Guide to Online Resources for Scholarly Jewish Study and Research - 2023
A comprehensive, up-to-date guide to online resources for scholarly Jewish study and research of the rabbinic era of Jewish history (100 - 1850 CE)
This Guide is a revised and expanded version of a series of blogposts that originally appeared in three parts at the Seforim Blog March-July 2022. Crossposted, in PDF format, at my Academia.edu page (requires registration). Also available in PDF format here:
Table of Contents
Intro___________________________________________ 4
Scope of this Guide_______________________________ 6
Primary texts____________________________________ 7
Books - text format____________________________ 7
Books - PDF format___________________________ 12
Manuscripts - images_________________________ 15
Search and other related tools__________________ 20
Bibliographic info_____________________________ 22
Indexes_____________________________________ 23
Secondary literature_____________________________ 24
Books______________________________________ 24
Journals____________________________________ 26
Articles_____________________________________ 30
Bibliographic info and indexes__________________ 31
Encyclopedias_______________________________ 32
Dictionaries_________________________________ 34
Popular articles - general_______________________ 34
Popular articles - newspapers and magazines______ 35
Blogs______________________________________ 36
Videos and Podcasts__________________________ 38
Twitter_____________________________________ 39
Abstract and Outline, with major examples for each category
Existing Guides to electronic resources for Jewish scholarship
Scope of this Guide
Primary texts
3.1. Books - text format: Sefaria; Al-Hatorah; Wikisource
3.2. Books - PDF format: HebrewBooks; National Library of Israel
3.3. Manuscripts - text and PDF formats: Ktiv; Friedberg projects
3.4. Search and other related tools: Dicta
3.5. Bibliographic info: Merhav - National Library of Israel
3.6. Indexes: Halacha Brura
Secondary literature
4.1. Books: Kotar; Kindle
4.2. Journals: JSTOR; Sci-Hub
4.3. Articles: Academia.edu
4.4. Bibliographic info and indexes: RAMBI
4.5. Encyclopedias: Wikipedia - Hebrew; Encyclopedia Judaica
4.6. Dictionaries: Wiktionary - Hebrew
4.7. Articles for popular audience
4.7.1. General: Academy of Hebrew Language; TheGemara.com
4.7.2. Newspapers and magazines: Haaretz; Makor Rishon
4.7.3. Blogs: The Seforim Blog; The Talmud Blog
4.8. Videos, Podcasts, Twitter, Facebook
4.9. Forums: Otzar HaHochma
Intro
This guide is designed for enthusiasts and those intellectually curious, who may not be specialists in the field. It focuses on easily accessible and user-friendly resources found on contemporary websites. The guide primarily covers what can be termed the "middle", the "rabbinic", or (perhaps Zionistically) the "Diaspora" era of Jewish history, spanning from post-Destruction to pre-late modern (approx. 100 CE to 1850 CE).[2] A key theme emphasized is the increasing democratization of knowledge and opportunities for contribution. The goal is to help readers find new and valuable resources where they can consume and even contribute to scholarship.
Existing Guides to electronic resources for Jewish scholarship
There are many guides to electronic resources for Jewish scholarship, such as that of university library guides, as well as other websites.[3] However, many of these guides are meant for students and researchers, and less for the general educated reader with an interest in these topics. In addition, many previous guides are from ten years ago or longer, and many of the links no longer work.
Scope of this Guide
Date range: This guide will mostly cover resources related to the topics from circa 100 CE to 1850 BCE.
So will not cover:
Primary sources and studies of Tanach/Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha (=“Seforim Hitzonim”), Philo, Josephus, and early Christianity. In other words, works up to the period of Chazal, circa 100 CE. So for example, I didn’t include Bar Ilan University’s Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer (מקראות גדולות הכתר - see on this project Wikipedia here (English) and here (Hebrew) or their weekly Parshat Hashavua sheet.
At the opposite end, the Late Modern period (circa 1850-2000). So it won’t cover resources related to modern Hebrew literature, Haskalah, Zionism, the modern State of Israel, Holocaust, contemporary Jewish thought and hashkafa, or more contemporary seforim (such as R’ Ashlag’s commentary on Zohar, and those of his descendants). Also will not cover the topic of Yiddish literature, even though it begins before 1850.[4] Also will not cover Jewish art.[5]
There are a number of resources that are geared towards beginner students, such as Gemara Brura and The People's Talmud.[6] These will not be covered here.
I have also not included links and descriptions to websites of collections and catalogs of individual libraries. Rather, I’ve focused on websites that aggregate information across collections.[7]
Should also add my focus is on resources with a substantial focus on academic/scholarly topics and style. So especially in the section on blogs, won’t include blogs that don’t have a more academic perspective.
I have also mostly limited the guide to resources in English and Hebrew. There are relevant resources in French and German, but a) I don’t read those, b) I’m assuming that my readers are less likely to read them, and c) in any case, there are only a few, marginal such resources.
A large part of my annotations are taken from the descriptions provided by the maintainers of the project, as well as from Wikipedia. Many of these descriptions are in Hebrew. All translations from Hebrew are my own, unless noted otherwise. My translation is sometimes loose, and I did not always fact-check. The info in this guide should definitely be double-checked if used for anything more scholarly.
In general, my main intention is to raise awareness and point readers to some of the incredible resources currently available to anyone with an internet connection.
Note: The website of the resource is hyperlinked in the name. In cases where only a part of a website is relevant to the resources under discussion, I try to link to the page on the website that best acts as a portal to the resources.
Another note: It’s quite incredible how much is now available on the internet. At the same time, projects become outdated and links become broken very rapidly. I hope to be able to update this guide every once in a while, but unfortunately the rapid changes in the layout of the internet is one of the blessings and the curses that come with this new medium (victims of the unfortunate phenomenon of “link rot”).
While researching this guide, I constantly found new resources that I was not aware of, and I’m certain (and hoping, in a good way) that this guide will rapidly become more and more outdated as more resources come online, and (negatively) as links break.
Primary texts
A huge amount of primary texts have been transcribed and scanned, and are readily available.
Books - text format
Digital editions.[8]
Open-access
Sefaria (ספריא). Large number of texts, as well as English translations.
Wikipedia - English: “Sefaria has a vast library of Jewish text, including Tanakh, Talmud, and Jewish prayers alongside sources in philosophy, mysticism, Jewish law, and newer works. Some works, such as Tanakh and Talmud, feature English translations. These are either crowdsourced, provided by publishers, or in the public domain. Contains a complete English translation of Rashi's commentary on the Torah, the William Davidson Talmud translation,[9] and a complete translation of Ibn Ezra's Torah commentaries, one of the only resources to have a complete translation of these works in English. Many works are linked with their respective commentaries. For example, clicking on a verse in Tanakh will open a window on the side, allowing the user to open a commentary on that verse.”
Some of the texts available, all highly credible works, and that I’ve personally used in Sefaria for study (all with hyper-linked table of contents, transcribed, searchable, downloadable, ability to make text larger, and many other features):
Also has a great mobile app.
Al-Hatorah (על-התורה) .
I only discovered this resource while researching this guide. My take: Recommended. Both Al-Hatorah as well as Sefaria are very user friendly and powerful both for looking up references, as well as for studying. However, not all of the transcriptions on Al-Hatorah are complete.
Al-Hatorah has more developed tools for serious study. While Sefaria has a bit of a cleaner interface and more modern UX/UI with lots of whitespace.
The UX/UI is quite similar to the “Bar Ilan Responsa Project,” where the Table of Contents are set up as “trees”.
From the About page: “ALHATORAH.ORG was founded by Rabbi Hillel & Neima Novetsky and their children, Yonatan, Aviva, Ariella, and Yehuda. Hillel is a musmakh of RIETS (YU) and earned an MA in Jewish History from Bernard Revel Graduate School and a PhD in Bible from Haifa University. Neima earned an MA in Bible from Bernard Revel Graduate School (YU) and teaches in Torah institutions in Israel. The content of the website is the product of an ongoing, worldwide, collaborative effort of Rabbis, scholars, educators, and laypeople.”
See also their mission statement and Who We Are (listed on the Advisory Board there: Prof. Uriel Simon, Prof. Haym Soloveitchik, Prof. Richard Steiner, and more).
Al-Hatorah is especially strong in medieval commentaries on Tanakh and Talmud. It is also good on the basic texts of a typical yeshiva curriculum (Tanakh, Mishna, Talmud, and their commentaries). It is fairly weak to non-existent in the genres of Kabbalah, Liturgy, Jewish Thought, Chasidut, Musar, and Responsa (all of which are major sections in Sefaria, with multiple major works of each).
Full “library tree” here.
See the full list of digital editions. The full range of high-quality editions is quite impressive.[10]
Some of the works available there (many from recent critical editions):[11]
Targum Yerushalmi - Neofiti (תרגום ירושלמי - ניאופיטי).
New digital edition of Rashi on Torah, Leipzig manuscript.[12]
Reconstruction of the Lost Parts of Rashbam's Torah Commentary.[13]
Additional new digital editions of Torah commentaries, with introductions: ibn Ezra, Yosef Bekhor Shor, and more; see list here (under “נושאים פרשניים”).
New digital edition of Rif (ed. E. Chwat).[14]
Rashbam's Commentary on Avodah Zarah (ed. H. Gershuni).
Mishna MS Kaufmann (ed. D. Be’eri).
Mishnat Eretz Yisrael - modern scholarly commentary on Mishnah. (This commentary also in Sefaria, as mentioned in its entry.)
Steinsaltz-Koren commentary on Talmud Bavli in Hebrew (Sefaria has the English translation and commentary, as mentioned in its entry.)
Visualizations. Very interesting visualizations: timelines, maps, and lists.
Intros, with footnotes to latest academic research:[15]
Daat (דעת).
Has both books as text, as well as scanned PDFs. Includes lots of out-of-copyright books, as well as recent open-access scholarly books, see here, and here.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “Daat is a Hebrew website whose main content is texts in the fields of Judaism and the humanities that were collected from various printed sources. The site contains learning and teaching materials in various fields: Bible, Torah Sheba’al Peh, Shabbat and festivals, Jewish history, Jewish thought, literature, studies of the Land of Israel, Shemita, medicine and halakhah, education, Hasidism, family studies, Hebrew law, army and war, the Holocaust, and more. The site includes extensive databases containing entire books, full text of articles published in about 30 different journals, photos and maps, illustrations, photographs and presentations.”
Kodesh.Snunit (סנונית - מאגר ספרות הקודש). Basic rabbinic texts.
Great for referencing Tanach. Often is the first to come up in Google searches in Hebrew. For example, if I come across a reference to “Bereishit 1:1”, I’ll just google בראשית א, and generally the first result is to the first chapter of Bereishit.
Wikisource - Hebrew (ויקיטקסט).
Wikisource is a "sister-project" of Wikipedia, under the auspices of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “In May 2009, the Hebrew Wikisource (ויקיטקסט) reached 25,000 text units upon completion of uploading all of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah.”
Due to the fact that it’s a crowd-sourced project, it very much has the feel of a “work-in-progress”, with lots of individual chapters missing transcriptions, and of uneven editorship.
Despite this, a great resource, and one that many of other websites draw on.
For example of interesting sefer found there, see R’ Aharon Heiman’s Toldot Tana’im VeAmora’im. I recently used Wikisource’s transcription to do various analyses of the entire corpus of names of rabbis found in Chazal.[17]
Historical Dictionary Project of the Hebrew Language (המילון ההיסטורי ללשון העברית).
Not especially user-friendly, meant for rigorous research.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “Includes a database of all the major works of the Hebrew language in antiquity. As of 2012, more than 7,900 works have been typed into the database, which include more than nine million words, and contain more than 36,000 entries. Work on the database continues consistently, both because of the need to update the database according to updated research, as well as due to the discovery of additional ancient works.”
Talmud Yerushalmi digital critical edition (תלמוד ירושלמי מהדורה דיגיטלית).
Project of Prof. Menachem Katz of University of Haifa. In beta, only Yevamot is available.[18]
An incredible project, with tremendous potential.
Midrash Project - Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies (מפעל המדרש - מכון שכטר למדעי היהדות).
Synoptic editions of eight Midrashim.
Vayikra Rabba - synoptic edition (ויקרא רבה - מהדורה סינופטית).
A website presenting a complete synopsis of the versions preserved in manuscripts of Vayikra Rabba, hosted by Bar-Ilan University.
Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine . “[A] Brown University site directed by Michael Satlow. This website presents transcriptions, images, and bibliographic data of a growing number of inscriptions of relevance to rabbinics research, including epigraphical references to ‘rabbis’.”[19] From the About page: “The Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project seeks to collect and make freely accessible all of the previously published inscriptions (and their English translations) of Israel/Palestine from the Persian period through the Islamic conquest (ca. 500 BCE - 640 CE).”
Mamre Institute (מכון ממרא).
Wikipedia: “The Mamre Institute is an Israeli research institute aimed at providing accessible and accurate texts for the Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Mishneh Torah and Targum Onkelos.”
Tashma - Jewish Office (תא שמע - אופיס יהודי).[20]
Requires registration. Interesting UX/UI, dark mode by default. Works contain no indication of which edition is used. Full list of books in the database here.
Ben-Yehuda Project (פרויקט בן-יהודה) .
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “The project includes, among other things, poetry, fiction, translation, research (עיון) and essays in Hebrew from the Middle Ages to the present day. As of October 2021 it includes over 28,000 works, by about 1,000 different authors.”
An Invitation to Piyut (הזמנה לפיוט).
Tremendous database of piyyutim, with a huge number of piyyutim transcribed.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “A cultural-educational project that works to preserve and revive the traditions of piyyut and prayer of the Jewish people, through a website, publishing, conservation activities, community education and cultural events. The site has about 1,000 columns and articles, including personal columns, memoirs, introductory passages, and reviews. Among the authors of the site are Prof. Ephraim Hazan, Dr. Meir Buzaglo, Prof. Haviva Pedia, Prof. Edwin Seroussi, Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau and many others.”
Zemirot Database (אוצר זמירות).
From FAQ page:
“This is an editable online database for zemirot, liturgy, and other Jewish songs.”
Contains original text, translation, bibliographic info, history, and recordings.
Grimoar .
Focuses on kabbalistic texts.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “A database collecting a large amount of Kabbalah books and books of Jewish thought typed and open for use.”
Unfortunately, the website contains no bibliographical information whatsoever, such as on what edition or manuscript the text is based on. In general it’s unclear who hosts the website (the website domain is Czech, and so are the book descriptions on the website).
Open Siddur Project (פרויקט הסדור הפתוח)
“[An] open-source, web-to-print publishing and digital humanities project intent on sharing the semantic data of Jewish liturgy and liturgy-related work”.
Example of interesting section: “[C]ontainer for facsimile editions and digital transcriptions of Maimonides’ Seder Tefillot (Order of Prayers) found at the end of his Sefer Ahava (Book of Love) in his Mishneh Torah.”
Chabad Library (ספריית חב"ד ליובאוויטש).
Works of Chabad Chasidut transcribed.
Ramhal.net (קהילת הרמח”ל).
Works of the Ramhal transcribed.
From the About page: “The community was founded in 2002 with the aim of making Ramchal's teachings accessible to the general public.”
Hassidout.org. Works of Kabbalah transcribed.
Moreh Nevuchim (מורה נבוכים) with mark-up.
See description here: Hillel Gershuni and Yohai Makbili, “Guide for the Perplexed - Glossary and bibliography” (2019).
Rambam Plus - Mishneh Torah - Mifal Mishneh Torah.
Mobile app with Rambam’s Mishneh Torah (ed. Makbili).
“This website contains the Aramaic text of the first five volumes of [the Pritzker] edition of the Zohar. The Versions include regular text, underlined text showing emendations, and “user-friendly,” which includes page numbers that correspond to this printed edition, Italics for the Biblical verses, and citations for the verses with verse and chapter number.”[21]
Requires subscription or purchase
Bar Ilan Responsa Project . Massive number of texts, with very high level of accuracy. Requires subscription.
Wikipedia - English: “The database consists of one of the world's largest electronic collections of Jewish texts in Hebrew. It includes numerous works from the Responsa Literature. The database also includes the Bible and the Talmud (with commentaries); articles about Jewish law and customs; Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch with main commentaries; Zohar, Midrashim, and the Talmudic Encyclopedia.”
Books - PDF format
Mostly searchable via OCR, and in PDF format.
Open-access
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “Free online digital library for Torah literature. The site contains about 61,000 scanned Torah books and journals, from the beginning of printing to contemporary authors, most of them in Hebrew. The books can be viewed, downloaded and textually searched for in the book's content. The site is accessible in Hebrew and English.”
HebrewBooks is likely well-known to most readers. However, something that might be less well-known is that HebrewBooks has a new search page, officially in beta:
https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/#gsc.tab=0
. It’s a much more powerful search engine, with many new, modern features (bringing it closer to the Otzar HaChochma experience).[22]
National Library of Israel (הספרייה הלאומית).
Links to seforim accessed via search or direct link, no way to browse. However, the “Halacha Brura” index (see later, under section “Index”) often links to it.
Unfortunately, due to many changes and updates to the National Library website over the years, many of the links to the website found at outside websites are now broken.
Presumably, the best way to find the work is to as follows:
Search the name of the work in the National Library website search box (“Merhav”).
Filter for “Available online” AND “Books”
Click on “Online access”
URLs of open-access works appear to following template: “https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH00XXXXXXX/NLI”. For example, Ohev Yisra’el: https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH001091556/NLI
Links to seforim accessed via search or direct link, no way to browse. Has many primary texts available. Couldn’t find a simple way to search for seforim. However, the “Halacha Brura” index (see later, under section “Index”) often links to it. For example, the sefer "Derech Yeshara".
Part of Internet Archive family of projects. Has thousands of relevant scanned books. Can be searched by subject.
Massorti.com . Has all of Lieberman’s Tosefet Rishonim and Tosefta Kifshuta available. See links at Halacha Brura > מפרשי תוספתא.
A number of seforim by the medieval kabbalist R’ Avraham Abulafia, published recently by R’ Amnon Gros. This is R’ Gros’s website.[23]
No way to browse, only search.[24] But relevant works can be found using Halacha Brura’s index,[25] see the webpage indexing Tanach and Hazal. Has a few hundred scanned manuscripts and early printed works.
An eccentric website, mostly dedicated to contemporary haredi works and polemics. However, there are some PDFs of interest, of historical hasidic works. No real browsing capabilities on the website, but can be found using Halacha Brura’s index (as in previous item).
Google Drive. Sometimes individuals upload scans of seforim, and share the links. For example, the full set of R’ Moshe Cordevero’s Or Yakar is currently hosted by an unknown host on Google Drive (see Halacha Brura > Kabbala > “אור יקר, ר' משה קורדוברו, פרוש על הזהר, ירושלים תשכ"ב”).
Epidat .
See description at the website of European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS): “Epidat, short for epigraphic database, is a research platform for Jewish funerary epigraphy. Currently, Epidat contains transcriptions, translations, descriptions, and iconographic documentation of 43,838 headstones (with 79,972 digital images) from 233 historical Jewish cemeteries, spanning a period of 900 years (1040-1952) and covering six European countries (Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Latvia and Czechia).”
Machberet Menachamiyot (מחברות מנחמיות).
New formatting of Talmud Bavli, by Prof. Menahem Katz:
Requires subscription or purchase
Otzar HaHochma (אוצר החכמה).
Generally requires subscription. However, interestingly enough, as of this writing (23-Jan-2022), it appears that the entire basic Otzar HaHochma is open-access, and has been for three months already! As per the pop-up notification on the website, and the banner at the top while browsing: “בס"ד 19/10/2021 . Dear users, the system is undergoing upgrades at this time, some users may experience technical difficulties, therefore we are giving free access to the beta site: beta.otzar.org. This service will be free of charge until further notice. Please note the printing option as well as the add-on packages are available for purchase only on the old website.”[26]
Add-ons include seforim from the following publishers (in order of price): Oz VeHodor, Mossad HaRav Kook, Mechon Yerushalayim, Mechon Ahavat Shalom, Mechon Ofek, Mechon Hochmat Shelomo.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “Otzar HaHochma is a database containing over 110,000 Torah and academic books scanned in the same format as the original printing pages that have undergone optical character recognition, which allows information to be retrieved using a search engine embedded in the system. In version 19.0 (summer 2021) of the database there are 112,749 titles. The update rate of the database is about 5,000 books annually. The database allows the books to be divided into categories, such as: Bible and its commentators; Mishnah and its commentaries; Babylonian Talmud and its commentaries; Jerusalem Talmud and its commentaries; Kabbalah; Mussar; Hasidut; history; disputes (פולמוסים); journals; community books (ספרי קהילות), jubilee books (ספרי יובל), memorial books (ספרי זיכרון), manuscripts and first editions.”
Siddurim Database (מאגר הסידורים הממוחשב).
Distributed by R’ Aharon Gabbai. See the Otzar Hahochma post, published Apr 3, 2017.
From the post:
“A computerized database containing more than a thousand siddurim and machzorim, both manuscript and printed editions. Collected from all over the internet (including hundreds of items that were previously downloadable and can not be downloaded today) and from other rare sources. The database is over a hundred gigabytes in size.”
Manuscripts - images
Some with transcription.
Open-access
Ktiv (כתיב) .
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “The Ktiv project, launched with the 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies in August 2017, is the next stage in the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts’s life, designed to make photographs of all Hebrew manuscripts in the world accessible to the public on the Internet. Upon its launch, four years after the digitization project began, Ktiv had full scans with an excellent resolution of 45,000 manuscripts (out of 90,000) that together hold 4.37 million pages available to the public.[27] The project was organized in collaboration with the National Library of France (BnF), the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the Palatine Library, the British Library, the National Library of Austria, the Bavarian State Library, the Rosenthaliana Library, Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the Vatican Library, Hebrew Union College, The State Library in Berlin, the National Library of Russia, the National Library of Florence, and more.”[28]
See also “Moreshet B’reshet” of the National Library of Israel. From the page: “This page focuses on webpages set up by the National Library over the years. Although these webpages are not updated, they preserve valuable items and information for future generations. Therefore, these sites are maintained and made accessible.”
For example, see the webpage for searching for images of Talmudic manuscripts (עיון בכתבי היד).
Friedberg projects. Each will have its own entry below. See YouTube video for recent discussion of some of these projects (uploaded 2-Feb-2022). All require registration (free). The first two projects appear to be the ones most actively used and developed: Hachi Garsinan and Genizah Project.
Hachi Garsinan - The Friedberg Project for Talmud Bavli Variants (הכי גרסינן).
Friedberg Genizah Project.
Mahadura - the Friedberg Site for Transcriptions and Synopsis (מהדורא).
Yad Harambam (יד הרמב”ם - פרוייקט פרידברג לשינויי נוסחאות ברמב”ם).
The Nahum Collection of Yemenite Manuscripts (אוסף נחום לכתבי יד תימניים).
The Friedberg Judeo-Arabic Project (פרויקט פרידברג לערבית יהודית).
Hachi Garsinan - The Friedberg Project for Talmud Bavli Variants (הכי גרסינן).[29]
Requires registration (free).
From the webpage:
“The Hachi Garsinan site displays all variant-readings of the Talmud Bavli, including images and transcriptions, with sophisticated comparison tools between the variants.
The "Hachi Garsinan" site is meant to serve the wide range of all Bavli learners and researchers: from academic researchers, through Yeshiva communities and Torah students, as well as anyone interested in exploring the variations of the Talmud Bavli and its transformations throughout the ages.
The site contains high quality digital images of all original textual witnesses that exist for the Talmud Bavli (manuscripts, early printings, Genizah fragments, binding fragments and other fragments), accompanied by precise transcriptions of the text in the image. The site integrates additional functions, including full text search, Sussmann catalog, Dikdukei Sofrim, and also save, copy and print options.
The Amuta was established as a joint venture of the "Friedberg Genizah Project" (FGP) and the "Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society"(FJMS). The textual witness' transcriptions, as well as the software for connecting the image and its transcriptions, are prepared by the Amuta Transcription Team.
Five hundred years after the publication of the Talmud Bavli masterpiece in Venice by Daniel Bombergi, the Hachi Garsinan Talmudic project, is a breakthrough presenting all variant-readings in a precise and sophisticated manner.”
Also includes the following foundational works, open-access and user-friendly:
Jacob Sussman, Otzar Kitvey Yad Talmudiyyim (יעקב זוסמן, אוצר כתבי-היד התלמודיים)
R’ Raphael Nathan Nata Rabbinovicz, Dikdukei Sofrim (ר' רפאל נתן נטע ראבינאוויטץ, דקדוקי סופרים)
Many relevant articles (“Ref. Materials > Introductions”).
Requires registration (free).
From the homepage:
“The Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP) presents a real revolution in the study and research of the field of Cairo Genizah and Jewish Studies in general. Its main task is to computerize the entire corpus of Genizah manuscripts and Genizah-related materials: images, identifications, catalogs, metadata, transcriptions, translations and bibliographical references. In the course of this project a full digitization of the entire Genizah collections has been done, together with a huge database which is accessible to every scholar and student. The project also introduces new designated tools for Genizah research which are based on advanced technologies of image processing.
The Site was developed by Genazim Digital, headed by Professor Yaacov Choueka. Currently it is supported by the Association for the Study of Jewish Manuscripts.”
Mahadura - the Friedberg Site for Transcriptions and Synopsis (מהדורא).
I tried browsing existing projects, got a lot of errors.
From the homepage:
“The Mahadura site is designed to create, preserve and share transcriptions and synopses of manuscripts and early printings. The site is meant for Academics, Biblical and Religious Scholars, anyone who is interested in publishing new transcriptions of ancient Jewish texts and preparation of critical revisions. Currently the site allows the user to create new projects in any area of Jewish studies, including uploading of images and texts and to create new transcriptions of manuscripts and prints in a simple painless way, and to view images and transcriptions, and to try the transcription tools in the existing projects. The creator of each project will be able to define a closed group of colleagues to work together on a project, and then decide when it will be publically available. In the future you will be able to create variant synopsis comparisons, using specialized algorithms.
The Amuta was established as a joint venture of the "Friedberg Genizah Project" (FGP) and the "Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society"(FJMS).”
Yad Harambam (יד הרמב”ם - פרוייקט פרידברג לשינויי נוסחאות ברמב”ם).
Requires registration (free).
From the webpage:
“The "Yad HaRambam" site was established for the purpose of presenting all versions of the Rambam's Mishneh Torah ("haYad haHazaka"). It includes images, transcriptions and a sophisticated synopsis (comparison) system between versions.
The site is meant to serve all who want to study the Mishneh Torah; academic researchers, Torah students in Yeshivot, everyone who is interested in historical versions of The Mishneh Torah and its changing unfolding versions through the ages.
The site includes high resolution digital images of early versions of the Mishneh Torah including manuscripts and early printings. Each image is supplemented by an accurate transcription.
The site also integrates additional functions, including full text search on all Rambam textual witnesses, the ability to save, copy and print, personal workspaces, and more.
The Amuta was established as a joint venture of the "Friedberg Genizah Project" (FGP) and the "Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society"(FJMS). The textual witness' transcriptions, as well as the software for connecting the image and its transcriptions, are prepared by the Amuta Transcription Team.”
The Nahum Collection of Yemenite Manuscripts (אוסף נחום לכתבי יד תימניים).
Requires registration (free).
From the webpage:
“The aim of this website is to present efficient research tools for researchers interested in the Nahum Collection of Yemenite Manuscripts. The website contains about 80,000 high-quality digital images of the (mostly) handwritten fragments and volumes in this collection. The site also contains short (1-2 lines) identifications of these manuscripts, whenever available, as well as scanned images of the corresponding entries from the relevant catalogs The site is under continuous development, and we hope to include in it more information in the future. The shelfmarks of the various manuscripts were primordially determined by the existing shelfmarks as marked on the manuscripts and in the catalogs, and when these were missing, new serially shelfmarks were given. In addition, there is a correspondence table in the website that enables direct access to the available information according to the entry-number in the above-mentioned catalogs. Viewing entire volumes can be efficiently browsed using special software that simulates the manual flipping of pages as in a real book. This Site was initially developed by Genazim Digital, headed by Professor Yaacov Choueka and is now supported by the Association for the Study of Jewish Manuscripts.”
The Friedberg Judeo-Arabic Project (פרויקט פרידברג לערבית יהודית).
Requires registration (free).
From the webpage:
“This site is designed to assist researchers of the Judeo-Arabic gain a comprehensive and fundamental knowledge of this language, especially in the lexicon, semantics, idiomatic expressions, and word-related areas. This is done by establishing an extensive computerized corpus of titles and advanced software that can search for words and phrases and display their instances in the corpus (or selected parts thereof) with suitable context and various statistics.
For every page of every work in the corpus, a good quality image is available and can be viewed with its transcription, for testing and comparison. In the first stage, the site will contain Judeo-Arabic titles that have already appeared in print, focusing on titles that were written up to the 16th century. With time, the corpus will be expanded, hopefully encompassing all Judeo-Arabic titles in the mentioned group.
When the corpus will be sufficiently broad, advanced tools of computational linguistics and natural language processing will be developed and will reveal interesting structures and linguistic connections that can be discovered only with the help of a computerized system. This Site was initially developed by Genazim Digital, headed by Professor Yaacov Choueka and is now supported by the Association for the Study of Jewish Manuscripts.”
Includes foundational works, open-access:
מרדכי עקיבא פרידמן, מילון הערבית יהודית מימי הבינים : לתעודות הגניזה של ספר הודו ולטקסטים אחרים
Digital Mishnah Project . Prepared by Hayim Lapin and Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra.
Hebrew Manuscripts : Free Texts . Hosted on archive.org. From the About section: “Hebrew and Judaica manuscripts from Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library.” Currently shows 334 manuscripts.
Digitized Items: Hebrew Manuscripts . From the About page: “[t]his project will make 1.5 million digitized pages freely available over the next three years. Portions of the Bodleian and Vatican Libraries’ collections of Hebrew manuscripts [...] have been selected for digitization by a team of scholars and curators from around the world.”
Based on my count, links to 773 Bodleian manuscripts, and 641 Vatican manuscripts.
See also here: Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books, wide range of ways to browse 806 Bodleian manuscripts.
Requires subscription or purchase
The Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank ; Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature.
From the home page:
“Welcome to our new integrated website: Cooperative Development Initiative – Created by CDI Systems in partnership with the Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmudic Research of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Bar Ilan University’s Institute for Computerization in Jewish Life.
This new resource upgrades and integrates the three Judaic studies databases developed by these institutions:
The Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank.
The Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature, offering pinpointed citations from hundreds of classic and modern scholarly works directly related to the specific selected passage within Talmudic literature.
Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature.”
See under section “Bibliographic info” for “The Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature”.
Search and other related tools
There are some very powerful tools for researching primary and secondary sources.
Gone are the days when one is completely at the mercy of memory, concordance, index, or colleagues. Many of the websites in the previous section (“Primary texts”) have good hyperlinked navigation pages. In addition, they have very good search capabilities. In addition to this, there are websites which are dedicated to search and indexes, that provide powerful capabilities that the previously mentioned websites don’t have.
Open-access
Search is highly recommended.
From the About Us page: “Dicta applies cutting edge machine learning and natural language processing tools to the analysis of Hebrew texts.”
Created by Prof. Moshe Koppel of Bar-Ilan University. List of their search and other tools, all very cool and quite user-friendly and hyper-modern UX/UI, in the best way:
Tanach search: “Search the Bible intuitively, with no need to worry about alternate spellings, prefixes and suffixes or sorting out multiple meanings of a word. Dicta’s search engine understands what you’re looking for.”
Talmud Search: “Search the Talmud and Mishnah for words and phrases intuitively, with no need to worry about alternate spellings and multiple meanings. Dicta’s search engine understands what you’re looking for.”
Quick Nakdan: “Automatically add nikud (vocalization) to text as you type.”
Citation finder: “Identify exact or approximate quotations of biblical and talmudic sources in a given text.”
Rabbinic Abbreviation Expander: “Expand abbreviations in Rabbinic texts. An entered text will be displayed including expanded abbreviations. The automated expansions are editable by the user.”
Synopsis Builder: “Align two or more versions of the same (arbitrarily long) text, highlighting differences between versions and matching parallel words, including variant spellings and synonyms.”
Stylistic Segmentation: “Partition any selected text into distinct stylistic components. For example, a multi-authored text can be automatically decomposed and displayed so that distinct authorial threads are shown in different colors.”
Charuzit: “Find rhymes, assonance, and alliteration for any given Hebrew word. Search results can be filtered by entering semantic words and configuring various grammatical settings.”
Parallels in Yerushalmi (מקבילות לירושלמי).
Project of Prof. Leib Moscovitz of Bar-Ilan University.
From the About page:
“This site contains lists of sources and parallels to the Jerusalem Talmud, from the Bible, the literature of the Tannaim (Mishnah, Tosefta, and the Halachic Midrashim), the Jerusalem Talmud itself, and the classic Aggadic Midrashim of the Land of Israel. For some of the Tractates, parallels from the Babylonian Talmud are also recorded.”
From the homepage: “A project providing digital recognition of handwritten documents using machine learning techniques.”[30]
Bibliographic info
Open-access
Merhav - The National Library (מרחב - הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל).
Recommended. Tremendous bibliographic resource, besides for being a powerful search tool (mentioned also above, under “Search”).
Overview at their website here (Hebrew): “The National Library's collection includes about five million items, including books, manuscripts, journals, maps, music and audio-visual and electronic material, in a variety of languages.
Sfardata (ספר-דתא).
Comprehensive data on dated manuscripts, based largely on the life’s work of Prof. Malachi Beit-Arie.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “The codiocological database of the Hebrew Paleography Project. The purpose of the project is to collect data of all Hebrew manuscripts, such as data on ink, codexes, pagination traditions of the text, page and text dimensions and proportions between them, line management [...], and graphic symbols (symbols of emphasis, acronyms and numbers). The total parameters collected are about 900.
The database contains about 5,000 Hebrew manuscripts dated either with a colophon or with the author's name, which were examined in 250 libraries and private collections, which constitute about 95% of the existing [Hebrew manuscripts].”
The Bibliography of The Hebrew Book (also here) (מפעל הביבליוגרפיה העברית).
My understanding is that “The Bibliography of The Hebrew Book” has been incorporated into “Merhav”. See also National Library’s guides here: https://www.nli.org.il/en/research-and-teach/catalogs/bibliographic-databases
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “A body designated for the editing of a bibliography of Jewish printing. The project lists and describes all the books printed in Hebrew characters in the Hebrew language and in the languages of the Jews (Yiddish, Ladino, Judaeo-Arabic, etc.) from the first Hebrew incunabula in the year 1475, until about 1960. The bibliographic database was built on the basis of the collections of the National Library and other collections in Israel and around the world. The bibliography numbers over 141,000 bibliographic and 15,000 biographical entries, and includes: books, journals and individual pages (ephemera). Each publication is reviewed by the project staff, and the description of the books is very broad and comprehensive than their description in the National Library catalog, and includes, for example: book approvals (הסכמות לספרים), introductions written by other authors, and the like. As of 2011, the project recorded and described close to 90% of the world's Jewish books and is online on the National Library website.”
Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts
Hosted at the Hachi Garsinan website, mentioned earlier. Requires registration (free).
Based on Y. Sussman, Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts, Jerusalem 2012. With Friedberg updates, edited by M. Katz, September 2017.
Requires subscription or purchase
Talmud Yerushalmi Citation Database (מאגרי מידע לתלמוד הירושלמי).
Project of Dr. Moshe Pinchuk of Netanya Academic College.[31]
Indexes
Open access
Halacha Brura Institute - Virtual Library (מכון הלכה ברורה - ספריה וירטואלית).
This is an incredible project.
From the webpage: “The Halacha Brura Institute centralizes here links to seforim that are on the Internet at various websites, in full text, some as text and some as images, to save the visit to libraries.”
Has a system of symbols to mark the website where the work is found, and the file type.
Ironically, Halacha Brura’s own meta-index of its own indexes is unfortunately not very good, there’s no full sitemap available on the website, and the organization of the webpages doesn’t isn’t always the best (for example, Rambam and commentators and Responsa are on the same page). Presumably, this is because webpages were split as they got larger. In any case, to help with this issue, I created my own meta-index of Halacha Brura's indexes (at the appendix here).
This project appears to be affiliated with the Rambam Library (ספריית הרמב”ם - בית אריאלה) in Tel-Aviv, though it’s not clearly stated on their website.
Bibliography of works in Judeo-Arabic (אתר פרידברג לביבלוגרפיה בערבית יהודית).
From the webpage:
“The aim of this website is to present to all scholars, researchers and, in general, users interested in Judeo-Arabic texts, a comprehensive bibliography of all works in Judeo-Arabic ever printed, in a variety of formats, with some filtering capabilities.
The list, with some 1,500 entries, is intended to cover all regions of publications and all periods of the works' writings, up until and including the very early works of the 21st century.”
Well-organized, publications can be sorted by place of publication, year, etc. There also seem to be works there not found in other websites, especially of manuscripts and early editions of Hazalic works. (Halacha Brura’s index above sometimes links to Seforimonline.org.)
Heichal Menahem (היכל מנחם).
E-commerce website selling seforim. Can be used as a kind of index of recently published seforim, with lots of bibliographical info and pictures.
Secondary literature
Books
There are a nice amount of academic books available online, especially more recent ones.
Open-access
Portal HaDaf HaYomi (פורטל הדף היומי) .
Has a few hundred scanned books, mostly relating to Talmud Bavli, many of them not available elsewhere. Examples: R’ Kashet’s highly methodical works on lomdus ( קובץ יסודת וחקירות ; אמרי במערבא ; פלפולא דאורייתא ; דרכי התלמודים ; see also there R’ Kashash’s similar style work, קובץ מיסודות הש”ס); R’ Amitai’s well-researched and highly-structured works on Torah and science (דע מאיין באו ; הידיעות המדעיות שבדברי חז"ל ; היחס שבין היקף המעגל לרוחבו ; באהלי שם ; מנא להו ; אמונה טהורה); R’ Pinchuk’s intro to Talmud Yerushalmi (מבוא ללימוד התלמוד הירושלמי); some great works on Talmudic humor (Engleman’s שעשועי ; Lifshitz’s ברוח טובה ).
Society for the Interpretation of the Talmud (האיגוד לפרשנות התלמוד). Scholarly interpretation of Talmud Bavli, written in Modern Hebrew.
Recommended. The first seven of their publications are available there (published between 2006 - 2016). Does not include the most recent publications published 2019 - 2021. The level of scholarship is very high.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “A series of commentaries on the Babylonian Talmud based on scientific research as well as a traditional-religious interpretation. Most of the project’s books are available for public use as PDF files on the Society’s website, along with additional unpublished reference materials. The chairman of the association is its founder, Professor Shama Friedman, and its management consists of Prof. Yeshayahu Gafni, Prof. Gideon Libson and Prof. Shmuel Shilo.”
Asif - Sifriyat Asif (אסיף - ספריית אסיף). Dissertations in Hebrew, written by scholars associated with hesder and Religious-Zionist institutions. Also whole seforim and Torah journals divided neatly and searchable, many of them of potential scholarly interest, well-annotated and sourced (such as R’ David Bruckner’s series Mishnat Tana’im).
P’sik (פסיק) . Scholarly books in Hebrew, for a more popular audience, mostly on Bible and contemporary religious thought.
From Bar-Ilan University’s library guide: “The digital book platform is designed for reading and academic research.”
De Gruyter. Academic publisher. Has around 100 open-access books in English categorized as on Jewish topics available for download.[32]
Many open-access books, see the books marked “open-access”.
Especially JSTOR, Brown Judaic Studies. Currently around 65 open-access books. From the “Publisher Description”:
“Brown Judaic Studies has been publishing scholarly books in all areas of Judaic studies for forty years. Our books, many of which contain groundbreaking scholarship, were typically printed in small runs and are not easily accessible outside of major research libraries. We are delighted that with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program, we are now able to make available, in digital, open-access, format, fifty titles from our backlist. Once digitized the volumes will be freely available through ProjectMUSE, JSTOR, ACLS Open Humanities and the Hathi Trust.”
Requires subscription or purchase
Kotar . (כותר) - Requires subscription.
For Hebrew academic books. Fairly user friendly for reading, though not as user-friendly as Kindle (see later). According to results, around 800 titles in Jewish studies. Leans towards newer publications. Subscription for remote access is sometimes available through libraries, such as my library (Tel Aviv library). Should be pointed out that Kotar links are often linked in National Library’s Merhav search results (see earlier under “Search”).[33]
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “A website that is an online library for subscribers of scholarly books in Hebrew, in collaboration with Israeli publishers. The title library offers hundreds of digital books and online reference on a wide range of topics from the humanities and social sciences, law, natural sciences and exact sciences and more. The publishers involved in the project include about 100 academic, public and private book publishers. The library began operating in January 2006. Kotar offers online access to a large variety of information sources. Kotar offers online browsing of a selection of over 3,000 titles (as of March 2018) of reference and information books and is constantly expanding.”
There are a large amount of works put out by the following publishers:
Yad Ben-Tzvi
Bialik
Sifriyat Heileil Ben-Chaim
A few of the hundreds of books that are available there (all in Hebrew, as mentioned):
M. Kahana et. al (ed.), Sifrut Hazal HaEretz Yisra’elit (2 vol.)
A. Grosman, Rashi VeHaPolemos HaYehudi HaNotzri
A. Reiner, Rabbeinu Tam
S. Reif, HaGeniza MiKahir
Anat Reizel, Mavo LeMidrashim.[34]
Kindle e-books.
Requires purchase for full books. Samples of first 10% of book are often available for free.
Great for scholarly books in English. Recommend, in my opinion underrated as a resource for scholarly English books. Great advantages of Kindle e-books:
Can highlight and annotate, with a special section with your highlights and annotations, which is great for later skimming and refreshing memory.
Can hover for dictionary definitions and Wikipedia entry header paragraphs.
As well as many of the other advantages mentioned above for electronic resources: instant availability; takes up minimal space, searchable, easily screenshotted, etc.
For most books, can download free sample of beginning of book, usually containing front matter, Table of Contents, intro, and first chapter or two.
However, it should be pointed out that Kindle editions are not necessarily “cheap”, though they’re generally cheaper than the physical copies. For example, Halivni’s book mentioned below is currently being sold on Amazon for $104, and the Kindle version is $67.[35]
Some of the many scholarly books available on Kindle:
Secunda, The Iranian Talmud
Feiner, The Jewish Enlightenment
Magnes Press. Hebrew University’s academic press. Around 350 books available as ebooks for purchase, to read on their app. Came across this while researching this guide, have no idea if it’s any good, but looks promising.
Journals[36]
There are a lot of academic articles readily available online.
Open-access
Journals whose full archives are currently open-access.
Kiryat Sefer (קרית ספר) (years available: 1924 - 1998). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew.
Recommended. Contains a huge number of articles by the greats of Hebrew bibliography.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “The journal was published from the founding of the database in 1925 until 2003. It also contains many bibliographic articles.”
Cathedra (קתדרה) (years available: 1976 - 2017). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew.
See description in Wikipedia Hebrew: קתדרה (כתב עת) – ויקיפדיה
Pe’amim (פעמים) (years available: 1979 - 2009). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. After 2009, some articles open-access, but most not.
See description in Wikipedia Hebrew: פעמים – ויקיפדיה .
Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal (years available: 2002 -). Scholarly articles written in English and Modern Hebrew
Started in 2002, have issued 21 issues so far. Editor-in-Chief - Prof. James L. Kugel. Managing Editor - Prof. Leib Moscovitz.
From the home page: “JSIJ is a peer-reviewed electronic journal dealing with all fields of Jewish studies, which is distributed free of charge via the Internet. By publishing articles electronically via the Internet, JSIJ seeks to disseminate articles much faster than is possible with paper publication, and to make these articles readily and conveniently accessible to a wide variety of readers at all times. We hope that the use of this new technology will eventually allow JSIJ to develop in ways not available with conventional print journals, including the possibility of computerized full-text searches and the use of hyperlinks to other texts.”
Ginzei Qedem (גנזי קדם). (years available: 2005 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Journal is published by the Friedberg Genizah Project and the Ben-Zvi Institute.
From the About page: “Ginzei Qedem is a peer reviewed annual publication devoted to Genizah texts and studies published by the Friedberg Genizah Project and the Ben-Zvi Institute. Ginzei Qedem uses the term, “Genizah texts and studies” in the widest sense of the term – fragments of literary works and documents from genizot in Cairo and elsewhere – including all the relevant disciplines – history, literature (including piyyut), language, Biblical studies and exegesis, Talmud and Rabbinics, magic etc. The articles are in Hebrew and English. Seven issues have appeared to date.”
See further description in Wikipedia Hebrew: גנזי קדם (שנתון) – ויקיפדיה
HaTzofeh LaHochmat Yisra’el (הצופה לחכמת ישראל). Available on HebrewBooks. (years available: 1921 - 1931). Scholarly articles written in Hebrew. See description in Wikipedia Hebrew: הצופה מארץ הגר – ויקיפדיה.
Kovetz al Yad (קובץ על יד) . Available on HebrewBooks. (years available: 1885 - 1946). Publications of works from manuscripts. See description in Wikipedia Hebrew: מקיצי נרדמים.
Hama’ayan (המעין) (years available: 1953 - 2009). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Journal is currently affiliated with Yeshivat Sha’alvim.
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “HaMa'ayan is a quarterly publication, published since 1953, ‘which combines a Torah dimension with a scientific-Torah dimension’ and contains various articles on Halacha, hashkafa, Jewish history and scholarly research.”
Available here:
המעין - מכון שלמה אומן: years available: 2007 -
Earlier issues, years available: 1953 - 2006, at Daat and HebrewBooks
Netu’im (נטועים) (years available: 1994 -). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Torah Sheba’al Peh. Journal is affiliated with Yeshivat Alon Shevut and Herzog College.
Al Atar (על אתר) (years available: 1996 -). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Eretz Yisra’el. Journal is affiliated with Yeshivat Alon Shevut and Herzog College.
Dinei Yisra’el (דיני ישראל). (years available: 2009 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Jewish law. Journal is affiliated with Tel-Aviv University. [38]
Masechet (years available: 2004 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Focuses on topics related to women. Journal is affiliated with Bar-Ilan University.
Tallelei Orot (טללי אורות) (years available: 1989 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Journal is affiliated with Orot Yisra’el College. Also selected articles at Daat, in text format.
Oreshet (אורשת) (years available: 2010 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Journal is affiliated with Orot Yisra’el College.
Moreshet Israel (מורשת ישראל) (years available: 2018 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew. Journal is affiliated with Ariel University.
Oqimta (אוקימתא). (years available: 2013 - ). Scholarly articles written in Modern Hebrew and English. Journal started by Prof. Shamma Friedman of Bar-Ilan University.
See description in Wikipedia Hebrew: אוקימתא (כתב עת)
Tradition (years available: 1958 -).
Hakira (years available: 2004 - ). Scholarly articles written in English.
Wikipedia: “Ḥakirah, The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of halakha and Jewish thought. Hakirah is a Jewish journal which publishes articles that reflect a wide range of Orthodox beliefs and ideas. Those who submit articles run the gamut from laypeople, to rabbis, doctors and professors. The first volume of Hakirah was published in the fall of 2004. Each volume generally contains about ten English and two Hebrew articles comprising a total of about 250 pages. A new volume appears about every six to seven months.”
Journal of Synagogue Music Archive - Cantors Assembly.
“The Cantors Assembly provides full text of Journal of Synagogue Music Archive and audio recordings or Torah reading. Essays address Jewish law related to music [and piyut].”[39]
Many Torani journals are available on HebrewBooks, by searching the title. Many are also linked to by Halacha Brura in their index of journals, and in their respective Wikipedia entries. These are Torani journals, meaning that they are published by Orthodox institutions. They are all written in Modern Hebrew. The articles in these journals are mostly not relevant for this guide; however, they often contain scholarly articles, especially related to publications of manuscripts of rabinnic works of Geonim, Rishonim, or Aharonim. For ideological reasons, the scholarly articles relevant for this guide generally don’t cover topics earlier than the Geonic period, and they are more likely to publish on recent topics than earlier ones.[40]
Tzefunot (צפונות). (years available: 1989 - 1993). Focuses on bibliographic topics. See description in Wikipedia: צפונות .
Kovetz Beis Aharon VeYisra’el (קובץ בית אהרן וישראל) (years available: 1986 - 2002) . Also available on Otzar Hachochma’s forum.
Or Yisra’el (אור ישראל). (Years available: 1996 - 2015). See description in Wikipedia: חסידות_קרלין#קובץ_בית_אהרן_וישראל .
Pe’alim LeTorah (פעלים לתורה).
Yeshurun (ישורון). (Years available: 1996 - 2015). See description in Wikipedia: ישורון (מאסף תורני) .
Yerushateinu (ירושתנו). See description in Wikipedia: ירושתנו .
Asifas Chachomim (אסיפת חכמים).
Hitzei Giborim (חצי גבורים).
Min HaGenazim (מן הגנזים).
Requires subscription or purchase
58 journals that focus on the subject of Jewish Studies.[41]
Nevo.
Israeli law journals, in Modern Hebrew. Journals there with many articles relevant to history of halacha:
Dinei Yisra’el available at Nevo (נבו) with subscription, years available: 1970 -.
Sh’naton Hamishpat Ha’ivri (שנתון המשפט העברי). (years available: 1974 - 2006). Journal is affiliated with Hebrew University.
Mehkerei Mishpat (מחקרי משפט). (years available: 1980 - ). Journal is affiliated with Bar-Ilan University.
Otzar HaHochma (אוצר החכמה):
See on this resource above.
For example, the journal Areshet (ארשת) is available there. (years available: 1958 - 1980). Journal published by Mossad HaRav Kook, focused on Hebrew bibliography. Links at the Wikipedia entry for the journal.
Some journals on Project MUSE that focus on Jewish Studies: JQR
EBSCO
Articles
Websites with scholarly articles.
Open-access
Academy of Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית).
Scholarly articles in Modern Hebrew.
From the page on “Articles”: “The Hebrew Language Academy publishes selected articles here from time to time for the benefit and enjoyment of the visitors to the site. The articles are written by linguists - including members of the Academy and its researchers - and are usually taken from the journals of the Academy: Leshonenu (לשוננו), Ha’Ivrit (Leshonenu L’am) (העברית = לשוננו לעם) and Akadem (אקדם). Some of the articles were written specifically for the academy's website.”
Appear in both PDF format, as well as text.
Daat (דעת).
See above. Besides for complete texts of primary works, has many scholarly articles from journals, in text format, such as Sinai (סיני), Shma’atin (שמעתין), Mahanayim (מחניים).
I follow around 200 academics. Some of them are for deceased scholars whose students have set up a profile for them, and uploaded their work. I get updates of articles in my “feed” about once a day, and the articles are generally a good fit for my interests. (E.g. Elliot Wolfson has 165 articles there.)
Wikipedia - English: “Academia.edu is an American for-profit social networking website for academics. It began as a free and open repository of academic journal articles and registered a .edu domain name when this was not limited to educational institutions.”
Metah (מטח).
Lots of transcribed scholarly articles in Hebrew. See also the section of the website called “Peshita” (פשיטא).
From the About page: “The virtual library project of Metah began in 2000. Metah is a non-profit institution and the library project is non-commercial; The library is open and accessible to anyone for free.”
Some examples of articles available:
55 Tarbitz (תרביץ) articles, see list.
Ad Henah (עד הנה).
Lots of PDFs of scholarly articles in Hebrew.
From the About page: “A study and research institute that studies the Torah work of Galician and Bukovina Jewry, from the sixteenth century to the present time.”
Ptil Tekhelet (פתיל תכלת).
Lots of PDFs of scholarly articles in Hebrew (shows 530 items). Focuses on the topic of tekhelet.
Author academic websites (e.g., Meir Bar-Ilan ; Yehuda Liebes)
Ask the author - generally amenable to sending their own articles and dissertation.
Requires subscription or purchase
National Library of Israel has a service for ordering scans from the library collections (הזמנת סריקות והדפסות מאוספי הספרייה). See also: הזמנת צילומים מיוחדים.
Bibliographic info and indexes
Open-access
RAMBI (רמב"י).
My understanding is that “The Bibliography of The Hebrew Book” has been incorporated into “Merhav” (see above).
Wikipedia - Hebrew: “An indexed and cataloged article index (or bibliography) of thousands of academic and other articles in a wide range of fields in the Jewish Studies, the study of the Land of Israel and the State of Israel, and is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind in the world. The information contained in Rambi was collected from thousands of scientific journals, literary or documentary journals, collections and files of one-time articles on a specific topic, in Hebrew, English, French, German and other languages and in the Judaic languages: Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino and others; most of them found in the National Library of Israel. The criteria for inclusion in Rambi are that the publication be in an academic publication or another recognized and respected stage, or that it be useful for academic research purposes.”
RAMBISH (רמבי”ש). Same concept as RAMBI, but for articles appearing in Orthodox journals.
Cotar Project - Collection of Torah Articles.
A database of Torah journals/periodicals. Has a list of periodicals, and also breakdown by topic.[42]
Indexes of dissertations / theses:
Hebrew University - search
Jewish Theological Seminary- search and list
Medieval Jewish History - Resource Directory
“This website is [a] list of Jewish history resources by time period, subject, geographic location etc.”[43]
Requires subscription or purchase
Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature (Lieberman Index) . Requires subscription.
From the home page:
“The Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature, offering pinpointed citations from hundreds of classic and modern scholarly works directly related to the specific selected passage within Talmudic literature.”
Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Requires subscription.
From Bar-Ilan University’s library guide: “Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies is an interdisciplinary database encompassing history, religion, philosophy, literature, sociology and political science. Its chronological and geographical range stretches from the Bible to the present, including communities from the Americas to Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Africa. Oxford Bibliographies Jewish Studies offers selected articles that break down subject areas into their component parts and pithy annotations that summarize the main contribution of each citation. The database is one of the components of the Oxford Bibliography, a database that offers an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, containing original commentary and annotations.”
Encyclopedias
Open-access
Jewish Encyclopedia . In English.
Large parts of it have been incorporated into the corresponding English Wikipedia entries.
Great source for Jewish topics. I personally have found Wikipedia to be great sources for, among other topics:
Biographies of Jews
Jewish communities
Jewish Law (halacha)
Encyclopedia Talmudit - Micropedia (האנציקלופדיה התלמודית). In rabbinic/modern Hebrew, on Talmudic topics.
From the webpage: “From Micropedia to Encyclopedia: Wikishiva (ויקישיבה) continues its collaboration with the Talmudic Encyclopedia project and now becomes the home of the new Talmudic Encyclopedia entries. Now, beyond the Talmudic Micropedia project, the entries of the Encyclopedia itself will be published here. It is important to note that entries published here are not currently published as books. To date, 251 entries have been written in the Talmudic Encyclopedia project. The Talmudic Encyclopedia: The new Talmudic Encyclopedia entries are already on Wikishiva! You can browse all the entries on the site or search using the search box, select the first letter, or select from the new entries on the site. The Talmudic Micropedia: The Talmudic Micropedia is a concise and up-to-date treasure trove of the entries of the Talmudic Encyclopedia, in a flowing and clear style.”
Requires subscription or purchase
Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition. In English.
Second edition published by Gale and available on their website. Requires subscription, many libraries give access through OpenAthens, see for example Bar-Ilan University’s page.
The entries (all? some?) of Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition, appear to have been incorporated into encyclopedia.com, and fully hyperlinked to other EJ entries. The entries seem to be able to be found only via search, there’s no way to browse list of entries. See google search "Encyclopaedia Judaica site:https://www.encyclopedia.com/".
Bar-Ilan University overview: “Provides an overview of Jewish life and knowledge from the Second Temple period to the contemporary State of Israel, from Rabbinic to modern Yiddish literature, from Kabbalah to "Americana" and from Zionism to the contribution of Jews to world cultures.”
Encyclopedias published by Brill, in English:
Encyclopaedia of Judaism Online.
From the webpage: “The prize-winning Encyclopaedia of Judaism is now available online. More than 200 entries comprising more than 1,000,000 words. This unique reference tool offers an authoritative, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of the current state of scholarship on fundamental issues of Judaism, both past and present. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it reflects the highest standards in scholarship. Covering a tradition of nearly four thousand years, some of the most distinguished scholars in the field describe the way of life, history, art, theology, philosophy, and the practices and beliefs of the Jewish people.”
Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online.
From the webpage: “[T]he first cohesive and discreet reference work which covers the Jews of Muslim lands particularly in the late medieval, early modern and modern periods. The expanded online version, EJIW Online (started in 2010), is updated twice annually with newly commissioned articles, illustrations, multimedia, and primary source material. Interdisciplinary articles cover a wide range of topics from history, law, music, visual arts, social sciences, philosophy, anthropology and demography.”
Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture Online.
From the webpage: “From Europe to America to the Middle East, North Africa and other non-European Jewish settlement areas the Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture covers the recent history of the Jews from 1750 until the 1950s. Translated from German into English, approximately 800 keywords present the current state of international research and depict a complex portrait of Jewish life - illustrated by many maps and images. About 40 key articles convey central themes on topics like autonomy, exile, emancipation, literature, liturgy, music or the science of Judaism.”
Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online.
From the webpage: “[A] systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. The encyclopedia contains overview articles that provide a readable synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of the Hebrew language as well as thematically-organized entries which provide further information on individual topics. With over 950 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.”
Dictionaries
Open-access
Wiktionary - Hebrew (H). Generally very good entries, with ample primary and secondary sources.
Jastrow’s A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, in English:
Ben-Yehuda Dictionary (מילון בן-יהודה - מילון העברית הישנה והחדשה). Transcribed, with hyperlinked Table of Contents.
R’ Natan of Rome, Sefer HeArukh, ed. Lublin 1883, on Sefaria. Includes R’ Benjamin Mousafia’s Musaf Aruch. Also at Sefaria: R’ Isaiah Berlin’s Hafla'ah ShebaArakhin on Sefer HeArukh.
Academy of Hebrew language’s online dictionary . In Modern Hebrew. Based on Milon HaHoveh (מילון ההווה). Does not include etymologies or sources.
Popular articles - general
Websites with open-access articles, written for a popular audience, with relatively high scholarly standards.
General
See above. Besides for a selection of scholarly articles from journals, has many articles specifically written for the website.
Recommended. Focuses on Hebrew linguistics. Great resource, at a high level of scholarship, with lots of interesting articles on all topics related to Hebrew language, throughout history.
Wikipedia: “The Academy of the Hebrew Language was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram campus." Its stated aims are to assemble and research the Hebrew language in all its layers throughout the ages; to investigate the origin and development of the Hebrew tongue; and to direct the course of development of Hebrew, in all areas, including vocabulary, grammar, writing, spelling, and transliteration.”
In English.
Focuses on Talmud Bavli. Recommended. From the About Us: “We solicit original essays that are reviewed and edited by our in-house scholars, to ensure the highest academic standards as well as maximum readability for the general audience.”
Lots of good articles. However, it mostly focuses on Bible and Modern Jewish history, which are out of the scope of this guide.
929- Tanach B’yachad (929 - תנך ביחד).
In Modern Hebrew. Lots of articles on Hebrew linguistics (for example: on the phrase "עומד על הפרק"). However, mostly focuses on Bible, which is out of the scope of this guide. And not so simple to filter for articles on Hebrew linguistics.
Popular articles - newspapers and magazines
Newspapers and magazines can be a great source of scholarship, and they’re often available online. They are especially good for reviews of scholarly books, and interviews with scholars.[44] Israeli publications often have high-quality articles on Hebrew linguistics. Mostly behind paywall, with some articles not behind paywall.
Some of the best:
Makor Rishon (מקור ראשון).
In Modern Hebrew. Their Mussaf Shabbat (מוסף שבת) is especially good on scholarly topics.
“Makor Rishon is a semi-major Israeli newspaper [...] Shabbat (Sabbath) – a supplement for Jewish philosophy, Judaism and literature, with an intellectual bent.”
Haaretz (הארץ).
In Modern Hebrew and English.[45]
Available online: 4 April 1918 - 31 December 1997 (22,721 issues; 394,984 pages), at National Library of Israel’s Jpress archive. However, not all pages in this date range are in fact available there.
“Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English [...]”
Segula (סגולה).
In Modern Hebrew and English.
“Segula is an Israeli monthly dedicated to history, published since April 2010. The magazine deals with the history of the people of Israel and general history, from the perspective that the people of Israel play an important part in world history and the historical processes leading humanity. The magazine is published monthly. An equivalent edition in English is published once every two months.”
“Tablet is an online religious magazine of news, ideas, and Jewish culture. Founded in 2009 [...]”.
“The Jewish Review of Books is a quarterly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs from a Jewish perspective. [...] The magazine was launched in 2010 [...] ”
Blogs
Blogs are generally not formally peer-reviewed and are generally written more informally and conversationally, but are often a great resource. With the shift from blogs to social media, many blogs have shifted to Facebook, and to a lesser extent Twitter and Reddit. (E.g., Mississippi Fred McDowel no longer posts on "On the Main Line", but does on Facebook..) Blogs are far less active than they were. There are a lot of Facebook groups, which I'm less familiar with, and technically have to be added to and aren't indexed by Google unfortunately ("walled gardens", vs. “open platforms”).
My focus here is on blogs with a substantial focus on academic/scholarly topics and style.
The Talmud Blog. Focuses on Talmud.
Rationalist Judaism. Focuses on the relationship of science and Judaism, besides for contemporary politics and hashkafa.
Lehrhaus. Mostly articles related to contemporary issues, but many that have scholarly interest. Especially in section Talmud and Halacha.
Knowledge in Circulation (EsKnow). Masthead: “Knowledge in Circulation: The Reception and Transmission of Jewish Esoteric Knowledge in Manuscripts and Print in Early Modern East-Central Europe.” Footer: “A research blog on the history and materiality of Jewish kabbalistic knowledge in East-Central Europe.”
Jewish Studies @ CUL . A blog affiliated with Columbia University, focused on Hebrew Bibliography.
Footprints Blog – Tracing Jewish Books Through Time and Place . A blog affiliated with Columbia University, focused on Hebrew Bibliography.
Safranim .
Am Hasefer (עם הספר). The blog of Rambam Library of Tel Aviv, focused on Hebrew Bibliography.
Hagahot. Active 2005 - 2013.
Giluy Milta B'alma (גילוי מילתא בעלמא). Masthead: “We present here new and interesting findings in Hebrew Manuscripts, and Genizah- We welcome posts in Hebrew or English.”
On the Main Line . Blog of “Mississippi Fred MacDowell”.
English Hebraica . Another blog of “Mississippi Fred MacDowell”. Masthead: “Chronicling Jewish and Jewish themed writing in the English language prior to the 19th century. interesting biographies, diagrams, translations, transliterations and descriptions of Jewish learning and theology from primary sources.” Active 2006 - 2007. Since then posts on Facebook.
What's Bothering Artscroll? . Another blog of “Mississippi Fred MacDowell”. Active 2006 - 2008.
Hollander Books Blog. Masthead: “A bookseller and his books, his very many books. And a few ideas.”
Kol Safran. Masthead: “A librarian's comments on books, copyright, management, librarianship, and libraries that don't get the full article treatment.” Many posts on topics in Jewish bibliography, as well as visits to Jewish libraries.
Musings of a Jewish Bookseller. Masthead: “On Jewish Books, Jewish Bookselling and Jewish Booksellers”
Notrikon (נוטריקון). In Modern Hebrew. Masthead: ”A journey through the space of the written word, between books, periods and people ... stops at different stations, who knows where we will end up.”
Oneg Shabbat (עונג שבת). Blog of Prof. David Assaf. Many interesting posts on modern Jewish history, and on history of Hasidut.
HaSafranim - Blog of National Library of Israel (הספרנים - בלוג הספרייה הלאומית). In Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Hebrew bibliography, and topics related to Modern Israel.
The Librarians. English blog of National Library of Israel, which is not identical to the content of the Hebrew blog (previous).
which is not identical to the Hebrew content.
7minim (מינים). Masthead: “This blog is intended to allow me, Tomer Persico, to comment briefly on this and that”. Has a number of posts on recent scholarly books on history of Kabbalah (though the blog mostly focuses on contemporary issues).
HaZirah HaLeshonit - Ruvik Rozental (הזירה הלשונית - רוביק רוזנטל). Many posts on history of individual Hebew words, by a well-known and popular Hebrew linguist.
Leshoniada (לשוניאדה). In Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Hebrew linguistics.
Safa Ivrit (השפה העברית). In Modern Hebrew. Focuses on Hebrew linguistics. Not quite a blog, rather a wide range of short articles on sources of sayings and words.
Balashon (בלשון). Focuses on Hebrew linguistics, especially on Modern Hebrew words that draw on classical Hebrew with Greek and Latin cognates.
Parshablog. Masthead: “Parshablog is published by R’ Josh Waxman, a grad student in Revel, a grad student in a Phd program in computer science at CUNY. I recently received semicha from RIETS. This blog is devoted to parsha as well as whatever it is I am currently learning.”
Videos and Podcasts
YouTube has a lot of academic lectures. With the covid restrictions over the past two years, it has become especially common to live stream scholarly lectures (whether there’s a live component or not), and often the videos are then permanently publicly available on YouTube.[46]
Some channels:
Academic lectures. Hundreds of lectures available. The YouTube channels seem to often be used now for live streaming of scholarly lectures:
Israeli university channels. For example, Hebrew University ; Bar-Ilan University.
Scholarly organizations, such as Yad Ben-Zvi.
Torah in Motion. A large number of lecture series. However, it mostly focuses on more modern history, contemporary theology, and on the Bible, so outside the scope of this guide. For lecture series within the scope of this guide, see for example the series with Dr. William Gewirtz, The Changing Nature of Time in Halakha, which is a four-part series that, according to the description, includes a lot of discussion of the history of the Jewish calendar.
Seforim Chatter. Podcast hosted by Nachi Weinsten of Lakewood, NJ.[48] Has interviews with top scholars discussing their most interesting research. For example, some previous guests include: Seforim Blog’s Prof. Marc Shapiro; Jacob J. Schacter, and many more. Recommended. Also has an associated Twitter feed.[49]
Misfit Torah. Podcast hosted by Akiva Weisinger.
Channeling Jewish History. Podcast hosted by my friend Joel Davidi.[50] Interviews many scholars, such as Seforim Blog contributor Prof. Marc Shapiro.
AllDaf. A number of discussions featuring Seforim Blog’s own Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Brodt “to briefly highlight some of the Rishonim and Acharonim ‘out there’ on this masechta”, see the latest Seforim Blog post here, with links to previous.
Tradition Podcast. Hosted by the editor of Tradition. Available on their YouTube channel. For example, one episode is an interview with Prof. Eric Lawee on a new book of his on Rashi’s Commentary.
Am HaSefer - Rambam Library - Beit Ariela (עם הספר - ספריית הרמב"ם בית אריאלה).
Endless videos and podcasts, each of which must be judged on its own. One genre is well-edited videos with graphics by unknown hosts. Another type is podcast-type interviews with well-known personalities. A majority of all of these are focused on Bible, which as mentioned in the introduction, are outside the scope of this guide. Also, many of them are focused more on drawing lessons, in the “self-help” genre, and less on pure scholarship.[51]
Twitter
Now requires registration (free) to view most content.
Essentially every organization focused on Jewish scholarship has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. Most Twitter feeds and Facebook pages affiliated with organizations are focused on academic events, book launches, awards, etc., and so are less interesting for our purposes here. Here are the ones that especially caught my eye as having content relevant to this guide, especially bibliographical content.
Michelle Margolis (@hchesner) / Twitter .
“Judaica @Columbia @Footprints_Heb #dhjewish, VP @jewishlibraries, Jewish book history, Hebrew incunabula”
Footprints Project (@Footprints_Heb) / Twitter .
“Tracing Jewish books through time and place.”
National Library of Israel (@NLIsrael) / Twitter .
“Collecting & preserving the cultural treasures of #Israel & the #Jewish People. Opening access to millions of books, photos, recordings, maps, archives + more.”
נתן הירש Nathan Hirsch (@NLITorani) / Twitter.
“Contemporary Rabbinic literature”.
Also on Telegram: https://t.me/s/NLITorani
And on Facebook: Nathan Hirsch | Facebook
Facebook
Norman E. Alexander Library for Jewish Studies - Home | Facebook .
“The Norman E. Alexander Library for Jewish Studies at Columbia University collects Judaica and Hebraica in all formats and supports research.”
Forums
There are some great forums dedicated to academic Jewish Studies.
Otzar HaChochma’s forum (פורום אוצר החכמה). In Modern Hebrew. Lots of really interesting discussions.
Behadrei Haredim - Forum: Seforim and Sofrim (בחדרי חרדים - פורום: ספרים וסופרים). In Modern Hebrew.
Judaism.stackexchange.com (Mi Yodea). In English.
[1]This Guide is a revised and expanded version of a series of blogposts that originally appeared in three parts at the Seforim Blog March-July 2022 (with intro and appendix, not included in this version), with the title “Guide and Review of Online Resources – 2022”: Part I ; Part II ; Part III.
I’d like to thank Eliezer Brodt, Sholom Licht, and my father and brother for looking over a previous draft of this piece, and providing very helpful comments and feedback. Of course, the final product is mine, for better or for worse.
After publishing in Seforim Blog, I made a few changes and updates in this version. The revisions are mostly additions based on additional resources that I hadn’t been aware of, that were pointed out to me in emails and in comments to the blogposts.
I’d like to thank all the people who gave feedback on that post, both those who commented directly, as well as those who reached out over email. I’d like to especially thank A. Berman for pointing out numerous additional resources, via email.
I can be reached at ezrabrand@gmail.com; any and all feedback to this guide is greatly appreciated.
[2] On the starting date of the rabbinic period, see recently Adiel Schremer:
עדיאל שרמר, "עולמם של החכמים בחברה היהודית בארץ־ישראל בתקופת המשנה: תורה, יוקרה ומעמד ציבורי", ספרות חז"ל הארץ־ישראלית, א, תשע"ח, עמ' 558, והביבליוגרפיה המצויינית שם.
[3] Here are some guides that I found especially useful:
Guides by librarians (See here for “a list of guides prepared by university librarians worldwide to help students taking courses in Jewish studies” by Diane Romm, published no later than 2018. See the About page. Thanks to A. Berman for pointing out this guide. Unfortunately many of the links are now broken):
eBooks | Libraries and Information System | Bar-Ilan University
Talmud & Oral Law | Libraries and Information System | Bar-Ilan University
Jewish History | Libraries and Information System | Bar-Ilan University
ארון הספרים היהודי המקוון – מאגרי מידע ואתרי ספרים סרוקים | Safranim's Blog
Recommended Websites - *Jewish Studies - Research Guides at Northwestern University
eTexts - Directory of Judaica online resources - Guides at Penn Libraries
Resources for Doing Research - Jewish Studies - Guides at Johns Hopkins University
Turning the Page: Jewish Print Cultures & Digital Humanities - An EAJS Roundtable
Online Resources Jewish Studies „Corona Service (FID Jewish Studies based at the University Library Frankfurt am Main. Updated February 2021. Great updated list.)
Links to Other Libraries and Archives | Jewish Museum Berlin (“This page features links to other libraries and archives that support research on Jewish topics, as well as to library portals and directories”.)
Free Online Resources - HUC (Last three links pointed out by A. Berman.)
Others:
#DHJewish Jewish Studies & Digital Humanities Projects (thanks to Shaul Seidler-Feller for pointing out this resource)
Online Resources for Talmud Research, Study, and Teaching (Heidi Lerner, published Fall 2010)
רשימת אתרים ואשכולות לסריקות כת"י וספרי דפוס עתיקים (R’ Adiel Breuer, published July 5, 2015 on the Otzar HaHochma forum. Pointed out to me by A. Berman, private communication, who wrote to me: “It contains a plethora of links to websites that contain Hebrew manuscripts and seforim.” Breuer has a profile page at Hebrew University website - accessed 18-May-2022. Breuer’s post focuses on providing links to university library website portals for their Hebrew manuscript collections. It dates from 2015. As he points out there, the database Ktiv [see below] intends to include all Hebrew manuscripts, rendering going to individual library websites much less relevant.) See below, under section “Manuscripts”, in a footnote, for further discussion of Breuer’s guide.
קישורים שימושיים (Uriel Frank)
The Top Sites to do Torah Research in the Internet Era | OLAMI Resources (Reuven Chaim Klein, published December 12, 2018)
Sources on the Net (Dr. Melech Tanen)
mi vami: Some excellent Talmud projects out there (R’ Josh Waxman, published March 5, 2020)
Jewish Digital Collections and Jewish Study Guides (Diane Romm, published no later than 2018. See the About page. Thanks to A. Berman for pointing out this guide)
The Jewish Guide to the Internet (Diane Romm. See previous.)
Introduction - History of the Early Printed Hebrew Book - Guides at Penn Libraries (See description here: “From the University of Pennsylvania comes this guide to the study of the early printed Hebrew book from its beginning around the year 1470 through the seventeenth-century. For every topic, in both the general and the Hebrew sections, you will find a bibliography arranged alphabetically by author, and the availability of the materials in the Penn libraries system, online, or from other academic libraries.”)
Shai Secunda, “Resources for the Critical Study of Rabbinic Literature in the Twenty-First Century” in Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (CRINT) 16, Christine Hayes (ed.), Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill 2022, pp. 621-632 (Esp. pp. 625 and on - “Digital Corpora”. See pg. 621: “[...] while philology is a conservative undertaking by nature,talmudic philology has also seen development of its own, thanks in no small part to the digital revolution, which has inaugurated new, computerized, modes of textual analysis, and novel types of digitally driven visualizations. This chapter briefly presents introductions, new editions, and tools for engaging in textual analysis of rabbinic literature in the present digital moment.” And pg. 625: “The digitization of rabbinic texts signals a revolutionary shift in the history of the Jewish book that is on par with the Jewish adoption of the codex in the Middle Ages and the early modern invention of the printing press.”).
For a relevant university syllabus, see Prof. Aaron Ahrend’s syllabus to his course “Research Guidance in Bibliography and Writing”. (I took this course many years ago as part of my MA in Talmud at Bar-Ilan). The course and course packet went over many digital tools, however the syllabus available online only gives topic headings, and bibliography of published articles.
After writing this blogpost, I created this Template on Wikipedia:
תבנית:ספריות דיגיטליות בנושאי יהדות – ויקיפדיה
A Wikipedia entry on Al-Hatorah was a desideratum when this piece was first written (beginning of 2022), there is now an entry: על התורה – ויקיפדיה.
[4] For example, texts at website of In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.
[5] For example, index of works at website of The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
[6] See more at R’ Josh Waxman’s blogpost, “Some excellent Talmud projects out there” (March 5, 2020).
[7] For links and descriptions to websites of collections and catalogs of individual libraries, see Adiel Breuer’s רשימת אתרים ואשכולות לסריקות כת"י וספרי דפוס עתיקים on the Otzar HaHochma forum. I discuss Breuer’s guide in further detail in footnotes later.
[8] For a general list of digital library projects, see the Wikipedia entry “List of digital library projects”.
On the genre of electronic scholarly editions, see Kenneth M. Price, "Electronic Scholarly Editions", in: Susan Schreibman and Ray Siemens (Eds.), A Companion to Digital Literary Studies (2008); Greta Franzini et. al., “A Catalogue of Digital Editions”, in Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories and Practices, pp.161-182; Menachem Katz et. al., “Talmud Yerushalmi Digital Critical Edition - IRCDL 2022” (2022). (See Katz’s abstract there: “This is the first full digital critical edition of any Talmudic text; the existing digital editions in this field to date are either not critical or incomplete, and the critical editions are not digital.”)
[9] In the About page there: “includes Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz’s complete Modern Hebrew and English translations of the Talmud”.
[10] Each digital edition in that list has the important bibliography details noted, such as the modern editor of the edition used, the manuscript it is based on, as well as other info. As of this writing, around 320 works are listed there, and around half of them are medieval Torah commentaries (in chronological order; from Saadia Gaon to Abravanel). Of these medieval Torah commentaries, around a third are original editions of Hillel Novetsky and the Al-Hatorah team themselves (to be exact, 49 out of 160 are marked “[מהדורת רב הלל נובצקי [ועל־התורה”). Only Torah commentaries editions are original editions of Hillel Novetsky (with or without the Al-Hatorah team); all other works in other genres, such as the “Second Temple Literature”, Hazalic works, commentaries to the Talmud, are attributed as being editions of “Al-Hatorah” or other sources. Around 71 of the total 320 works listed are marked as being original editions of Al-Hatorah (“מהדורת על־התורה”). For many of them, it is noted that they are in the process of being “prepared” (“בהכנה”). It would be interesting to do a comprehensive review of the quality of the editions used between Al-Hatorah, Bar-Ilan Responsa Project and Sefaria.
It should be pointed out that some bibliographical entries are missing from the List of Editions page, and don’t have bibliographic info on their page either. For example, Megillat Ta’anit (מגילת תענית) is missing, and it’s not noted anywhere what the Al-Hatorah edition is based on.
Other examples of missing bibliographic info: R’ Ahai’s She’iltot (שאילתות); R’ Saadia Gaon’s Azharot (ר׳ סעדיה גאון אזהרות תרי״ג מצוות).
There are also works that are in the Library tree, but are not yet found. For example, Mekhilta D’Rashbi (מכילתא דרשב״י שמות), found in the tree at בית שני > מדרשי הלכה > מכילתא דרשב״י שמות. When clicking, get error “הטקסט לא נמצא במאגר המידע”.
Interestingly, the Zohar is not currently included in the corpus of works in Al-Hatorah. In general, there very few Kabbalistic works in the corpus.
[11] A commenter to the blogpost added: “[Al-Hatorah has] often secured the rights to use the best edition of a book available. In many cases, especially for medieval Torah commentaries, the version on the website is in fact better than any edition available in print (see for example, the footnotes to Ramban’s Torah commentary, which includes textual variants from all available manuscripts and the first two printed editions, surpassing the Chavel edition by a longshot)”.
[12] See discussion started by R’ Adiel Breuer at this Otzar HaHochma forum, dated 25-Jan-2016.
[13] From the intro there: “The reconstructed interpretations of Rashbam presented on these pages are a preliminary version from 2015 of the analysis conducted by Hillel Novetsky of material which he discovered in various manuscripts. An updated version of these texts based on his dissertation (2020) can be accessed at
https://mg.alhatorah.org
[...].”
[14] See interview with Chwat on this edition on Seforim Chatter podcast: “With Dr. Ezra Chwat discussing the Rif (Rav Yitzchak Alfasi, 1013 – 1103) and his new critical edition”, #97, October 10, 2021.
[15] Full list here. May of the linked pages only have headers, with no content.
[16] Footnote 1 there: “1 This section incorporates information from M. Kahana, "The Halakhic Midrashim" in The Literature of the Sages Part II, ed. Safrai et al. (Assen, 2006): 3-105 (hereafter: Kahana), and G. Stemberger and H. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (1996, hereafter: Stemberger and Strack).”
[17] Seth (Avi) Kadish, personal communication:
“One of the most amazing [resources], which I think should get more recognition, is Dr. Ronen Ahituv's commentary on the Mishnah, Tosefta, and the halakhic midrashim e.g. Sifrei Devarim (with interlinks and references between them). It needs better formatting, but the actual content is priceless.
Also see the vocalized, formatted and annotated version of the Mishnah, first edited by R’ Dan Be'eri and then highly improved for many tractates (ongoing) by Dr. Simhah Gershon Borer.”
[18] See full overview here: Menachem Katz et. al., “Talmud Yerushalmi Digital Critical Edition - IRCDL 2022” (2022).
[19] Secunda, pg. 626.
[20] This resource was pointed out by the commenter “Sam” to pt. 2 blogpost.
[21] https://huc.edu/libraries/free-online-resources/?table=Bible/Early%20Resources > “Zohar Pritzker edition”.
[22] Thanks to Eliezer Brodt for bringing this new tool to my attention.
[23] See Boaz Hus, שאלת קיומה של מיסטיקה יהודית,2016, pp. 146-147, for a discussion of these editions. (Book available in Kotar here.)
[24] Searching on Google Books can be aided greatly by their Advanced Google Books search: https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search (thanks to A. Berman for pointing this out). See short overview of the source of seforim on Google books, as well as a guide for how to search for seforim there, at Otzar HaHochma forum.
[25] See my discussion later of this index.
[26] A commenter on the blogpost noted: “Unfortunately they have updated the notice on Otzar [HaHochma], they will be ending the free access ‘in a few days’ ”.
[27] A. Berman pointed out (private communication): “You may want to note that some printed seforim can be found on the Ktiv website, when there are handwritten notes in the sefer.”
[28] For a full list of library website portals of their Hebrew manuscript collections, see Adiel Breuer’s 2015 Otzar HaHochma forum post (mentioned also above in section “Existing guides”, in footnote). There he lists (with some short descriptions) around 40 such library websites in alphabetical order. Subsequent commenters add additional links.
Breuer there also has subsections for links to library websites with PDF scans of:
Cairo geniza manuscripts (6 websites),
“European genizah” manuscripts (3 websites).
Books (around 13 such websites). Relevant to earlier section “Books - PDF format”.
Catalogs of around 20 libraries and other collections, in alphabetical order. Relevant to later sections “Bibliographic info” and “Indexes”.
For a general extensive list of digitized library collections, see the bottom of this page: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/source/british-library.
There’s an interesting analogue to Breur’s work, a German-language Wikisource page listing websites of “digital collections that make at least one public domain German-language printed book available in the form of a scan (digital copy), i.e. that can be considered as a source for Wikisource” (translation from Google Translate. This list pointed out to me by A. Berman). A potentially interesting idea would be to have all the websites in Breuer’s post and ensuing comments compiled and maintained in a Hebrew-language Wikisource page.
[29] See the reviews: Amit Gvaryahu: ““We Read Thus”: On Hachi Garsinan and Learning Talmud in the 21st century | The Talmud Blog” (June 19, 2016) ; Menachem Katz, Assael Shmeltzer, Hillel Gershuni, Sara Preis, "The Hachi Garsinan Project as a Critical Edition of the Talmud Bavli", (September 2017) ; Secunda, pg. 627.
[30]For overview, see the recent presentation, available on YouTube: “eScriptorium for Handwritten Text Recognition in Humanities Research” (uploaded Mar 3, 2021. accessed 25-Feb-2022).
For use on Hebrew manuscripts, there is a gated presentation cited by Katz 2022, footnote 16:
D. Stoekl Ben Ezra, “Sofer Mahir: Opening Up Rabbinic Manuscripts Towards Scholarly Editions”.
Presentation at the DHJewish conference in Luxemburg, January 2021. URL:
https://sofermahir.hypotheses.org/59.
Katz and Gershuni point out: “Unfortunately, the ability to use OCR to read Hebrew or Aramaic manuscripts is not yet sufficiently developed. When textual manuscript-based projects such as Stoeklet al.'s Sofer Mahir and Tikoun Sofrim will reach a more mature stage, the extension of the edition to the entire Talmud will be far easier to achieve.” (Katz 2022, section 4.1).
[31] See his article:משה פינצ'וק, "מאגרי מידע לתלמוד הירושלמי", עלי ספר כב (תשע"ב), עמ' 165-171.
[32] Search done on 23-Jan-2022. Example of books available: Ari Bergmann’s recent book, The Formation of the Talmud: Scholarship and Politics in Yitzhak Isaac Halevy’s Dorot Harishonim (2021) ; Guggenheimer’s recent translation into English and short commentary of Talmud Yershalmi. (Guggenheimer’s translation is also available in Sefaria.)
[33] Such as for the series משנת ארץ ישראל. It appears that the entire series is on Kotar, see Merhav search results and Kotar search results.
[34] This books is also available open-access, in a very user-friendly format, at a dedicated website: מבוא למדרשים | מחלקי המים . Thanks to Eliezer Brodt for pointing this out.
[35] As of 20-Jan-2022.
[36] See recent list of Jewish Studies journal websites here: Digitized Historical Magazines and Present-Day Academic Journals | Jewish Museum Berlin
[37] See Otzar HaHochama forum for description of how to access it from there (accessed 18-May-22).
[38] Previous issues of Dinei Yisra’el available at Nevo (נבו) with subscription, years available: 1970 -.
[39] https://huc.edu/libraries/free-online-resources/?table=Bible/Early%20Resources > “Cantors Assembly”.
[40] See index of Hebrew Wikipedia entries on Torani journals here: קטגוריה:ישראל: כתבי עת תורניים – ויקיפדיה
[41] A commenter to the blogpost noted:
“I just want to publicize that one can get 100 articles/month free on JSTOR, which could be enough for most part-time researchers.”
[42] This resource was pointed out by the commenter “Sam” to the pt. 2 blogpost. Some functionality of “Cotar” doesn’t work on Chrome or other Chromium browsers; it requires Internet Explorer and a specific plug-in, which for technical reasons I was unable to test.
[43] https://huc.edu/libraries/free-online-resources/?table=Bible/Early%20Resources > “Medieval Jewish History Resource directory”.
[44] For an interesting example of newspaper interviews and lectures on YouTube being used as evidence in scholarly discussion, see Prof. Bezalel Bar-Kochva’s critique of Prof. Rachel Elior: https://www.tau.ac.il/sites/tau.ac.il.en/files/media_server/imported/508/files/2014/10/elior-25.11.2013.pdf. However, it must be admitted that that's an unusual case.
[45] Example of article on Hebrew linguistics, on the word “שחצן”: המילה שַׁחְצָן: מה הקשר בין אריות לנחשים וביניהם לבין יוהרה?: https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/the-edge/mehasafa/.premium-1.2853618
[46] As for podcasts, many podcasts are also available on YouTube. For example, see below for the podcast “Channeling Jewish History”.
[47] See here: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities - YouTube > “Past live streams”. Recent example that showed in my email inbox of youtube being used for live streaming of a scholarly lecture:
When I was sent this link, Gmail even knew to attach the YouTube preview in the email.
The most extensive index I’ve found of open-access academic lectures online is the 90 (!) page list of links to lectures online (mostly YouTube) on Jewish mysticism compiled by Judy Barrett on her Academia.edu page: "Best of the Web for the Zohar: lectures, interviews, conferences & courses (rev.5/11/20)".
[48] Introduction Show, Seforimchatter, https://seforimchatter.buzzsprout.com/1218638/4587641-introduction-show, July 15, 2020, Season 1 Episode 18. (Accessed 13-Feb-22).
[49] The tweets are also accessible at his website, and thus this can help one circumvent the need to sign up to Twitter as they can see all the tweets here without being signed up:
https://www.seforimchatter.com/tweets/ (pointed out to me by Nachi).
See the recent article about the podcast: Yosef Herz | APRIL 3, 2023, One for the Books – Mishpacha Magazine, about “Nachi Weinstein, the bibliophile behind the seforim chatter podcast”. See there this interesting quote: “I try to stay away from certain topics, namely academic Bible studies and academic dissections of Talmud and Chazal, because I don’t think they’re befitting a frum podcast.”
For an index of podcast episodes, see my article “Index, by century discussed, of interviews of historians on Seforim Chatter podcast”.
[50] Admin of the Facebook group “Channeling Jewish History Group”.
[51] A few examples: R’ Dr. Ari Lamm’s podcast called “Good Faith Effort”; Michael Eisenberg’s YouTube channel.