Jewish Learning Resources Recap
📚 Throughout Rishonim Series One, I've been sharing a weekly Jewish learning digital resource. I'm sunsetting this feature, but here's a recap (plus bonus stuff) with everything organized for you!
Hello all! I wanted to do one last recap issue from Series One, wherein I neatly organize all the digital resources I’ve shared and add a few bonus ones in, too. I’ve decided to make the newsletter focused on a single topic and omit this feature going forward, mostly because I’ve shared all my favorites with you. Each issue will continue to feature recommended reads (and podcasts and other resources) about the topic at hand.
Dictionaries & Language
Hebrew dictionaries: Morfix (also on Android and iOS) offers handy, freely accessible Modern Hebrew/English translation. Look at the little gray letters under the Hebrew for Hebrew-to-Hebrew definitions. Morfix is built upon Rav-Milim, an amazing historical, morphological dictionary designed by scholars (only available by subscription, however).
Hebrew language: The Academy of the Hebrew Language’s top search bar will take you to morphological charts (including roots) and topical articles on grammar. I also like using Lashonimi, a Hebrew bagrut study site.
Aramaic dictionaries: Daf Yomi Portal has a great Aramaic/Hebrew dictionary (also available in its app: Android | iOS). For Aramaic to English with cross-references, there’s Jastrow (free online or in paid app form: Android | iOS).
Hebrew acronyms and abbreviations: Kizur.co.il. Indispensable! Includes both classical/rabbinic and modern acronyms, and it’ll tell you what field they come from (like science, military, Jewish).
AI vowelization of Hebrew: Dicta’s Nakdan, which requires human checking but is overall very good. It allows you to choose between modern, Rabbinic, and poetic Hebrew for better accuracy.
Reference
Topical index to the Talmud: Hamafteach (the website is mainly a placeholder: you want the app, Android | iOS) and also WebShas, a Web 2.0 project that is still wonderful.
Jewish dates, calendars, measurements, and numbers of all kinds: Hebcal (see here on different ways I use it), TorahCalc (great for measurements), and the finicky but great Handbuch der jüdischen Chronologie (see here on how to use it, German barely needed, I promise). Bonus round: for Zmanim on my phone, I like jCal for its widget (Android | iOS) and ShabbosZmanim (Android) for its pop-up notifications. Both have lots of different options. On my iPad I have Lunary (iOS, paid). Not as useful but cool.
Dynamic Tanach maps: These maps (by Herzog College) show multiple interpretations where locations are not definitively known. You can toggle between English/Hebrew.
Digital Texts
Where to find Jewish texts online: This post on my website includes my recommendations for free and paid online/digital options. Sefaria, Al-HaTorah, and beyond.
Tanach with Masoretic Notes: MG Keter website. This is the companion website to Bar-Ilan University’s Mikraot Gedolot ha-Keter project, an outstanding new critical edition of Tanach with Mefarshim (the Mefarshim are critically edited, too). The Masora (both Ketana and Gedola) is available online.
Targum: If you’re doing Shnayim Mikra or just want to explore Targum Onkelos on the Torah, I recommend the OU’s AllParsha (Android | iOS). (It’s part of a suite of apps, but I particularly like the Targum one.)
Mishnah: Kehati’s crystal-clear modern commentary is available in the full in the original Hebrew as well as English translation, along with a nicely-laid out, vowelized Mishnah text, for free in the Kehati app (Android | iOS).
Halacha (and lots more): HebrewBooks.org. Just dropping this here in case you haven’t come across it or revisited recently—a stunning resource (if often the scans, or the source texts, are low quality and a bit tricky to read).
Hebrew poetry (including lots of medieval poetry): The Ben-Yehuda Project. (All in Hebrew.)
Piyut (liturgical poetry): NLI’s Piyut site is unparalleled, featuring comprehensive texts, multiple recordings of piyut from the global Jewish community, and other materials to aid in understanding piyut.
Manuscripts & Art
How to access Jewish manuscripts (post): with widespread digitization and the incredible Ktiv project of the National Library of Israel (NLI), everyone can use manuscripts to enhance their learning, very much including non-professional scholars.
Dead Seas Scrolls: These are largely available at the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls site at the Israel Museum.
Talmud: Hachi Garsinan is a powerful tool for comparing major manuscripts and early printings of the Talmud. It requires creating a free (and no-fuss) account. I wrote a brief guide on How to use Hachi Garsinan.
Rambam manuscript comparison tools: Yad ha-Rambam (I need to write a how-to guide for this resource).
Jewish Art: The Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University is a work-in-progress but already offers a number of important resources on Jewish art history. The Jewish Museum, New York has an excellent digital collection (and many images are free to reuse). The Posen Library has a bit of a learning curve in terms of learning how to use, but creating a free login will give you access to lots of images.
Rishonim
Twitter thread index (on my website): You can browse all the threads I’ve done by theme.
Here’s a chart of Ashkenazi halachic sources (Google Doc link) I made, showing their relationships to one another…all the way down to the Shulchan Aruch.
Books & Bibliographies
Academic Guides: Though they’re partially paywalled, a lot of great information is still available through Oxford Bibliographies on Jewish studies.
Saving References: If you want to organize your library of article PDFs and/or keep track of your reading, I recommend Zotero. Using Zotero is a bit technical but I wrote what I hope is a user-friendly Guide to using Zotero.
Digital books on Jewish subjects: Apart from buying individual books for Kindle or, in Hebrew, on E-vrit (publishers such as Magnes also have good digital offerings and apps), there are also some great subscription options out there. For Hebrew, Kotar is an amazing value and has a huge library of academic titles. In English, Scribd has agreements with a number of academic presses with big Jewish studies libraries; you can see some of the offerings in my Scribd reading lists.
Encyclopedias: I am an undying fan of the Encyclopedia Judaica (EJ), though I’d love to see a born-digital, updated version. (The latest revision is from 2007.) A backdoor way to the EJ is through the buggy and annoying, but free, site Encyclopedia.com. Look for an attribution at the end to confirm that what you’re reading is the EJ, since it’s an aggregator site. However, lots (though certainly not all) Jewish subjects come up from the EJ on a simple search. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia (JE), now in the public domain, is available online but I don’t recommend it. A lot there is still of value, but lots more is very outdated, and you have to know what’s what. (A lot of the premodern Jewish material on English Wikipedia is slurped from the JE. Meanwhile, Jewish Virtual Library slurps some stuff from the EJ, but it’s hit or miss whether it’s a random article or the real deal.) For early modernity to modern times, the YIVO Encyclopedia is roundly excellent: designed for digital use, accessible, and written by experts.
Questions for you: Did I miss a resource you’re fond of using? What resource do you wish existed that isn’t here? What resource would you like me to make next? Hit reply or leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your wish list or personal recs.
Next Week
Next week we kick off the Famous Hebrew Manuscripts series with Bible codices! Codices = plural of codex = manuscripts bound like today’s books, with pages and a spine, as opposed to scrolls.