The Critical Sources podcast series features Jewish studies scholars discussing a source that matters to them, offering a window into how scholars seek evidence, ask questions, and interpret the past and present.

Host Avinoam Patt asks five different scholars to discuss a source—a poem, a speech, an object—that’s been on their mind since the October 7 massacre in southern Israel and in the months of war following it. How did they think about it before October 7, and what has it meant to them since?

The Critical Sources podcast series is produced with support from Stanford University’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies and Temple University’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History.