Jewish Online Resources

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Hi folks, you may (or may not) have noticed that Jewish Online Resources has been on hiatus for a while. This is because I've been working 60 hours per week and preparing to graduate this December. But hold on for a little longer, because I hope to continue the blog beginning this January, whether it's with the Association of Jewish Libraries or here alone. Thanks for your patience and see you soon!

Response to Menecham Rosensafts recent article on Holocaust Remembrance

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:06:00 +0000

This is a response to an essay written by Menachem Z. Rosensaft in the Jewish Journal for Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was not able to fit my comments--which are really a short essay--there so I'm publishing them here for those who are interested. Here is the original article and below that is my response:

Original Article

We have no way of knowing whether God spoke to the dead of the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany during the winter and early spring of 1945, but I am fairly certain that He did not speak to either the living or those who were dying. What could He possibly have said to them? What words of comfort could He have given them in a place that one of the camp’s liberators compared to Dante’s inferno?

On April 17 I was at Bergen-Belsen, on the 66th anniversary of its liberation. Standing in the midst of mass graves, I realized that I am alive today because in early April of 1945, an SS officer named Kurt Becher persuaded the commandant of Bergen-Belsen to surrender the camp to the British.

By then, Bergen-Belsen, which was built to hold, at most, 8,000 inmates, was overcrowded with over 40,000 starved, emaciated inmates, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, who were suffering from typhus, tuberculosis, dysentery and a host of other virulent diseases, alongside some 10,000 unburied corpses in varying stages of decay. My mother, a not yet 33-year-old Jewish dentist from Poland who had arrived there from Auschwitz-Birkenau five months earlier, was among them. My father and 15,000 additional inmates were imprisoned in the nearby barracks of a German army base.

I doubt whether my parents and most of the other inmates of Bergen-Belsen would have survived if the British had not freed them when they did. As it is, the British soldiers who entered the camp on April 15, 1945, were confronted with a medical and humanitarian challenge of unprecedented proportions.

Shortly after the liberation, Brigadier H.L. Glyn Hughes, the deputy director of medical services of the British Army of the Rhine, appointed my mother to organize and head a group of doctors and nurses among the survivors to help care for the camp’s thousands upon thousands of critically ill inmates. For weeks on end, my mother and her team of 28 doctors and 620 other female and male volunteers, only a few of whom were trained nurses, worked round the clock alongside the military doctors under the command of Lt. Col. James Johnston to try to save as many of the survivors as possible. Despite their desperate efforts, the Holocaust claimed 13,944 additional victims during the two months following the liberation, and those who lived had to face a grim reality. “For the great part of the liberated Jews of Bergen-Belsen,” my mother later recalled, “there was no ecstasy, no joy at our liberation. We had lost our families, our homes. We had no place to go, nobody to hug, nobody who was waiting for us, anywhere. We had been liberated from death and from the fear of death, but we were not free from the fear of life.”

Tragically, the atrocities that were committed at Bergen-Belsen were by no means the last.The Genocide Convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1948, was meant to put an end to systematic mass killings as a means of promoting megalomaniacal aspirations of ethnic or religious supremacy. Instead, the past half-century has seen devastating new genocides in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Darfur and elsewhere. And Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly and unabashedly threatens the citizens of Israel with genocidal destruction, has yet to be declared a criminal under either the Genocide Convention or the standards applied by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg more than 65 years ago.

A young woman named Adisada Dudic was a student of mine this past fall in a seminar on World War II war crimes trials at Cornell Law School. She is also a survivor of the genocidal atrocities perpetrated against Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces in the 1990s.

As a child, she spent three years in refugee camps with her mother and sisters. A “hurtful reality,” Adisada wrote, “reminds me that my home country is destroyed, my family members are scattered all over the world, thousands of Bosnian women and girls were raped and ravaged, thousands of Bosnian men and boys were tortured in concentration camps and buried in mass graves, and so many of my people were slaughtered by an enemy hand that was out to get every single person that self-identified as a Bosnian Muslim. … I am infuriated that we continue to have gross violations of human rights all over the world while we continue to find excuses for why we cannot interfere in other countries’ affairs.”

Holocaust remembrance cannot be allowed to devolve into an intellectual or spiritual abstraction. If we are to honor the memory of the victims of Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and all the other sites where Hitler’s “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was implemented, the eradication of the scourge of genocide must be a priority for all of us, individually and collectively, as members of a supposedly civilized international community.

In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel explained that he “swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. … When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe.” How can the rest of us do otherwise?

Menachem Z. Rosensaft is adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School, distinguished visiting lecturer at Syracuse University College of Law, and vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.

Response

You said: "but I am fairly certain that He did not speak to either the living or those who were dying. What could He possibly have said to them?"

By definition, hearing God speak causes death: "Let not God speak with us, lest we die" Ex. 20:19. Also: "No man can see my face and live" Ex. 33.20.

I think that perhaps what you mean to say is this: God does/did not exist, otherwise, how could HE have let it happen?

You go on to say that "Holocaust remembrance cannot be allowed to devolve into an intellectual or spiritual abstraction." Yet, this is exactly what you have done by starting your essay with claims about God; your spiritual abstraction has merely argued for the preeminence of the material world.

Ultimately, the Holocaust must be viewed in its historical context, amongst the mass killings, pogroms, and other oppressive actions taken against the Jewish people by many nations in many places and times since the age of the first temple. The Passover Haggadah, still fresh in our memory, confirms this: "In every generation, they rise up against us". Seen in this larger context, one must be careful not equate the experiences of mass murder of the Jewish people with that of other nations.

I don't think anyone would disagree with a broad appeal for the eradication of genocide, Holocaust or no Holocaust. But while all genocides are horrific, the genocide of the Holocaust stands alone precisely because it happened to the Jewish people. When we separate the Holocaust out as a singular event, disembodied from the rest of Jewish history, we run the risk of cutting ourselves off from our unique and difficult role in the history of humankind.

After thousands of years, thank God, the Jewish people still exist. Spread to the four corners of the Earth, still bearing the weight and memory of our exile, we recall our people’s history twice a day when we say the Shema. And once a year, with great alacrity, we fulfill the commandment to tell the story of our suffering and redemption. Jewish remembrance is not something that begins at Auschwitz and ends with the creation of the State of Israel. Our remembrance and longing for an ultimate salvation, come however it may, does not only go back to the 1940s. It is much deeper, much richer, and much more sorrowful and joyful than Bergen-Belsen. May the memories of the souls who died be exalted for the good by those who were spared, their children, and their children’s children.

Gearing up for Pesach and AJL summer conference in Montreal

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:14:00 +0000

Gut Shabbos! Hope everyone had a great Purim. Here is this week’s bookmarkable links:

Gearing up for Pesach

Harvard University Press recently published a facsimile version of the Library of Congress’s beautiful Washington Haggadah, written and illustrated by Yoel ben Shimon during the 15th century. More pictures are available here and a description of the book here (thanks to Heidi Estrein for sending this link along).

Also, in case you’ve never seen it, the Library of Congress has its Hebraic Collection online which contains a variety of Judaica as well as information and pictures of other Haggadot.

This year’s Computer’s in Libaries Conference:

Professor Jill Hurst-Wahl has been blogging on some of the issues being discussed at this year’s Computer’s in Libraries conference, such as community tagging, library marketing, and new search features for web search engines:

http://hurstassociates.blogspot.com/

In the spirit of the AJL conference in Montreal this coming summer:

A video glossary of Yiddish words and expressions from the Shtetl Montreal:
http://shtetlmontreal.com/yiddish-danish/words/

Yiddish humorist and native Torontorian Michael Wex talks about Canadian Jewish History and his new book, The Frumkiss Family Business:http://michaelwex.com/2011/03/wex-on-menschlife/

Flickr Commons and beyond: this week's bookmarks to add to your favorites

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Hi folks. Here is this week’s list of Bookmarkable links. Remember that all of the links from recent posts on the Weekly Link Roundup can also now be searched at Delicious.com by searching for “ajl_links”.

The Flickr Commons: Get photos through participating organizations at the Flickr Commons; most of them have no known copyright restrictions. The Center for Jewish History has contributions as well as the Jewish Society of the Upper Midwest. (Anyone else I missed?)

-Folks who might be looking forJudaica library jobs, here’s a great exhaustive list of Jewish studies programs available globally.

-Bodleian Library holds a copy of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, signed by Maimonides himself. They have digitized it here and made it available for all to see (by way of the YU blog)

-In my Internet travels, I came across this great pathfinder with links for the study of American Jewish History from the Myer And Rosaline Feinstein Center For American Jewish History, Temple University.

-Historical Jewish Press: ”This site contains a collection of Jewish newspapers published in various countries, languages, and time periods. We display digital versions of each newspaper, making it possible to view the papers in their original layout. Full-text search is also available for all content published over the course of each newspaper’s publication.” (By way of Michelle Chesner’s recent talk at AJL-NYC).

This week's bookmarkable links

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:45:00 +0000

This week's links to bookmark:

Israeli online library catalogs (OPACs): The MALMAD - Israel Center for Digital Information Services publishes and maintains an extensive, if not exhaustive, list of library web catalogs from Israel's universities.

Available for searching online, "The monumental 19-volume Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel was compiled and published by David Tidhar (1897-1970) over the 23 years from 1947 until his death."

A great LibGuides page for Yiddish resources published by Johns Hopkins University is available here.
Looking for a job? METRO in NYC publishes a Libguides page of professional development resources here (from the NY Librarian's Meetup blog).

For those of you out there who thought it was too difficult or expensive to publish your writing, Barnes&Noble has now released PubIt, an electronic upload service that allows easier entry into the ebook market for self-published authors and independent publishing companies (a boon for almost any Jewish publisher or author). Barnes&Noble says that 35 of their 200 top best-sellers in on the Nook were published through this new service.

Blogging for Association of Jewish Libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:13:00 +0000

It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to post to this blog. Part of that is because of my 50-60 hour weeks between work and school. But the other reason is because I've begun to use some of my blogging time for the Association of Jewish Libraries People of the Book's blog. Every week, I'm posting library and Jewish-resources links of interest (books, databases, professional literature etc.) for the Jewish librarian community. So at least until the end of the semester, I will probably be posting from there to here.

Here is this week's post:

JWA Film Series Guide: “JWA’s new film discussion program provides groups with tools to explore cultural attitudes about American Jewish women through screening and discussion of five popular movies produced over the last fifty years. The program guide includes introductions to the topic, background information on each film, a series of questions designed to encourage lively discussion, and practical advice for hosting a film discussion program in your home or institution.”

Legislating library funding cuts: Many of you may have seen or heard the news about how Scott Garrett proposed amendment to cut all funding to Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Read the news from ALA’s Washington Office here.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: This is a great quick-reference resource for public domain copyright clearance from Cornell’s Peter B. Hirtle.

A couple of great links were published as part of The Takeaway at JTS’s blog this week:

Academic Blogs on Jewish Studies: “Recently, an article by Heidi Lerner, entitled “Online Resources for Talmud Research, Study, and Teaching”, was published in: AJS Perspectives : The Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies [Fall 2010 – p.46-47]. The following blogs that deal with Jewish Studies from an academic perspective were recommended.”

AND

Instructions for finding Jewish book reviews in Digitized Journals in answer to the question: How can I find English & Hebrew book reviews of specific scholarly books published in the last few decades?”

The Friedberg Genizah Project

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:38:00 +0000

For one of my classes this semester, we have been assigned to blog about a digitization project. I've selected the Friedberg Genizah Project and for the next few weeks, I'll be reposting to Jewish Online Resources from the class digitization blog. Here is the first post in a series of four:

The Friedberg Genizah Project

First of all:

What exactly, you might ask, is a genizah?

Well, I might tell you, a genizah is a storehouse of books or other literature that are worn out and need to be buried. Think of it as a morgue for books.

OK, you might say, why would you want to bury books?

I might respond: Why shouldn't we bury them? We love books that much! Actually, according to Jewish tradition, any document on which the name of G-D is inscribed must be buried (and now you understand why some people use G-D as their preferred spelling, i.e., just in case someone prints it out and uses it to sop up their spilled coffee).

Now you might be thinking: "those crazy religious people! Burying books? I mean, I like reading, sure, but burying my books?"

You might be thinking that now, but 1000 years from now, someone may appreciate the fact that your culture had a tradition of burying books.

Let me reinforce this point by telling you that the largest collection of medieval manuscripts in the world is from a geniza. Specifically, the Ben Ezra Synagogue geniza in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of manuscripts have been laying in wait to be hauled off to the book cemetary for over a thousand years (beginning around 7th century). And upon their rediscovery at the end of the nineteenth century, scholars from all over the world can now access thousands documents on which they can base new studies about medieval culture and language in the Middle East. Or not...

Part of the problem is that although the bulk of the discovered materials were taken back to Cambridge by their discoverer Solomon Schechter, many fragments and other pieces were taken by universities who are dispersed geographically all over Europe and North America. So if a scholar is interested in looking at a particular manuscript or group of manuscripts, she/he might need to travel to several places before being able to put it all together. More, many of the documents from the geniza are uncategorized, uncataloged, or completely unknown.

Enter the Friedberg Geniza Project. Named after its primary funder, Albert Dov Friedberg of Toronto, the purpose of the project is stated as follows:

The Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP) was established to facilitate and rejuvenate Genizah research. It is achieving this goal by locating the Genizah manuscripts and then identifying, cataloging, transcribing, translating, rendering them into digital format (i.e., photographing) and publishing them online.

The project is mainly aimed towards scholars studying classical Jewish texts and so far has successfully digitized over 100,000 manuscripts for access via the web. Interstingly, all of these texts were microfilmed in the 1960s by the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts but due to the fact that many of the images were of such poor quality, the Friedberg project determined that it would be of great value to digitize the manuscipts and make them available as high resolution images. To this end, the project created an interface which allows users change viewing elements such as brightness, contrast, color, and magnification (600 dpi) enabling them to read documents that were originally illegible to the naked eye.

Although you must register with the project and receive approval in order to see the catalog, a sample of the images is available here and very much worth looking at.

Digitized Resources from Michelle Chesner

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Last week I had the good fortune of attending a reference workshop held by the Association of Jewish Libraries. While there, I ran into Michelle Chesner, who is the Jewish Studies librarian at Columbia University. Normally I I tend to focus JewishOnlineResources more on internet resources that are oriented toward freely available religious learning resources but Michelle is collating some really amazing Jewish Studies resources that I thought people should know about.

Her new blog details major online projects in the subject area of Jewish Studies from Columbia and elsewhere. Among a couple of the recent gems are the Historical Jewish Press Project--which is currently digitizing tons of Jewish newspapers dating all the way back to just before 1860 for free public access--and the Princeton Geniza Project, which is making available hundreds documents from the Ben Ezra Geniza in Cairo.

I also recommend taking a look at Michelle's online library of over 100 internet links available here, most of which are related to Jewish studies. Whether you are a Rabbi, librarian, or just an innocent bystander, take a minute to browse some of these online projects that are making Jewish historical artifacts more accessible to the world through digitization and cataloging.

Aishaudio

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Over the last few years, I've become an avid fan of Aish Hatorah. Besides Chabad.org, Aish.com can probably stake a claim as the most extensive and reliable Jewish learning site on the web. A while ago I did a post about Jewish Pathways (aan Aish-run program) and today I wanted to put in a plug for aishaudio.

Aishaudio.com includes thousands of free or cheap downloadable lectures on a plethora of subjects--from the Judaism 101 level to the advanced topics in halacha level--related to Jewish religious life. Many of the Rabbis are internationally recognized as authorities in their subject areas. Some of my favorites among them include: Rabbi Benjamin Blech of Yeshiva University, author of numerous books and the first Rabbi to confer a beracha on the Pope (I think his alterior motive was to get the Menorah back from the Vatican); Lawrence Kelemen, who wrote a national best-selling book on child-rearing based on the method outlined in the Talmud (chinuk) called To Kindle a Soul; Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits, who authored Artscroll's Chofetz Chaim: a Lesson a Day; and Berrel Wein, who has authored countless books on Jewish History and writes for the Jerusalem Post.

While there are a ton of online-shiurim sites on the web, the selection of lectures at Aishaudio remains the most wide-ranging and accessible I've seen (although I still have yet to make a foray into the theshmuz.com about which I hope to post later this year).

**UPDATE

I forgot to add a few sample lectures. Here they are (Blogger does not allow you to insert audio files so I uploaded them as Google Docs):

Rabbi Ken Spiro on the miraculous survival of the Jewish people throughout history

Rabbi Blech's Introduction to Kabbalah

Rabbi Kelemen's first of five lectures on child-rearing

Labels: online, shiurim, lectures, audio_lectures, free_lectures, free_Torah, halacha, halacka, Jewish_law, podcast, Torah_podcast, aish, Aish_audio.

The Rabbi's Picks: A guest post from Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:03:00 +0000

Many thanks to this week's guest poster Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld of congregation Shaarei Tphiloh of Portland, ME. I asked him to offer his review of what he considers to be his most useful / oft-used Jewish online resources.

Jewish Online Resources, from Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld

As a rabbi, I know that I have a responsibility to teach Torah and educate about the commandments and ethical responsibilities of Judaism. In preparing classes for teaching Torah, I do not have one favorite website to which I turn for information or ideas. The internet may sometimes help me as a starting point for ideas for classes, but ultimately we need to open up the books of our tradition and study the text of the old books closely, and turn it over and over, until we find the meaning in it through careful study.

From the Rabbis

In terms of useful resources to which I turn for classes on Jewish law, I might start with the blogspot of Rabbi Dov Linzer of Chovevei Torah, who has a brilliant mind and frequently presents unique approaches to understanding the texts. It's easily searchable with labels on the side. It’s accessible for all levels of learning with brilliant ideas adhering to the Torah values of Open or Modern Orthodoxy.

Another website that I have used in the past is that of Rabbi Jachter. Rabbi Jachter breaks down topics in Jewish law and brings the relevant arguments and discussions on the topic through the corpus of Jewish law over the last 2 millennia or so. His sharp analysis and useful bibliographic reference points are helpful as a start point for beginning a topic.

While Rabbi Jachter and Rabbi Linzer both provide sources in the context of discussing a Jewish law topic, if I want to start with the bibliography, I sometimes turn to the blog of Menachem Butler, who has been putting together important articles and bibliographies on a wide range of relevant topics in Jewish law and history on his blog. If a topic I take interest in dovetails with a topic that Butler has covered in a bibliography blog, that is a great beginning.

Online Jewish Texts

Not every class that I teach is so complicated or requires so much study. Frequently we just turn to the text of the Mishnah or Talmud. For this the most useful resource that I’ve used lately is halacha.com, which has pdfs of all the tractates there from the Soncino translation. Thank God for this easily accessible translation, that makes Talmud classes in English possible!

A more advanced resource of primary materials is at http://www.mechon-mamre.org/. A complete Tanach, the Rambam, sources of the Oral Law are among the sources available there.

While I have listed texts that may help me move forward in preparing a class on a specific topic, sometimes a resource on the internet can itself propel me to learn and study a topic. Recently, I have begun a study of the Torah in Yiddish translation. I have chanced upon the Yehoash translation of Tanach, available at the university of Haifa. It’s truly wonderful to have such an excellent translation online, and I hope to use it in my weekly preparations on the Torah reading.

Resource lists and individual study online

A general resource list for coverage of a topic and available internet sources is jKuperman.com. For people who want to study Orthodoxy on their own by using the internet I recommend: http://www.torahinmotion.org/store/prod_search.asp and also webyeshiva.org. For a pluralistic approach I recommend myjewishlearning.com.

Labels: Torah, Talmud, chumash, halacha, halacka, Midrash, rabbinic, study, daily_study, blogs, rabbis, rabbinic_blogs, Yiddish, translation, English_version, English_translation, Yiddish_Tanach, Yiddish_Bible, Yiddish_Chumash, oral_law, Jewish_law, bibliography, bibliographies, online_learning, self_study

The search for Moroccan Trope

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:03:00 +0000

Since I've been on "vacation" from grad school for the last couple of weeks, I've had the time to help my shul with Krias HaTorah and Haftorah on the weekends. It's something I used to do on a weekly basis when I lived in Portland, Maine but for the last couple of years I haven't had the opportunity to do it. Since I was a little rusty, I decided to make a return visit to Ellie's Trope Tutor to brush up on some of the more obscure trope. For some reason however, I felt like the distinctive eerie, high-pitched, Skip James-esque quality was not really cutting it for me.

Coincidentally, I'd recently spent some time looking for Moroccan trope and Torah readings for a Bar Mitzvah student from our shul. Given that there are several different kinds of Moroccan trope, it's not very easy to find a trope trainer; if you've every tried to look for Sephardic/Moroccan trope using Google, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Fortunately I eventually found Bar-Mitzvah.com, which has free Torah/Haftorah readings using Moroccan, Sephardic, and Ashkenazic trope (I don't know if they have readings for every parsha but I've not yet found a Torah portion that they didn't have).

They use a scrolling screen that rolls concurrently with the chazan in addition to simple rewind and forward functions.

The nicest thing about Bar-Mitzvah.com is the fact that the reader does not go interminably slow like they do on a lot of other sites.

So I bid farewell to Ellie's Torah Trope site and will now using Bar-Mitzvah.com for all of my future readings. If your interested, in some of the other Moroccan/Sephardic/Ashkenazic Torah reading sites I uncovered, check out my bookmarks at http://www.delicious.com/schriro.

Labels: trope, Moroccan trope, Torah_readings, Kriat_Hatorah, Krias_Hatorah, Sephardic trope, Ashkenazic trope, cantillation, Torah cantillation, cantillation marks

The Schmooze / Haruth.com

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:14:00 +0000

The other day a friend of mine suggested a website to me called "the schmooze" which purportedly contained all kinds of free audio lectures from Rabbi Bentzion Shaffer. I didn't realize that the spelling was supposed to be "the shmuz" and in the course of spelling it a million different ways I 'stumbled upon' one of the largest collections of Jewish resources that I've ever seen, http://theschmooze.org/.

This website has a comprehensive collection of online resources from a shul in Fairfax, VA and led me to Haruth.com, a gigantic pathfinder. Among the gems are the Bibliomaven's directory of Judaica Libraries, countless numbers of genealogical resources, as well as the Jewish Guide to the Internet. To give you an idea, here's a screenshot:

The one resource mentioned above that I'm very surprised I've not yet come across is the Jewish Guide to the Internet. It's an expansive and authoritative collection of online resources searchable by keyword that was was once in print for but now is published for free on the web. It's such an excellent resource that I'm now considering limiting the scope of this blog to include only online resource lists/directories/pathfinders. And given that I'm constructing my own large pathfinder using Delicious/Pinboard, it seems appropriate to use this blog solely for pathfinders (resource lists/directories). Any suggestions for additions please let me know.

Posting from Delicious.com

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:35:00 +0000

I'm very happy to hear the news that Delicious.com will not be shut down. As a tribute, I'm going to begin making daily posts from there. From here on out, this will constitute the primary method of posting. Ultimately, this should allow me to compose updates more easily and more frequently but most importantly, it will allow me to more efficiently accomplish my goal of creating a large, searchable directory of online Jewish resources.

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:15:00 +0000

Title: Biblical Hebrew Language Resources
Click here to download PDF version

Description of the topic area:
Resources relevant for the study of the Hebrew language. This pathfinder includes a variety of resources at all levels of interest (basic, moderate, and advanced). Topics include: Biblical texts; Biblical Hebrew and grammar; development and study of ancient Hebrew; comparative linguistic studies; dictionaries and Hebrew learning aids. This pathfinder is by no means exhaustive but does provide an excellent beginning directory for reference questions related to the Hebrew Language, especially its use in the study of the Tanach (5 books of Moses, Writings, and Prophets). Some of the resources in this pathfinder are for English speakers and others are more suitable for those who are fluent in Hebrew. The level of Hebrew-knowledge appropriate to each resource has been noted in bold at the end of each annotation.

Jump to a section:
Internet Resources
Print Resources
Database Resources
Resources to answer a quick question
Resources of depth for a casual learner
Resources of depth for a scholar

Internet Resources

1-Richman, J. (2010). The Hebrew Language: Learn Hebrew Resources. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew-language.com/

The most extensive and best collection of Hebrew language resources available on the web. This is a massive pathfinder that includes hundreds of Hebrew-learning resources covering both modern and Biblical Hebrew. It includes text, audio, and video designed to aid Hebrew speaking, reading, and comprehension. Basic

2-Snuit. (2009). Holy texts (מגיד, ספרות הקודש). Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/tan/b0001.htm

Developed by an organization dedicated to increasing web-learning resources on the web for K-12 students, this website includes complete Hebrew versions of the Talmud, Midrash, Mishneh Torah, and Tosefta. Excellent resource for searching for Biblical information from primary sources. Advanced

3-Mechon Mamre. (2009). A Hebrew - English Bible According to the Masoretic text
and the JPS 1917 edition. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm

A wealth of different translations from the Hebrew Bible, including English, French, and Aramaic in a variety of formats (with and without vowels, cantillation markings, etc.). This website also has free downloadable software for a searchable database of Talmud, Torah, and major commentaries. Basic-Intermediate

4-Shusterman, M. (n.d.). Online Torah Reading. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.beverlyhillschabad.com/torah-reading/TORAH-MENU.HTM

Audio and text (Hebrew only with cantillation marks) of public Torah readings. While the pronunciation is particular to Chabad, this website is useful for those preparing public Torah readings or wanting to learn how to properly intone words when reading on their own. In addition to the Chumash (5 books of Moses), readings also include Esther and Rosh Hoshanah. Basic-Intermediate

5- Rosenberg, A. J. (2010). The Complete Jewish Bible with Rashi Commentary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm

Judaica Press partnered with Chabad online to make the complete Tanach (5 books, Writings, Prophets) available with Rashi’s commentary. Rashi is one of the foremost Biblical commentator on grammatical inconsistencies within Biblical literature and is now printed alongside most every copy of Hebrew primary texts. It is accessible for free here online. Basic-Intermediate

6- Melingo LTD. (2010). Morphix Dictionary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://morfix.mako.co.il/

The simple interface of this thorough online dictionary allows you to search for the translations of Hebrew and English terms. Both Biblical and modern definitions are provided as well as an option to search for the Hebrew-Wikipedia entry of the term. Intermediate

7- Jewish National Library. (2010). Jewish National Library Digital Book Repository. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books_hla.html

The Jewish National and University’s Digital Library contains some of the earliest and most important copies of treatises on Hebrew grammar. Many titles include the essential works of David Kimhi as well as other major writers on the Hebrew language (e.g., Eliezer Ben Yehuda, developer of modern Hebrew). Advanced

8- Parsons, J. J. (2010). Hebrew Grammar-דקדוק. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/grammar.html

One of the best websites on the entire web for learning the basics of Hebrew letters, grammar. Despite its name, it is an excellent resource for anyone (not just Christians) desiring to make an initial foray into the Hebrew language. A word of caution, this website is best only for simple grammar studies; many of the information and interpretations about the significance of Hebrew words/letters are incorrect. Basic

Print Resources

9- Kimhi, D. (2001). In Chomsky W. (Ed.), Hebrew Grammar (Mikhlol) / systematically presented and critically annotated by William Chomsky (W. Chomsky Trans.). (1st Paperback ed.). New York: Bloch.

One of Rashi’s contemporaries, David Kimhi (also known as the Radak) authored this quintessential work on Hebrew grammar that elucidated and canonized a number of different grammatical rules, including the division of Hebrew letters into short and long vowels as well as innovative understandings of grammatical tense[1]. This particular version is translated into English and updated from an earlier version. Advanced

10- Clark, M., & Hirsch, S. R. (1999). In Clark M. (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (M. Clark Trans.). Jerusalem, Israel: Feldheim.

This specialized dictionary draws on the commentaries of the famous German Rabbi Hirsch to explain the unique relationships that can be discovered by examining Hebrew words from their three-letter word roots (shorashim). The dictionary provides multiple definitions for words through analysis based on these roots and provides citations from both the Torah and major commentaries. Intermediate

11- Encyclopedia Judaica (2007). In Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (Eds.), (2nd ed.). Detriot: Macmillan USA.

Encyclopedia Judaica is widely known as the authoritative reference resource in Jewish studies. It contains a large number of different entries that provide a detailed overview of Hebrew grammar as well its historical development in different contexts. It also contains several useful charts and tables that extensively detail letters, vowels, and articulations. Intermediate

12- Unknown. (1997). In Kaplan A. (Ed.), Sefer Yetzira, The Book of Creation (A. Kaplan Trans.). (Revised ed.). York Beach, ME: Red Wheel / Weiser LLC.

Sefer Yetzirah details the metaphysical composition of the universe by discussing the significance and underlying meaning of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This text is one of the earliest known commentaries on the Torah and serves as the basis for understanding how Hebrew letters connect and define religious meaning in Judaism (a large portion of this book can be previewed at Googlebooks). Intermediate

13- Uveeler, L., & Bronznick, N. (1998). Ha-Yesod: The fundamentals of Hebrew (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York: Feldheim.

Hayesod is a Hebrew textbook that thoroughly explains the fundamental components of Hebrew grammar and builds on those through short, simple exercises. This book is best for individuals who want to teach themselves although it could also be used successfully as an optional text for university level classes. The textbook takes the learner from a beginner level through an intermediate-advanced level.

Database Resources

14-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewBooks.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrewbooks.org

Vast digital library of full text Hebrew Books on a wide variety of Jewish-related topics. Advanced and special dictionaries and other linguistic studies are available by search (it may be best to use Google’s advanced search to search the site). Hebrewbooks.org an also be useful for finding rare texts and exemplary Hebraic works of different time periods. Intermediate-Advanced

15-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewManuscripts.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrewmanuscripts.org/

Part of the Hebrewbooks.org project, this is currently a work-in-progress but includes a large collection of digitized texts from the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rare book room. This collection is useful for doctoral level scholarship and contains original documents that show and discuss the use of Hebrew language and grammar in a variety of different contexts (see http://blog.hebrewbooks.org/2010/11/announcing-new-website-for-hebrew.html). Advanced

16- EBSCO publishing. (n.d.). ATLA religion database online. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.atla.com/products/catalogs/catalogs_rdb.html

Available for use through EBSCO (check with your local library for subscription), searching this database of peer-reviewed religious journals provides access to thousands of articles about the Hebrew language in religious literature. The database culls articles from both Jewish / non-Jewish related sources as well as English/non-English periodicals and journals. Intermediate-Advanced

17- EBSCO Publishing. (n.d.). Jewish Studies Source database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.ebscohost.com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/academic/jewish-studies-source

This database is available through EBSCO (check with your local library for subscription) and contains thousands of peer-reviewed articles on the study of the Hebrew language. It includes of a number of the most widely recognized Jewish Studies journals, including the Hebrew Studies journal. Results can be limited by language. Intermediate-Advanced

18- National Library of Israel, & Joel, I. (n.d.). Index of Articles on Jewish Studies Database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph3.libnet.ac.il/F/?func=find-b-0&local_base=rmb01&con_lng=eng

Referred to as RAMBI, this index of articles related to Jewish Studies provides both free and subscriber based full text versions of articles. Provided by the National Library of Israel, this index is useful for searching for scholarly and academic journal articles related to any area of Hebrew language studies. Intermediate-Advanced

19- Academy of the Hebrew Language. (n.d.). Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language-Ma'agarim. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrew-treasures.huji.ac.il/

This website is a trial version of the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (Ma’agarim). The dictionary allows the searcher to look for Hebrew words contained in different Hebrew writings throughout history. Search options allow the searcher to look for the word root and the word itself and provides a concordance of all relevant historical documents in which the word occurs. Advanced

20- Ohr HaHochma. (2010). Otzar HaHochma-The World's largest Digital Library of Judaic Books. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.otzar.org/otzaren/eodot.asp

Otzar HoHochma contains 47,000 scanned copies of different Judaica books (see website) spanning a broad array of topics, including Hebrew linguistics. This subscription database is available for both individuals and schools/libraries. Intermediate-Advanced

Sources for Ready Reference

1-Snuit. (2009). Holy texts (מגיד, ספרות הקודש). Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/tan/b0001.htm

Searchable database of entire Hebrew Bible. This website also includes complete Hebrew

versions of the Talmud, Midrash, Mishneh Torah, and Tosefta. Excellent resource for searching

for Biblical information form primary sources. Advanced

2-Melingo LTD. (2010). Morphix Dictionary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://morfix.mako.co.il/

The simple interface of this thorough online dictionary allows you to search for the translations of both Hebrew and English terms. Both Biblical and modern definitions are provided as well as an option to search for the Hebrew-Wikipedia entry of the term. Intermediate

3- Clark, M., & Hirsch, S. R. (1999). In Clark M. (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (M. Clark Trans.). Jerusalem, Israel: Feldheim.

4-Encyclopedia Judaica (2007). In Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (Eds.), (2nd ed.). Detriot: Macmillan USA.

Encyclopedia Judaica is widely known as the authoritative reference resource in Jewish studies. It contains a large number of different entries that provide a detailed overview of Hebrew grammar its development over time and in different contexts. It also contains several useful charts and tables that extensively detail letters, vowels, and articulations. Intermediate

Sources for In-depth Information for the Casual User

5-Richman, J. (2010). The Hebrew Language: Learn Hebrew Resources. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew-language.com/

6-Mechon Mamre. (2009). A Hebrew - English Bible According to the Masoretic text
and the JPS 1917 edition. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm

A wealth of different translations from the Hebrew Bible, including English, French, Aramaic in a variety of formats (with and without vowels, cantillation markings, etc.). This website also has free downloadable software for a searchable database of Talmud, Torah, and major commentaries. Basic-Intermediate

7-Shusterman, M. (n.d.). Online Torah Reading. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.beverlyhillschabad.com/torah-reading/TORAH-MENU.HTM

8-Rosenberg, A. J. (2010). The Complete Jewish Bible with Rashi Commentary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm

Judaica Press partnered with Chabad online to make the complete Tanach (5 books, Writings, Prophets) available with Rashi’s commentary. Rashi is the foremost Biblical commentator on grammatical inconsistencies within Biblical literature and is now printed alongside most every copy of Hebrew primary texts. It is accessible for free online. Basic-Intermediate

9-Parsons, J. J. (2010). Hebrew Grammar-דקדוק. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/grammar.html

10-Uveeler, L., & Bronznick, N. (1998). Ha-Yesod: The fundamentals of hebrew (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York: Feldheim.

11-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewBooks.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrewbooks.org

Vast digital library of full text Hebrew Books on a wide variety of Jewish-related topics. Advanced and special dictionaries and other linguistic studies are available by search (it may be best to use Google’s advanced search to search the site). Can also be useful for finding rare texts and exemplary Hebraic works of different time periods. Advanced

Sources for In-depth Information for a Scholar

12-Jewish National Library. (2010). Jewish National Library Digital Book Repository. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books_hla.html

13-Kimhi, D. (2001). In Chomsky W. (Ed.), Hebrew Grammar (Mikhlol) / Systematically presented and critically annotated by William Chomsky (W. Chomsky Trans.). (1st Paperback ed.). New York: Bloch.

One of Rashi’s contemporaries, David Kimhi (also known as the Radak) authored this quintessential work on Hebrew grammar that elucidated and canonized a number of different grammatical rules, including the division of Hebrew letters into short and long vowels as well as innovative understandings of grammatical tense (see first footnote above for citation). This particular version is translated into English and updated from an earlier version. Advanced

14- Unknown. (1997). In Kaplan A. (Ed.), Sefer Yetzira, The Book of Creation (A. Kaplan Trans.). (Revised ed.). York Beach, ME: Red Wheel / Weiser LLC.

15- EBSCO publishing. (n.d.). ATLA religion database online. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.atla.com/products/catalogs/catalogs_rdb.html

Available for use through EBSCO (check with your local library for subscription), searching this database of peer-reviewed religious journals provides access to thousands of articles about the Hebrew language in religious literature. The database culls articles from both Jewish / non-Jewish related as well as English/non-English periodicals and journals. Advanced

16- EBSCO Publishing. (n.d.). Jewish studies source database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.ebscohost.com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/academic/jewish-studies-source

17-National Library of Israel, & Joel, I. (n.d.). Index of Articles on Jewish Studies Database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph3.libnet.ac.il/F/?func=find-b-0&local_base=rmb01&con_lng=eng

18-Academy of the Hebrew Language. (n.d.). Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language-Ma'agarim. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrew-treasures.huji.ac.il/

This website is a trial version of the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language –(Ma’agarim). This dictionary allows the searcher to look for Hebrew words contained in different Hebrew writings throughout history. Search options allow the searcher to look for the word root and the word itself and provides a concordance of all relevant historical documents in which the word occurs. Intermediate-Advanced

19-Ohr HaHochma. (2010). Otzar HaHochma-The World's largest Digital Library of Judaic Books. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.otzar.org/otzaren/eodot.asp

20-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewManuscripts.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrewmanuscripts.org/

[1] Jewish Encyclopedia.com (2002). David Kimhi (ReDak, surnamed Maistre Petit). Retrieved from http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=217&letter=K&search=kimchi#653 on 11/30/2010.

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: For Scholar

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:53:00 +0000

Sources for In-depth Information for a Scholar

Back to full Resource Guide

12-Jewish National Library. (2010). Jewish National Library Digital Book Repository. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books_hla.html

13-Kimhi, D. (2001). In Chomsky W. (Ed.), Hebrew Grammar (Mikhlol) / Systematically presented and critically annotated by William Chomsky (W. Chomsky Trans.). (1st Paperback ed.). New York: Bloch.

One of Rashi’s contemporaries, David Kimhi (also known as the Radak) authored this quintessential work on Hebrew grammar that elucidated and canonized a number of different grammatical rules, including the division of Hebrew letters into short and long vowels as well as innovative understandings of grammatical tense (see first footnote above for citation). This particular version is translated into English and updated from an earlier version. Advanced

14- Unknown. (1997). In Kaplan A. (Ed.), Sefer Yetzira, The Book of Creation (A. Kaplan Trans.). (Revised ed.). York Beach, ME: Red Wheel / Weiser LLC.

15- EBSCO publishing. (n.d.). ATLA religion database online. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.atla.com/products/catalogs/catalogs_rdb.html

Available for use through EBSCO (check with your local library for subscription), searching this database of peer-reviewed religious journals provides access to thousands of articles about the Hebrew language in religious literature. The database culls articles from both Jewish / non-Jewish related as well as English/non-English periodicals and journals. Advanced

16- EBSCO Publishing. (n.d.). Jewish studies source database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.ebscohost.com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/academic/jewish-studies-source

17-National Library of Israel, & Joel, I. (n.d.). Index of Articles on Jewish Studies Database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph3.libnet.ac.il/F/?func=find-b-0&local_base=rmb01&con_lng=eng

18-Academy of the Hebrew Language. (n.d.). Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language-Ma'agarim. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrew-treasures.huji.ac.il/

19-Ohr HaHochma. (2010). Otzar HaHochma-The World's largest Digital Library of Judaic Books. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.otzar.org/otzaren/eodot.asp

20-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewManuscripts.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrewmanuscripts.org/

Back to full Resource Guide

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: In-depth for Casual Learner

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:52:00 +0000

Sources for In-depth Information for the Casual User

Back to full Resource Guide

5-Richman, J. (2010). The Hebrew Language: Learn Hebrew Resources. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew-language.com/

6-Mechon Mamre. (2009). A Hebrew - English Bible According to the Masoretic text
and the JPS 1917 edition. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm

7-Shusterman, M. (n.d.). Online Torah Reading. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.beverlyhillschabad.com/torah-reading/TORAH-MENU.HTM

8-Rosenberg, A. J. (2010). The Complete Jewish Bible with Rashi Commentary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm

9-Parsons, J. J. (2010). Hebrew Grammar-דקדוק. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/grammar.html

10-Uveeler, L., & Bronznick, N. (1998). Ha-Yesod: The fundamentals of hebrew (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York: Feldheim.

11-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewBooks.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrewbooks.org

Vast digital library of full text Hebrew Books on a wide variety of Jewish-related topics. Advanced and special dictionaries and other linguistic studies are available by search (it may be best to use Google’s advanced search to search the site). Can also be useful for finding rare texts and exemplary Hebraic works of different time periods. Advanced

Back to full Resource Guide

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: Sources for Ready Reference

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:51:00 +0000

Sources for Ready Reference
Back to full Resource Guide

1-Snuit. (2009). Holy texts (מגיד, ספרות הקודש). Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/tan/b0001.htm

Searchable database of entire Hebrew Bible. This website also includes complete Hebrew

versions of the Talmud, Midrash, Mishneh Torah, and Tosefta. Excellent resource for searching

for Biblical information form primary sources. Advanced

2-Melingo LTD. (2010). Morphix Dictionary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://morfix.mako.co.il/

3- Clark, M., & Hirsch, S. R. (1999). In Clark M. (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (M. Clark Trans.). Jerusalem, Israel: Feldheim.

4-Encyclopedia Judaica (2007). In Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (Eds.), (2nd ed.). Detriot: Macmillan USA.

Encyclopedia Judaica is widely known as the authoritative reference resource in Jewish studies. It contains a large number of different entries that provide a detailed overview of Hebrew grammar its development over time and in different contexts. It also contains several useful charts and tables that extensively detail letters, vowels, and articulations. Intermediate

Back to full Resource Guide

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: Database Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:50:00 +0000

Database Resources

Back to full Resource Guide

14-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewBooks.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrewbooks.org

15-The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books. (2010). HebrewManuscripts.org. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrewmanuscripts.org/

16- EBSCO publishing. (n.d.). ATLA religion database online. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.atla.com/products/catalogs/catalogs_rdb.html

17- EBSCO Publishing. (n.d.). Jewish Studies Source database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.ebscohost.com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/academic/jewish-studies-source

18- National Library of Israel, & Joel, I. (n.d.). Index of Articles on Jewish Studies Database. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph3.libnet.ac.il/F/?func=find-b-0&local_base=rmb01&con_lng=eng

19- Academy of the Hebrew Language. (n.d.). Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language-Ma'agarim. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://hebrew-treasures.huji.ac.il/

20- Ohr HaHochma. (2010). Otzar HaHochma-The World's largest Digital Library of Judaic Books. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.otzar.org/otzaren/eodot.asp

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: Print Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:49:00 +0000

Print Resources

Back to full Resource Guide

9- Kimhi, D. (2001). In Chomsky W. (Ed.), Hebrew Grammar (Mikhlol) / systematically presented and critically annotated by William Chomsky (W. Chomsky Trans.). (1st Paperback ed.). New York: Bloch.

10- Clark, M., & Hirsch, S. R. (1999). In Clark M. (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (M. Clark Trans.). Jerusalem, Israel: Feldheim.

11- Encyclopedia Judaica (2007). In Berenbaum M., Skolnik F. (Eds.), (2nd ed.). Detriot: Macmillan USA.

12- Unknown. (1997). In Kaplan A. (Ed.), Sefer Yetzira, The Book of Creation (A. Kaplan Trans.). (Revised ed.). York Beach, ME: Red Wheel / Weiser LLC.

13- Uveeler, L., & Bronznick, N. (1998). Ha-Yesod: The fundamentals of Hebrew (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York: Feldheim.

Hebrew/Chumash Resources Resource Guide: Internet Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:47:00 +0000

Internet Resources

Back to full Resource Guide

1-Richman, J. (2010). The Hebrew Language: Learn Hebrew Resources. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew-language.com/

2-Snuit. (2009). Holy texts (מגיד, ספרות הקודש). Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/tan/b0001.htm

3-Mechon Mamre. (2009). A Hebrew - English Bible According to the Masoretic text
and the JPS 1917 edition. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm

4-Shusterman, M. (n.d.). Online Torah Reading. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.beverlyhillschabad.com/torah-reading/TORAH-MENU.HTM

5- Rosenberg, A. J. (2010). The Complete Jewish Bible with Rashi Commentary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm

6- Melingo LTD. (2010). Morphix Dictionary. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://morfix.mako.co.il/

7- Jewish National Library. (2010). Jewish National Library Digital Book Repository. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://aleph500.huji.ac.il/nnl/dig/books_hla.html

8- Parsons, J. J. (2010). Hebrew Grammar-דקדוק. Retrieved 11/26, 2010, from http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/grammar.html

Back to full Resource Guide

Daf Yomi Resource Guide at the Daf Yomi Advancement Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:55:00 +0000

I just finished my first semester here at SU and so I'm now finally able to return to Jewish Online Resources to post some of the great resources I've discovered over the course of the last few months.

Lately I've been getting excited about daf yomi (a program that enables you to read the entire Gemara every seven and a half years by reading one folio page a day) so I thought I'd look around and see if I could do a daf yomi resource guide similar to the Chumash/Hebrew guide that I just published.

In my searching however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Daf Yomi Advancement Forum out of Israel has already done this. The link http://www.dafyomi.co.il/ will take you to the homepage but oddly, the pages with in the website don't change their address.

So when you go to the main page, click underneath the Free Online Resources box and select "Daf Yomi and Talmud Study." This annotated resource guide contains a fairly exhaustive list of available daf yomi lessons online. My personal favorites are dafyomi.org, OU, and YU.

Labels: Talmud Gemara Daf Yomi audio shiurum lectures lessons daily study daily talmud study kollel Israel Daf Yomi Advancement Forum pathfinder resource guide

2nd in Chabad.org series: Translated Primary Texts Online

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:12:00 +0000

Labels: online_library English_translation free books sephorim Torah

After the holidays, I've been a bit out of commission trying to catch up from all my missed days of school. So finally, I am basically back in black in terms of time and so here is part 2 of Chabad.org. Chabad.org has one of the largest collections--possibly the largest--of English-translated Jewish-religious texts on the web. The subject matter is extremely broad, from Chumash (Torah) with Rashi translation, to Chassidic stories (one of my favorites for Erev Shabbos preparation), to Pirkei Avos. No matter what your learning level, it's essential for any English-speaking person interested in Torah to be aware of this Chabad's awesome online library. **UPDATE** Chabad.org seems to have recently taken off the JPS English translation of the Rashi (but not the English translation of the Torah). I'm not sure why they did this but there is no longer a complete Rashi English-translation freely available on the web to my knowledge. If anyone happens to hear of one coming available, please let me know.

from http://tntel.tnsos.org/

1st of Chabad.org Series: Jewish Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:28:00 +0000

Labels: AA, addiction, addicts, alcoholics anonymous, chabad, chabad.org, jewish recovery, kiruv, NPR Jewish coverage, outreach

This is the first in a series of posts I'm writing on Chabad.org. Most people are familiar with Chabad and Chabad.org is almost always one of the first 10 results in any Jewish-related Google query. In the following posts however, I wanted to highlight some of the lesser-known divisions of the website since it is so massive.

One of these is the Jewish Recovery portion of their site. This is the only one of its kind that I am aware of and people would do well to share it since it is often such a taboo subject in Jewish communities.

Chabad is acutually becoming fairly well-known for their recovery outreach. Even NPR produced a story about it. AA recovery really is an essential tool for Jews given it's open-ended focus on G-d and it's great to see that it's been embraced by Chabad as a potential kiruv tool. So if you happen to have a loved-one or know of someone in need of a non-church based recovery or are just curious, check it out.

G-dcast

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Labels: cartoon, comedy, homeshuling, humor, kids, torah cartoon, Torah stories, weekly torah portion

I've been enjoying G-dcast from time to time for a while now and seeing this video posted from JewishHumorCentral reminded me that I should add it to the list here. G-dcast is a set of animated videos explaining the bare-bones concepts for the weekly Torah Portion as well as Holidays. Very funny but also very informative for the novice. G-dcast is also really good for kids and homeshulers. Enjoy!

Shofar Callin' from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

Selichos Tunes

noreply@blogger.com (Schriro) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:34:00 +0000

Labels: davening, kavanah, nigun, online siddur, prayer, rosh hashanah, rosh hoshanah, selichos, selichot

If you're looking for a way to put some more kavanah into your davening for Elul, here are some nigunim (tunes) for davening selichos (penitential prayers leading up to Rosh Hoshanah) from Midrash.org.