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.
Her bitter soul is anguished: For Tishah be-Av
Her bitter soul is anguished, because of her ailing wound.
The city one teeming with people is desolate, the Holy City that she had inherited.
For the glorious, sweet land, tears descend like a…
Mekits redumim (He Who Awakens the Sleepers)
Thus said Hananiah Eliyakim, son of our honorable teacher, R. Asael Refael (may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing) Rieti, from the city of Siena:
Will not God seek this out (Psalms 44:22…
Midbar Yehudah (The Wilderness of Judah)
We must consider these three things: what great good we had in the past, the great distress and iniquity which we are in today, and…
Title Page: Moses Margolioth’s Ḥasde ha-shem (Mercies of the Lord)
What is sweeter than honey? (Judges 14:18) a honeycomb of delights.
And what is more to be desired than gold, and a multitude of rubies (Proverbs 20:15)?:
This precious treatise of great worth.
Inclu…
The day my heart was troubled doubly
The day my heart was troubled doubly,By your love, O crown unto my head,Delight and joy were mine beside the sheepfolds,When your beauteous traits were joined to me.Lovely are your dancing steps, you…
Upon Leaving Lisbon
Here is the infamous [city] gate,
the one of the olive branch and the sword,
for those who leave, it is so closed
and for those who enter, so open.
If in you peace is exiled
you cannot offer that…
Uncle Isidore
When I observe a toothless ex-violinist,
with more hair than face, sprawled like Karl Marx
on a park seat or slumped, dead or asleep,
in the central heat of a public library
I think of Uncle Isidore…
Burning Holy Books
Holy books, said my friend, angry,
there’s no such thing. Books,
books: let them talk
to us about books.
It was a hot night.
At noon light rips
through the room, and everything’s clear:
over the…
A Prayer
Blessed art Thou, Lord, our God,
King of the Universe,
Who has kept us and protected us,
and supported us until this day
it would be better we had never seen.
You deprived us of nothing,
neither…
Figurine of Female Deity
Figurine of female deity, Tel Batash, 14th century BCE. Similar plaque figurines of naked women, often with breasts and genitals emphasized or with pregnant bellies, were very common in the ancient…
Plaque Figurine of Pregnant Woman
In this terra-cotta plaque figurine from Tell Beit Mirsim, 6 inches (15 cm) high, the pregnant woman’s arms cradle her belly and her navel and genitalia protrude. Incisions indicate the eyes, the hair…
Bullas from Jerusalem
The backs of many bullas, like those shown here from the City of David in Jerusalem, have impressions of the strings that once tied the rolled document and marks from the papyrus fibers of the…