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Sefaria

Sefaria is an online open source,[1] free content, digital library of Jewish texts. It was founded in 2011 by former Google project manager Brett Lockspeiser and journalist-author Joshua Foer.[2][3][4] Promoted as a "living library of Jewish texts", Sefaria relies partially upon volunteers to add texts and translations.[5][6] The site provides cross-references and interconnections between various texts.[3] Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic texts are provided under a free license in the original and in translation. The website also provides a tool for creating source sheets.[7]

Sefaria
Available inEnglish, Hebrew
Founder(s)Brett Lockspeiser, Joshua Foer
CEODaniel Septimus
URLwww.sefaria.org
CommercialNo
Launched2011
Current statusActive

Sefaria is maintained by an eponymous non-profit organization[8][9] which employs 18 engineers.[10] According to their chief data officer Lev Israel in 2019, the service received 250,000 unique visitors monthly.[11]

Etymology

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The name Sefaria derives from the words sefer, or "book",[3] and sifria ("library") in Hebrew.[3][12][13]

History

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Sefaria was originally founded in 2011 by journalist Joshua Foer and Brett Lockspeiser, a former product manager at Google. The site's first beta was released in 2012. The company was formally incorporated in 2013, with funding from the Natan Fund, Jonathan and Tamar Koschitzky, and the Jim Joseph Foundation. By 2015, twelve apps used Sefaria's API and database. Also in 2015, Sefaria reached a deal to use Urim Publications' translations of the Tanakh and commentaries.[14]

Sefaria's website received a major redesign in 2016, alongside the release of new apps for smartphones running iOS and Android, and a complete English translation of Rashi's commentary on the Torah. By this point, over a dozen people were part of the website's staff. Sefaria reached a major milestone in 2017, with the release of the William Davidson Talmud.[15] In 2020, the site announced a pilot program to introduce its model to some secular works such as American constitutional studies.[16]

Lockspeiser was recognized by Forward Magazine's 2019 Forward 50 list for his role in creating Sefaria.[17]

Content

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Sefaria offers a library of Jewish texts, including Tanakh, Talmud, and Jewish prayers alongside sources in philosophy, mysticism, Jewish law, and newer works.[18][19] Sefaria's content comes from a variety of sources. Books in the public domain are scanned and processed using optical character recognition software, which a team then corrects and formats. Other online sources such as On Your Way are also used. Some publishers have also provided works directly to Sefaria.[20]

Sefaria also produces visualizations of the texts in its corpus, such as illustrating connections between the Tanakh and Talmud.[21]

Translations

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In 2021, Sefaria announced a major addition of a complete translation of Ibn Ezra's Torah commentaries provided by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver, one of the only resources to have a complete translation of these works in English.[22] A new English translation of the Tanakh was made available in 2022 by Sefaria in collaboration with Jewish Publication Society. This version translated gender idiomatically, rather than literally, and notably referred to God in a gender-neutral manner.[23] The addition of this translation received some criticism from some Orthodox Jewish users, with Orthodox rabbis calling to stop using Sefaria completely, although there is continued availability of translations from Orthodox-oriented publishing houses.[24][25]

Features

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Many works are linked with their respective commentaries.[26] 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.

Source Sheets

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Sefaria's Source Sheet Builder allows users to create a page with source text from Sefaria.[27][9] Source Sheets may be published online, within Sefaria's ecosystem, and they may also be downloaded as PDF files, which are easy to print.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Yudelson, Larry (April 26, 2018). "Beyond the book". The Jewish Standard. The Times of Israel. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  2. ^ Maier, Lilly (February 8, 2017). "You Can Now Read The Whole Talmud Online - For Free". The Forward. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d Solomon, Zachary (September 8, 2014). "A New, Digital Wonderland of Jewish Text". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Arbesman, Samuel (July 10, 2014). "The Network Structure of Jewish Texts". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  5. ^ Borschei-Dan, Amanda (November 13, 2014). "Old-school educators go hi-tech to promote Torah accessibility". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  6. ^ Henze, Matthias; Werline, Rodney A. (2020-11-29). Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters. Society of Biblical Literature. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-88414-482-3.
  7. ^ Schifrin, Dan (11 July 2014). "Locally fueled Sefaria project has radical ambitions for traditional Jewish texts". J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
  8. ^ Chabin, Michele (February 10, 2017). "Nonprofit offers online English-language translation of the Talmud for free". Religion News Service. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  9. ^ a b Smith, Noah (September 18, 2018). "The quest to put the Talmud online". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  10. ^ "How Can Secular Jews Create the Future of Torah?". Oshman Family JCC. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  11. ^ Spiro, Amy (May 2, 2019). "Sefaria turns a female page". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  12. ^ "Herz und Hirn des Judentums" [Heart and brain of Judaism]. Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  13. ^ Maier, Lilly (February 8, 2017). "You Can Now Read The Whole Talmud Online - For Free". The Forward. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  14. ^ "Sefaria and Urim Publications Strike Unprecedented Agreement". The Sefaria Blog. 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  15. ^ "Setting the Talmud Free". www.sefaria.org. 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  16. ^ Cohen, Sam Zieve (July 15, 2020). "Sefaria releases new 'Democracy' project". Jewish Insider. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  17. ^ Rudoren, Jodi (December 20, 2019). "Forward 50: Meet The Machers And Shakers Who Influenced, Intrigued And Inspired Us This Year". The Forward. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  18. ^ Rocker, Simon (December 23, 2019). "The greatest Jewish website in the world". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  19. ^ Dashefsky, Arnold; Sheskin, Ira M. (2019-03-14). American Jewish Year Book 2018: The Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities Since 1899. American Jewish Year Book. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. p. 848. ISBN 978-3-030-03907-3.
  20. ^ "Content FAQ". GitHub. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  21. ^ Sefaria: Visualizations
  22. ^ "Library Updates - June 2021 | Sefaria". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  23. ^ Jewish Publication Society (1 February 2022). "Preface to "The Contemporary Torah: A Gender-Sensitive Adaptation of the JPS Translation"". sefaria.org. Sefaria. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  24. ^ Hajdenberg, Jackie (30 May 2023). "A 'gender-sensitive' translation of the Hebrew Bible has hit digital shelves. Not everyone is happy". jta.org. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  25. ^ Gordimer, Avrohom (18 June 2023). "Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer in Israel National News: Sefaria and Koren – A concerned look". CJV. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  26. ^ "English Translation of Davidson Talmud on Sefaria". The Detroit Jewish News. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  27. ^ Cramer, Philissa; Baur, Joe (October 14, 2021). "A pioneering German translation of the Talmud, finished in 1935, is now accessible online". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  28. ^ "The Five Steps to Make a Source Sheet on Sefaria". The Rabbi's Manual. June 24, 2018. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
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