Torah database


A Torah database is an electronic collection of classic Jewish texts in electronic form, the kinds of texts which especially in Israel are often called "The Traditional Jewish Bookshelf" ; the texts are in their original languages. These databases contain either keyed-in digital texts or a collection of page-images from printed editions. Given the nature of traditional Jewish Torah study, which involves extensive citation and cross-referencing among hundreds of texts written over the course of thousands of years, many Torah databases also make extensive use of hypertext links.
A Torah database usually refers to a collection of primary texts, rather than translations or secondary research and reference materials.

Digital Text Software Packages

The Bar-Ilan Responsa Project

The very first such database was the Bar Ilan Responsa Project, which began in 1963 at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, migrated to Bar-Ilan University soon thereafter, and was up and running by 1967. It became available in time-sharing mode from university terminals in 1979, was transferred to CD-ROM in 1990, and version 1.0 was offered for sale to the public in 1992. The current version is number 26 or 26+.
The Responsa Project tries to base its electronic texts on the most accurate printed editions, and it has a reputation for relatively error-free electronic texts based upon those editions. It also features approximately 360,000 hypertext links between the various collections within the database, as well as a topical halakhic index for the Shulchan Aruch and selected responsa. Since its early years it has employed a sophisticated search-engine specifically designed for Hebrew language texts.
In recent years, the Responsa Project has made updates available once a year, usually between the Passover and Shavuot holidays, although this varies considerably. Sometimes they release an update after the holiday of Chanukah or after the holiday of Purim. It depends on how much they have completed.
In January, 2007, the responsa project became available in an online edition.
In April, 2007 the Responsa Project won the Israel Prize for Jewish studies.
Currently according to their list the number of seforim listed is about 914. The Kabbalah section includes only the Zohar, and a few works listed under Otzar HaMidrashim. However, the other sections contain many essential and important seforim.

DBS Master Library

DBS rivals the Bar-Ilan Responsa project in size. It has less in the overall area of Halakha and fewer responsa, but rivals Bar Ilan's Reponsa project in: Jewish philosophy and Mussar. To date, the latest Bar Ilan and the latest DBS versions are comparable mostly, in terms of number of texts in these areas. Bar Ilan surpasses DBS in the commentaries on Talmud Bavli, the Reponsa, commentaries on the Mishneh Torah etc. DBS surpasses Bar Ilan in the area of Hasidut and Kabbalah. In recent years, Bar Ilan has included a great number of texts that considered to be mostly accurate, and mostly error free and has become the gold standard of any Torah database. DBS has lagged behind, although its Kabbalah section is fantastic, it is not clear which texts were used as well as their accuracy and whether the text presented is accurate.
DBS contains a good number of Hebrew texts with vowels ; see below. Criticisms: It does not have extensive hypertext links between its various large collections, the texts are considered to be inaccurate and may have some errors in them. It is not as comprehensive in many areas, compared with Bar Ilan.

Soncino Classics Collection

Produced by Davka corporation, Soncino Classics Collection includes
  1. Soncino English translations of the Tanach, Babylonian Talmud, Midrash Rabbah, and Zohar;
  2. Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Tanach, Babylonian Talmud, Midrash Rabbah and Zohar, as well as Rashi's commentary on Talmud.
Soncino Classics Collection is a commercial software.

The Torah Bookshelf ("Halamish")

Otzar ha-Poskim produces "The Torah Bookshelf," a large digital collection of basic texts called "Halamish" in Hebrew, currently in version 3.0.

Ariel

Ariel uses the same software as Otzar ha-Poskim's "Torah Bookshelf" and is similar to it in scope, but many of the titles in the two collections are not the same.

Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer

's project to produce an entirely new critical edition of the Mikra'ot Gedolot is also being made available not only in printed volumes, but also in electronic form. The project contains four main elements:
The CD-ROM is currently in version 2.0.

Digital Hebrew Texts with Vowels (Niqqud)

Tanakh

is available as a keyed-in digital Hebrew text with vowels in all of the above software packages.
Tanakh with both vowels and cantillation signs is available in the Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer package and as online freeware from Mechon Mamre, Hebrew Wikisource and Base HaSefer. All of these versions are based on the Aleppo codex, but Mechon Mamre's edition is based on the editing method of Rabbi Mordecai Breuer, which differs slightly from the Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer edition in some small details. Hebrew Wikisource is similar to both of these versions and the text at Base HaSefer is based on that of Hebrew Wikisource.

Targum

Both Targum Onkelos on the Torah and Targum Jonathan on Nevi'im are vowelized in the digital texts of Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer. Targum Onkelos is vowelized in the Judaic Bookshelf package and as online freeware from Mechon Mamre, Hebrew Wikisource and Base HaSefer.

Mishnah

The Mishnah is included as a keyed-in digital Hebrew text with vowels in all of the general software packages above. The vowels in the "Halamish" package seem to be based upon the Albeck edition of the Mishnah.

Siddur and liturgy

Popular ethical works (musar)

Popular ethical works are normally vowelized in published editions. DBS's collection of such works includes vowels in the electronic editions.

Popular halakhic works

Some of these are also vowelized in DBS.

Page-Image Software Packages

Otzar HaHochma

This project is based on page-images of over 100,000 scanned Jewish books. The search engine allows to search in over 95,000 of these volumes. It is possible to add additional libraries. Additionally, the user can find books by topic. The system has features which turns it to a learning tool.

Otzar ha-Shut

Otzar ha-Poskim produces "Otzar ha-Shut". This package also includes "Halamish".

The Steinzaltz Talmud on CD-ROM

The Steinsaltz Talmud is available as searchable PDF images on CD-ROM. All material from the printed edition is included, but it can be copied and pasted only as images and not as digital text.

Wikimedia Torah study projects

Text study projects at :s:Wikisource|Wikisource allow contributors to help build free content Torah databases at Wikimedia through volunteer typing and editing. Please note that in most instances, these projects proceed much faster in Hebrew than in English.
All of the databases listed in the main article are patented commercial products, and may not be used without permission of the copyright holders. There are also some online projects that make either digital texts, or public domain images of old books, available to the public for free:

Hebrew Wikisource

Hebrew Wikisource contains thousands of free content Torah texts in a digital library that is continually being expanded and improved by volunteers.
The project at Wikisource has hundreds of texts available online.

http://www.hebrewbooks.org HebrewBooks.org (public domain images)

This website was founded in order to preserve old American Hebrew books that are out of print or circulation, but it expanded its mission "to include all Torah Seforim ever printed". About 50,000 out-of-print books and journals may be downloaded as PDF images. While many titles are in the public domain in the United States, they may not be in the public domain in other countries. Additionally, there are also many copyrighted works that have been submitted by the original authors or their families for inclusion within this website.
The website supports textual search, using optical character recognition to convert the images into text.
A contains enhancements not present on the main site.

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/ Mechon Mamre (digital freeware)

Mechon Mamre makes the following digital Hebrew texts available as freeware :
The digital texts available at Snunit are taken from Mechon Mamre.

http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/sifrut/yesod.htm The Daat Library (digital freeware)

A wide variety of primary texts, including many of R' Yosef Qafih's and other more critical editions.

https://www.sefaria.org The Sefaria Project

is a free culture project that includes interactive bilingual texts collected from public sources or created by volunteer translators. Sefaria highlights interconnections between texts from Tanakh, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, Halakha, Kabbalah, Chasidut and includes a free tool for making source sheets.
In February 2017, it was announced that the Koren/Steinsaltz English translation of the Talmud and the Steinsaltz Hebrew translation of the talmud would both be placed into the commons with a CC-BY-NC license, and made available through Sefaria.

http://sites.google.com/site/sagesofashkenaz/ Sages of Ashkenaz (digital freeware)

Sages of Ashkenaz provides free digital text to various Ashkenazi seforim.

http://www.seforimonline.org/ Seforim Online (public domain images)

"Seforim Online" provides PDF images of several hundred classic rabbinic texts for downloading. Many or most of them are hard-to-find or rare editions, and all are in the public domain.

http://www.torahtexts.org TorahTexts.org (searchable Torah Texts)

Provides single point of search and access to many Hebrew and English texts available on the Internet

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sifrei-kodesh-search/ Sifrei Kodesh Search - ([Firefox] add-on for searching texts)

A convenient way to search through many Hebrew texts directly from your browser. It also allows you to narrow your search down to a specific text or genre of texts.

http://www.basehasefer.com Base HaSefer

Base HaSefer aims to enable search and analysis of Sifrei Kodesh as if the content implicitly forms a relational database. It contains the full text of the Tanach and Targum Onkelos with vowels and cantillation marks and contains the following functionality: