Incredible Online Resource

Free Primary Jewish Sources and Resources On The Internet from this guy.

This is an insane collection of all the online Torah available. I put my own list like this together, but Melech whups my version tenfold. Hooray! (Pic from Melech's site).

Jastrow Online

Over the past few days I have been obsessively going through the free downloads on Google Books. In general, I am a huge fan of the Google Books project - it is a dream of mine that I could do complete library research (with downloading and printing) while sitting at home (preferably in pajamas).

Google has been trying to scan books into their online engines; personally, were I a man with power (=money/elected office), I'd make a law to have every new book loaded online into the Library of Congress. Not scanned - like the googlers - but the actual text: since every book passes through a word processor at one point, this shouldn't be so hard.

Yeah, I know, Napster has killed popular music (note, it hasn't as far as I can tell), so Google Books will kill books. Bull-sheisse. Every author I know (including myself), while they naturally like money, like fame even more. And if a book is available to EVERYBODY at all times, like it would if it were online, then fame is as rapid as a key-word search.

Ahem. Anyway, Google, as part of their book project, has been scanning into downloadable PDFs as many books as they can that have lost their copyright. Which means many century, or more, books are now free for the taking. This includes a lot of Judaica, and that's what I've been plundering over the past few days.

One of the best finds? One half of the famed Jastrow Talmud dictionary is online, free to download: Jastrow: A Dictionary of the Targumim,etc. vol. 2

Volume 1 is still missing as a bulk download (but each page of the original is available here - but grabbing it page-by-page is too arduous for even this obsessive).

Slifkin blog

As I (hope I've) mentioned before, me and my family are big supporters of Rav Natan Slifkin. He fought the good fight against the forces of intolerance and ignorance. And he now has a blog!

Pic from a website about his book. Backpost finished 2009-12-06.

Hallel on Yom Ha-Atzma'ut

See this awesome overview-shiur on the different opinions for saying Hallel today from Hirhurim (which has my vote for best Torah blog etc). Rav Student says he got this overview from Rav David Shabtai.

Torah-Science Sources

A major interest of my recent rabbinate is the interface between Torah and Science. This blog - by an unknown guy who calls himself "He Who Must Not Be Named" - has accumulated a crazy impressive list of sources and their quotes about the topic. It's under his entry Sources Indicating That Chazal Did Not Possess Perfect Scientific Knowledge and while it hasn't been updated in a few months, I use his work and I encourage him to write a book. I'll help!

Pic from here. Backpost finished 8/21/07

Friend Alert

An article in the Jewish Week by a friend of my family, Ira Kaminow, the webmaster/creator of Just-Tzedaka.

Shaalvim? Are You?

As many of you know in addition to my extensive Blog mastery, I also coordinate a Torah webpage. And, as many of you who have survived a sortie into my home-office know, I print out the contents of the Internet quite frequently. Some may ask 'why print the internet when it is snugly resting amongst the ones and zeroes of the World Wide Web?' I will answer that intriguing yet stupid question by using the example of Yeshivat Shaalvim.

Shaalvim, the "nice-guy" yeshiva (or at least that what we called it in college; Gush guys were arrogant, KBY guys burst into flames when they stepped foot in Princeton New Jersey, and the Shaalvim guys were 'nice.') Anyway, they have lots of good Torah online. Thought provoking, well-researched articles by Rabbi Aaron Weiss and Rabbi Joshua Blank, among others.

Oh, you'll have to take my word for it... because Shaalvim has removed most of the online Torah and replaced it with the WWW equivalent of Folger's crystals... or with nothing... I can't tell. A swift google search for "Aaron Weiss" reveals only my lone Torah website.

There are a number of top-notch Torah websites that swiped away all their Torah in the 8 years since I've run my website(yup, 8 years, holy macaroni).

And, lest you think it is a self-censoring salvo by extra frummie sites, the ones who've dropped off the Web are usually the most intellectual and academic: (1) The Soloveitchik archives from Mail Jewish, (2) Machon Lev, (3) The Chait High School in Seattle, (4) Keren-Kayemet L'Torah.

Shaalvim is in a different category - they have Torah up, but in the past 8 years they have changed their webpage 4+ times and they've swiped away their archives. But, in any case, its less Torah. Now the only source for this stuff seems to be my massive piles of printed paper.

P.S. the "are you" from the message title is a reference to the way my kid looks for lost objects, as in looking for his lost train totem of Thomas: "T'ommas?! Are You?!"

Judaica Press Tanach Online

I don't know how long this has been up but it is news to me. Chabad has put up the Judaica Press translation of Tanakh, with Rashi, online. Whoo and Hoo!

Genesis in Pig Latin

Either there's a sophistimacated computer program to do this or someone had way too much free time - either way, check out the Book of Genesis in Pig Latin

{2009 Update, pic from an unrelated site.}

Karaites vs. Messianics

[This is a backpost dated from September 27, 2004 - I only had one line, I think I can remember where I was going with it]

I was doing Sukkot research online and stumbled across the Karaite form of Sukkot.

I think I wanted to weigh who is weirder or more obnoxious - the Messianics or Karaites, and I think the Messainics are still worse. The Karaites just take away from the religion but the Messainics add a whole mess of bad. In a certain extent, the halakha of 'Bal Tosif' is worse than 'Bal Tigra']

{2009 Update: pic from this website, which I haven't checked out, but looks notable in itself}

Holy Moly

I am impressed. YU Torah Online

Yom Ha'Atzma'ut Sources

• VBM-Yeshivat Har Etzion Yom Ha-Atzma'ut & Yom Yerushalayim Journal
• Torah MiTzion
• Yitz Etshalom Holiday Page
• Rav Jachter's Kol Torah Halacha Section

1. The Halachic Status of Medinat Yisrael, from Volume 9 Number 28: Kedoshim
2. How We Can Help Medinat Yisrael Now, from Volume 11 Number 5: Bereishit
3. Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut, from Volume 11 Number 24: Tazria-Metzora
4. Living in Yesha during Dangerous Times, from Volume 12 Number 14: Bo
5. Performing Kria upon Seeing Jerusalem, from Volume 12 Number 27: Kedoshim

From the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education in the Diaspora:

• HALLEL ON YOM HA’ATZMAUT Dr. Marvin S. Antelman Appeared in Tradition, Volume 3, No. 3 (Spring 1961)
• MEGILLAT HAATZMAUT: Analysis and Comparative Analysis By Michael Myers
• The Unique Kedushah of Yerushala’yim
• David Derovan
• Bar Ilan Yom Haatzmaut articles
• Zomet 5762
• The State of Israel in Halachic Thought, by Gerald J. Blidstein
• Torah and Religious Zionism, by Cyril Domb
• The State Vs. Halachah: Who Speaks for Torah - And How? by Shalom Carmy
• Prof. Eliezer Segal Articles

Cool Hypertext Haggadahs

Aish Haggadah Matrix

Fascinating Passover site

Passover : History and Meaning of Freedom in Faith - Jewish Passover Holidays, Story, Recipes, Seder, Meal, Supper, Feasts, Foods, Songs, Humor, Paintings, Art

Another Passover Link

Always a good source: Jacob Richman's Hot Sites - Jewish - Holidays - Passover

Passover Sources

JewishFreeware.org

Whoa! Rambam online

It's been a good long while since I've been able to put up fresh new links on my torah website. But this may give a nudge. Rambam's Perush ha-Mishnayot and other Rambam stuff (in Hebrew) online. Yummy!