Annotated Guide to Online Torah Study Resources
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Hey Jews! When doing any Torah study it's super important to have a variety of resources available to aid in understanding our texts and traditions. That's why I put together this handy annotated directory of online Torah study tools. In no particular order I've listed a number of the sites that I frequent most often when studying and researching. You can find graphics and more details about each site in our 'Resource Guide Highlight' segment on The ShtarkShirts Project Instagram.
Sefaria, the “Living Library of Jewish Texts” is a great resource to access a broad range of rabbinic writings from The Mishnah to modern thought. They have both licensed translations of texts, as well as community translations. Users can create source sheets and explore those created by others. A ‘go-to’ for reference as it’s easy to switch between English and Hebrew/Aramaic. Allows you to view multiple texts side by side. Some texts demonstrate difficulty due lack of translation, commentary, and error in transmission of the text or reliance on faulty manuscripts.
Mercava - A reference to the ‘heavenly chariot,’ provides users with the opportunity to engage a comprehensive selection of Jewish texts with inbuilt digital tools such as punctuation, highlighting, flow charts, audio, and instant messaging.
Searchable library of Hebrew books. Users can download PDF files or view online for free. Good for finding Israeli scholarship on Jewish texts and ‘Classical Hebrew Books.’
‘Mikraot Gedolot’ style layout for learning Tanakh. Complete with in text concordance and commentaries.
Tool for finding books at the nearest libraries. Directs to many free resources as well as those which require membership.
The Jewish Virtual Library is an online encyclopedia of subjects related to Judaism and Jewish History. Was created by the American-Israel cooperative enterprise.
Jewish Virtual Library: Maps of the Middle East BCE
This digital library includes resources and collections from the “Big Ten Academic Alliance,” the “University of California” archives and much more from partnered universities. The archives require a login from a ‘partner institution,’ thereafter users can access databases for free and download content.
The Internet Archive hosts collections from a vast variety of online databases including public libraries, universities, and national collections. On their website you can access over 30 million books, 13 million audio files, and six and a half million video files.
Link to Mishnah with the commentary of Hanoch Albeck
Manuscripts:
NLI Digital Manuscripts Project
The National Library of Israel boasts some of the most impressive collections of Jewish works including a comprehensive selection of early rabbinic manuscripts. The above link directs you to their platform for viewing the major manuscripts of Mishnah, Tosefta, as well as the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds.
Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society
FJMS is a most useful and accessible tool through which users can view Talmudic manuscript variants as well as fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Their side-by-side view of Bavli variants makes it easy to compare and contrast traditions that differ from manuscript to manuscript.
The Lieberman Institute Cooperative Development Initiative brings together a number of powerful tools for in depth research. Their online platform provides access to an extensive bibliography of articles that reference a given Mishnah, Tosefta, or sugya in the Bavli. Additionally, their manuscript variants database is downloadable in .CSV format, making it easy to search through. Users may only have access through University libraries.
Bar Ilan University Tannaitic Literature Variants
Bar Ilan’s Torah of the Tannaim web page houses a number of manuscript variants for compilations of Tannaitic literature including the Tosefta, Mechilta of Rabbi Ishmael, Sifra, and Sifre.
http://kaufmann.mtak.hu/en/study04.htm
This link above directs you to a webpage about 19th century scholar David Kaufmann and his collections of Jewish manuscripts including one one the most reputed manuscripts of Mishnah, MS. A50.
Further resources for Tosefta related study, articles, audio and more.
Dictionaries:
Online dictionary for the modern Hebrew language.
Talmudic Dictionary compiled by Prof. Marcus Jastrow.
PDF version of the Brown Driver Briggs dictionary including Hebrew from the Torah, Prophets, and Writings.
Klein Rabbinic Hebrew Dictionary
Dictionary of Rabbinic Hebrew written by scholar Ernest Klein.