A Chatroom For the Five Books
For generations, scholars and cheder students have lugged around the Tanakh, the bedrock tome of Judaism, otherwise known as the Hebrew Bible. For some years now, they’ve also had access via their laptops to online versions.
On September 8, the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim – the three subsections of the Tanakh – will join the interactive digital revolution as the Tagged Tanakh, becomes an online platform for bible commentary and research as well as plain old reading.
The site, administered by the Jewish Publication Society (publisher of the most popular English-language translation of the Hebrew Bible), will be a “place to conserve and share commentaries and people’s responses and interpretations of commentaries,” J.T. Waldman, director of Interactive Media for JPS, told Publisher’s Weekly yesterday.
The subscription-based site will allow users to search the Tanakh by book, weekly reading or using a single search word. Have a kashrut question? Simply type in “kosher food laws.” Or, search “environmentalism” and read Deuteronomy 20:19-20:20, along with user reflections, and click on relevant tags, like “trees” or “nature,” that take you to even more commentary. Passages can be read in Hebrew or English and a dual-language viewing option is in the works.
The site already counts 1,000 users, mostly bloggers and scholars. Waldman said Facebook and cell phone applications are in development. In its current state, the Tagged Tanakh functions like an online forum, sprawling and somewhat disorganized, with lots of unconsolidated information.
Kind of like a noisy cheder.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
