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.
Responsum: On Technology and Jewish Law
In the main portion of this work I spoke of the use of an electric light. Here I shall discuss the law of whether one is permitted to speak on Shabbat by means of a machine called a “telephone.”…
A Guest for the Night
On the eve of the Day of Atonement, in the afternoon, I changed from the express to the local train that runs to my home town. The Jews who had traveled with me got…
To the Sun
Hyacinth and mallow was I to God: lifelong
Only this pure sun fills, for each, the earth,
And an angel urges: “Bud, child, and bring forth
Among the biting thorns, your festive song.”
The damp…
Before Your Shining, Full Eyes
Before your shining, full eyes
How good it is to live;
Before their light every limb is taut
Like a eucalyptus after a storm are you:
Tired, strong and still moving in the wind
My head will reach to…
The Tale of the Ba‘al Shem and the Dybbuk
This is no fairy tale, it really happened.
In our shtetl, there was a bright young man named Móyshele. He was as smart as a whip, and also a good-for-nothing. Then all at once he disappeared, and no…
Red Riding-Hood
When our wild day is wiped like a tear
From cities and forest, from month and year,
Red Ridinghood walks on the road,
To pick a wild flower in the wood.
And following her is a duck and a cow,
Hobbl…
The Last Stage of Deportation Is Death
[ . . . ] We have nooses fastened around our necks; when the pressure abates for a moment, we utter a cry. Its importance should not be underestimated. Many a time in history did such cries resound…
An Epistle to Hebrew Youth
The Committee for the Consolidation of Hebrew Youth appeals to you only in order that you understand the very essence of what is in common between you and the rest of Hebrew youth, which operates in…
The Butterfly
He was the last. Truly the last.
Such yellowness was bitter and blinding
Like the sun’s tear shattered on stone.
That was his true color.
And how easily he climbed, and how high.
Certainly, climbing…
Consciousness
our lightless awful days are passing
splinters of memories prick our brains
daily our Creator beats us using both hands
we are his dry weeds husked to the core
for us fire is no fire for us it is…
The Israel Passover Haggadah
To Section I, which deals with the Haggadah itself, I have added six other sections.
Section II, entitled “Moses, our Teacher,” is a collation of midrashim, which discuss his attributes…