Leining Master

Whether you’re an upcoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparing for your big day or an adult intent on learning or enhancing your Torah reading skills, this CD is for you!

Leining Master offers the following features:

- All audio files on one CD – no need for separate CDs for each Parashah,  Haftarah or Megillah
- Chanted with accuracy and attention to the subtleties of Hebrew grammar
- Audio classes on the finer points of Torah reading

Leining Master includes the following readings:

• All weekly Torah readings
• All Haftarah readings
• All special holiday readings
• All Megillah readings

Your choice of Ashkenazic or Sefardic pronunciation.

Click here for a sample track from Leining Master in Ashkenaz pronunciation

Click here for a sample track from Leining Master in Sefard pronunciation

Load it on your MP3 player, MP3 CD player or transfer MP3 files to your iPhone and listen on your way to work, while exercising, or in the car. Plays on any computer, MP3 player, or MP3-supporting CD player.

Leining by Rabbi Jeremy Wieder

Available for purchase by download from Davka’s website

Price: $29.95 per mp3 CD

Askenaz – buy now
Sefard – buy now

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Hebrewbooks.org

Currently Hebrewbooks.org’s mission has expanded to include all Torah Seforim ever printed.  At Hebrewbooks.org you will be able to view and print the entire Sefer online.

If you were to ask any Rabbi who authored a sefer, what his one wish would be, his answer would surely be, “I want people to learn my sefer, even after my passing“.  Indeed, many Rabbis writing in their introductions: “I wrote this sefer and hope it will be studied even after my death, in order that my lips may move in my grave.” When you quote these seforim, please be sure to mention the Rabbi’s name. In this way the author’s  ”lips will move in his grave“. In this manner you will bring life to the memory of the author.  Our Rabbis of  blessed memory teach us that “He who quotes a saying in the name of  its author, hastens the redemption of the world“.  They cite the Book of Esther in support of this: “Queen Esther reported the plot to kill king Achashverosh in the name of Mordechai“.

HebrewBooks.org is a not-for-profit organization.  Their goal is to bring to life the many Seforim that were written and unfortunately forgotten,  and  to make all Torah Publications free and ubiquitous.

A new application for viewing HebrewBooks.org …  on the  iPhone and iPad is now available for  free as version 1.0 (a work in progress).  Download, read or print over 40,000 rare and out of print Seforim from Hebrewbooks.org.

Users reviews

“Wow. Hebrewbooks has done it again! Those guys never let up.  Just downloaded the  free app. It’s different than their site, but I was able to download and read the seforim on my iPhone, it even works on my IPad. They say this is just a start and they plan on tweaking and adding more features. I can’t wait.”

“I can have a whole seforim bookcase in my pocket! Yasher Koach, and tizku l’mitzvos. P.S. I just figured out how to search in Hebrew.  Just go the general settings by the keyboard language setting, and turn the Hebrew to ‘on’.”

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Books
Released: June 22, 2010
Publisher:  The Society for the Preservation of Hebrew Books
Price: Free (get app)

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Judah Hallevi’s Kitab al Khazari translated by Hartwig Hirschfeld –

(Kitab al-Ḥujjah wal-Dalil fi Nuṣr al-Din al-Dhalil, كتاب الحجة و الدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل (known in the Hebrew translation of Judah ibn Tibbon by the title Sefer ha-Kuzari)

A classic of  Medieval Jewish philosophy,  set in a legendary (but historical) central Asian kingdom.

Framed as a dialog between the king of the Khazars,  a Central Asian kingdom, and a Rabbi,  the Khazari is an exposition of  late medieval Jewish philosophy.  Legend has it that the king of the Khazars held a symposium to decide whether his people should convert to Judaism, Christianity or Islam.  This book is an account of  the Jewish side of this debate.

Rabbi Judah Ha-Levi, the author, was born about 1080 C.E. in Muslim-controlled area of southern Spain. This was a bright spot in the history of Jewish-Muslim relations, when Jewish communities prospered under a tolerant Islamic state, and scholarship flourished.

He studied the Talmud and Kabbalah, wrote secular poetry, and was fluent both in Hebrew and Arabic.  Midlife he had an awakening which led him to write on more spiritual themes, and the resulting body of work is considered some of the best post-Biblical Jewish poetry  (read more here).

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Books
Released: March 30, 2010
Publisher: Indianic, LLC
Price: Free (get app)

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Throughout the Rebbe Shlita’s nesius, he has shown a special regard and concern for children. The many children’s rallies and Tzivos HaShem activities demonstrate the great affinity the Rebbe shows for children and the major role they play in his outreach efforts.

Not only has the Rebbe inspired many activities involving children, he has also directed many sichos to them. But children have a great thirst to know, and they want to understand not only the talks directed to them in particular, but everything the Rebbe says. After sitting for hours on Shabbos afternoons, participating in the Rebbe’s farbrengens, and afterwards, the children would ask their parents: “Please tell me what the Rebbe said.” - for more download apps

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Reference
Released: July 07, 2009
Publisher: Dovid Zirkind
Price: Free

Get

• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3

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Almost all aspects of Jewish life have its counterparts in apps. From naming your child to Izkor (text for the mourning rituals in Judaism). There are apps promoting organisations, communities and events. We can use guides for Israel and for Jewish places all over the world. With the help of those apps you can find a synagogue, kosher restaurant or mikveh.  And if you are Jewish single… well there’s an app for that too.

The Israeli developers make the difficult enough life in Eretz Ha’Kodesh, a bit easier by creating apps for car rentals, airlines, rail and bus lines. TV, banks, almost all radio stations, many newspapers, bars, restaurants and pubs they have their own apps – all at your fingertips. At the AppStore you can find applications teaching you Judaism, helping in organising your life, be it secular or religious. There is a decent amount of religious texts in Hebrew and in translations – Talmud, Mishna, prayer books, commentaries to Torah, the Torah itself and the complete Tanach.

Since the introduction of iPad the developers have been given a new challenge. On one side all the iPhone apps work well on iPad but its size and abilities invited completely new features in apps.

Davka, the world’s largest developer of Judaic and Hebrew software for Mac and PC, stood up to the new possibilities and challenges. The company has quite a few successful releases for iPhone (we reviewed them not long ago - iRambam, iBless Food, iBless Torah, iGematria) and now they released a complete Tanach for iPad only.

Totally Tanach – that’s what the app is called - featuring the complete text of the 24 books of  Tanach: Tora (Five Books of  Moses) as well as Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).

Beside the full Hebrew text you can also find here English translations and synchronised with Hebrew  verse-by-verse Rashi’s commentary (only in Chumash). Moderate and user friendly interface lets you focus on studying. Clear and legible navigation symbols don’t need explaining.

There are few ways to read Totally Tanach: Hebrew, two columns Hebrew and English, or as in case of  Chumash, Rashi comments assigned to each verse of the Hebrew text. This kind of arrangement is a lot easier to read then, for example, the arrangement known from the printed publications of Artscroll where the comments were located on the bottom of the page.  All you have to do is to tap on the right letter – Latin, Hebrew, script of  Rashi – and you enjoy reading in the mode selected by you.

Other useful features are bookmarks, copy text and light speed fast searcher. The name of  Perek (chapter), in which the sought phrase comes up, is given in English and Hebrew and the result of  searching is highlighted (the option of searching in English is not available).

The Hebrew text  in Totally Tanach,  as in the majority of printed versions, has a Nikud (signs used to represent vowels) and Te’amim (cantillation signs - purpose of this signs is to guide the chanting of  the Torah text). Unfortunately, when using copy/paste option they are not copied.  If you speak fluent Hebrew and if  you use it as notes, the whole thing doesn’t  seem to be such a big deal.

The thing that some of you may miss is Targum Onkelos (Aramaic interpretation of the pshat – basic meaning – of the Torah).  If you are one of these people and would suffer much because the lack of it , on his website  Mechon Mamre has the entire text of  Targum Onkelos with vowels – click here.

The part of Avoda Zarah treaty say as  ‘Rebbi Yehoshua was asked, “May a man teach his son Greek“. He responded, “He may do so, but only during a time which is neither day nor night, for during the entire day and the entire night one is obligated to study the Torah and there is no free time in which to engage in the teaching or practice of Greek wisdom.” As the prophet says:  “This Book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night” (Yehoshua 1:8-9)’.  What does it mean? Any time of the day or night that a person is not involved in the performance of  another Mitzvah, he is obligated to involve himself  in the study of  Torah.  It is hard nowadays to find the excuse to not to do so…

When at the brake of the 1960s and 1970s  Lubavitcher Rebbe started nowadays  famous “Mitzvah Campaign” he suggested ten possible “beginner’s mitzvot” – precepts which, are ideally suited for a first experience of  the mitzvah connection. One of  them was:  “furnish your home with as many holy books as possible”.

And if  I may add to that – and fill up your  iPad with as many Jewish apps as possible. “Totally Tanach”  is one of  a-must-have apps.

Robert Pass (Mati Szmidt contributed to this review)

Developer’s description,  screenshots and download  here

Taamei HaMikrah may be listened one by one, by touching each button, or You can follow the whole reading (in hebrew or english text).

Attention: This app contains only the Taamei Hamikrah, not the whole Torah reading.

מומלץ לאנשים שרוצים ללמוד את טעמי המקרא, האפליקציה הזאת מספקת הטעמים הנצרכים לקריאת התורה בבית הכנסת, לפי מנהג האשכנזי וספרדי (עדות המזרח), באייפון שלך. אינו כולל קריאת כל התורה, רק הטעמים בלבד.

Follow us on Twitter – there will be few free promo codes for this app
(Sunday, Monday, Tuesday – 11, 12, 13  July).

Sunday – 993HTARETTPJ
Monday – 79Y3T79XMYTR
Tuesday - L3PFNH9M4P73

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Education
Released: 08 July 2010
Publisher: Natan Rolnik
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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Rabbi Eli Garfinkel, now calling himself “The App-ter Rebbe,” has announced the publication of a new commentary o  the Torah for Apple’s iOS devices:  iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Garfinkel, who previously published the well-received hard-copy Torah commentary “Mikraot Ramah,” for use at Jewish summer camps, now adds “Mayim La-Eidah” to the App Store.

Mayim La-Eidah is a Torah commentary and discussion app to supplement the study of the weekly Torah portion. This current week’s installment includes 23 Divrei Torah (commentaries) on the Torah portion and 17 discussion questions to be used for sermons, adult education, and youth programming.

If reading material on a screen isn’t your cup of tea, or if using these electronic devices doesn’t sit well with you on Shabbat, just tap the “Send Me A PDF” button in the lower-right hand corner. You’ll receive a printer-friendly PDF in your email, and you are free to photocopy it for educational purposes. The commentary includes material for laypeople and professionals alike.

by Rabbi Jason Miller

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch,  iPad

Category: Education
Released: Jul 01, 2010
Publisher: Rabbi Eli Garfinkel
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

In the ancient Jewish practice of the kavannah (a meditation designed to focus one’s heart on its spiritual goal), Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet offer their own reactions to key verses from each week’s Torah portion, opening the biblical text to new layers of understanding. Here is a fascinating glimpse into two great minds, as each author approaches the text from his unique perspective, each seeking an understanding of the Bible’s personalities and commandments, paradoxes and ambiguities.

Kushner offers his words of  Torah with a conversational enthusiasm that ranges from family dynamics to the Kabbalah; Mamet challenges the reader, often beginning his comment far afield — with Freud or the American judiciary— before returning to a text now wholly reinterpreted. In the tradition of Israel as a people who wrestle with G-d, Kushner and Mamet grapple with the biblical text, succumbing neither to apologetics nor parochialism, asking questions without fear of the answers they may find. Over the course of a year of weekly readings, they comment on all aspects of the Bible: its richness of theme and language, its contradictions, its commandments, and its often unfathomable demands.

If you are already familiar with the Bible, this book will draw you back to the text for a deeper look. If you have not yet explored the Bible in depth, Kushner and Mamet are guides of unparalleled wisdom and discernment. Five Cities of Refuge is easily accessible yet powerfully illuminating.  Each week’s comments can be read in a few minutes, but they will give you something to think about all week long.

Lawrence Kushner teaches and writes as the Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. He has taught at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and served for twenty-eight years as rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts. A frequent lecturer, he is also the author of more than a dozen books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. He lives in San Francisco.

David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright. He is the author of  Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cryptogram, and Boston Marriage , among other plays.  He has also published three novels and many screenplays, children’s books, and essay collections  (from the Hardcover edition).

About Scrollmotion
ScrollMotion, creator of the Iceberg Reader, is a content technology company based in New York City. For more information, visit www.scrollmotion.com.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch,  iPad

Category: Books
Released: June 11, 2010
Publisher: ScrollMotion, Inc
Price: $20.99 (buy app)

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Totally Tanach includes the Hebrew text and English translation of  Torah – Five Books of  Moses,  Nevi’im - Prophets, Ketuvim - Writings.

Totally Tanach also includes the Hebrew text of  Rashi on Torah with vowels.

Totally Tanach for iPad is a joint project of  Redlex and  Davka Corporation.

Features include:

• Speedy Hebrew search – find words and phrases in seconds!
• Easy navigation to all books of the Bible
• Includes full Hebrew text of  Rashi on Chumash with vowels
• View Rashi and Hebrew text in parallel columns  (Chumash only)
• View Hebrew and English text of  Tanach in parallel columns.
• Bookmark and email verses
• Copy and paste

iPad only

Category: Education
Released: Jun 26, 2010
Publisher: Davka Corporation © 2010 Davka Corporation and Redlex
Price: $9.99 (buy app)

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The Guide for the Perplexed

It was written in the 12th century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student,  Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of  Ceuta, the son of  Rabbi  Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam’s philosophical views,  as opposed to his opinions on  Jewish law.

Since many of the philosophical concepts,  such as his view of theodicy and the relationship between philosophy and religion, are relevant beyond strictly Jewish theology, it has been the work most commonly associated with Maimonides in the non-Jewish world and it is known to have influenced several major non-Jewish philosophers. Following its publication,  ”almost every philosophic work  for the remainder of the Middle Ages cited, commented on, or criticized Maimonides’ views.” Within Judaism, the Guide became widely popular, with manyJewish communities requesting copies of the manuscript, but also quite controversial, with some communities limiting its study or banning it altogether  (more in Wikipedia).

Developer’s notes – The Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides,  M. Freidländer, tr.

Maimonides’ masterful summation of theology, natural philosophy and divine law. The Guide consists of three books. The first book deals with the nature of G-d, concluding that G-d cannot be described in positive terms. He uses this argument to systematically deconstruct the Islamic Kalam literalist school of thought, which anthropomorphized G-d. The second book examines natural philosophy, particularly Aristotle’s  system of concentric spheres, and theories of the creation and duration of the universe, and the theory of angels and prophecy. In the last Book, he expounds the mystical Merkavah section of Ezekhiel, skirting the traditional prohibition of direct explanation of this passage. After this he covers the 613 laws of the Torah, organized into 14 branches, attempting to present rational explanations for each law.  Throughout, Maimonides stresses that the student needs to consider all theories.

About the Author
Moses Maimonides (March 28, 1138 Cordoba,  Spain – December 13, 1204 Fostat, Egypt), was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Andalusia, Morocco and Egypt during the Middle Ages. He was one of the various medieval Jewish philosophers who also influenced the non-Jewish world. Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history.

Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Jewish thought and study.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Books
Released: March 30, 2010
Publisher: Indianic, LLC
Price: Free (get app)

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For Jewish People it is a commandment to learn about the Third Holy Temple.

The Third Temple app allows you, in a game motif, to learn the basic structure of the Third Holy Temple in a fun, informative, and exciting manner.

After a brief introduction, the second page of the app shows the general  floor plan of the Third Holy Temple. On the third page you move the various structures of the Third Holy Temple into their proper places. When a structure is in its proper place there is applause.  In case you do not remember the proper placement, you can hit the Back tap at the upper left corner to take another look at the floor plan. When you have completed placing the structures, press the See the Beis Hamikdash button. The screen will go blank as you hear the sound of the shofar (ram’s horn),  followed by thunder and lightning, and the descent of the Third Holy Temple. Although the app is in the form of a game, it nevertheless helps in our understanding of the Third Holy Temple, which hastens its building.

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According to Jewish tradition, the Mashiach is born on Tisha B’Av.  According to the Rambam, it is the Mashiach who will lead the Jewish People in the building of the Third Beit HaMikdash, that is never to be destroyed.

Positive Mitzvah 20: Build a Mikdash for G-d

Shemot 25:8: “They shall make a Temple (Mikdash) for Me, and I will [then] dwell in their midst.”

We are commanded to build a Temple for His service. There sacrifices are to be offered and the perpetual fire is to burn, thither the [prescribed] pilgrimages are to be made, and there the festivals and assemblages are to be held every year.

The Sifre says: “The Yisraelim were obliged to fulfill three Mitzvot upon their entry into the Land: to appoint a king over themselves, to build the Temple, and to annihilate the offspring of Amalek“ (Berachot, Tosefta 7:1). Thus it has been made clear to you that the building of the Temple is a distinct Mitzvah in itself.

The provisions of this Mitzvah as a whole, that is to say, those relating to the building of the Sanctuary, its design and its divisions, the building of the Altar, and the related laws, are explained in a Tractate specially devoted to the subject, namely Tractate Middot.  In like manner the design of the Menorah (Candlestick), of the Shulchan Aruch (Table), and of the golden Mizbeach (Altar), and their positions in the Temple are explained in the Gemara Menachot and Yoma.

All of the Prophets prophesied concerning the Acharit HaYamim (the End of  Days), Yeshayahu perhaps most beautifully:

וְהָיָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, נָכוֹן יִהְיֶה הַר בֵּית-יְהוָה בְּרֹאשׁ הֶהָרִים, וְנִשָּׂא, מִגְּבָעוֹת; וְנָהֲרוּ אֵלָיו, כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם.

And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

וְהָלְכוּ עַמִּים רַבִּים, וְאָמְרוּ לְכוּ וְנַעֲלֶה אֶל-הַר-יְהוָה אֶל-בֵּית אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב, וְיֹרֵנוּ מִדְּרָכָיו, וְנֵלְכָה בְּאֹרְחֹתָיו:  כִּי מִצִּיּוֹן תֵּצֵא תוֹרָה, וּדְבַר-יְהוָה מִירוּשָׁלָים.

And many peoples shall go and say: ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord  from Jerusalem.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Educational, Family
Released: June 03, 2010
Publisher: Elite Performance and Learning Center, PS
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

Davka Corporation

Users can browse the fourteen volumes of the Mishneh Torah on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and study the texts, search the texts with the program’s Hebrew search function, and bookmark and email selections for future reference. The program is a universal app, and is optimized to run on all iPhone OS devices. The Mishneh Torah for Phone and iPad gives unprecedented portability to this classic work, and is an ideal study tool for both formal classroom instruction as well as for on-the-go study by rabbis, scholars, and all students of Jewish law.

Written more than eight hundred years ago, the Mishneh Torah ranks among the greatest and most significant Jewish legal works of all time. A masterpiece of clarity, form and function, it is consulted and referenced on a daily basis by rabbis, scholars, and students of  Jewish law.

• Browse through the Hebrew text by book and chapter.
• Search the text by keyword.
• Bookmark sections for future study and reference with the tap of a button
• Mark selections to send via email

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Category: Reference
Released: June 08, 2010
Publisher: RustyBrick, Inc. & Davka Corporation
Price: $14.99 (buy app)

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Coming soon a full review of  Mishneh Torah app for iPhone.