of the synagogue”) remains unclear…
Civil War over Hasmonean Succession
The unexpected success won by Aristobulus alarmed his enemies, most notably Antipater, for whom he had a long-standing detestation. Antipater was an Idumaean by birth, and ancestry, wealth, and other…
Olympic Games
Because of this, Herod departed even more from the ancestral customs and gradually corrupted the ancient way of life, which should have been inviolable, through the introduction of foreign practices…
Roman Exposure, Tragedy, and Burning of the Law
After the death of Herod the king of Chalcis, Claudius appointed to the kingship his nephew Agrippa (the son of Herod’s brother Agrippa). As procurator of the rest of the province Tiberius Alexander…
Josephus Rescued from the City
Meanwhile Josephus, still insistently going round outside the city to reiterate his appeals, was struck on the head by a stone and dropped senseless on the spot. The Jews made a dash for his body, and…
Ban on Circumcision
At this time also the Jews began war, because they were forbidden to practice circumcision.