There are some fabulous research tools available on the web, and many of them are biblical references.
Perhaps the finest site is www.ort.org. ORT (Obschestvo Remeslenovo i zemledelcheskovo Trouda: The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labour) was founded in 1880 in Russia, and is a Jewish occupational training organization. The ORT database was originally sold as a CDROM and is now available online.
The ORT website contains the Pentateuch (5 books of the Torah) and Haftarot (the readings from the Prophets that accompany the Torah readings). It is well indexed and includes the Torah script, cantilated Hebrew, transliterated English and an English translation. Amazingly, every line of Torah and Haftarah has a sound file that is accessed by clicking on a speaker icon, and allows you to listen to the line being chanted.
The followers of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov have web published a great deal of material on their www.breslov.com site. More than 40 of Rabbi Nachman's works and those of other Breslovers are available, many in Hebrew and English.
Rabbi Nachman (1772 - 1810) lived in the Ukraine and had an extraordinary life. He was plagued by depression and many of his teachings dealt with the need to find joy under difficult circumstances. When I flew to Israel in 2000 I read Rabbi Nathan's account of Rabbi Nachman's incredible journey to Israel in 1798 when I was on the plane, and felt realized what a blessing modern travel can be.(Rabbi Nachman had to deal with pirates, storms at sea, bandits, hostile French troops and perhaps an encounter with Satan.)
The Breslov site also indexes several versions of the Jewish bible, including the 1917 version of the JPS (Jewish Publication Society). There are also links to a translation of the Talmud, but it looks like a work in progress.
For searching the Torah in English, my favorite site is (somewhat ironically) a Christian one. BibleGate (http://bible.gospelcom.net/). This site has 11 English translations of the bible, all of which can be searched by word or phrase.
Another great non-Jewish resource is The 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org/cathen/) with scholarly articles on a number of biblical subjects. For the more daring among you, those apocryphal works that didn't make it onto the final cut of the Tanach are available in translation on the web.lf you want to take a peek at the Book Of Judith or 1st and 2nd Maccabees point your browser to www.spiritweb.org/Bible/#apo
The next time you are online, check out a little Torah
© Robert G. Evans 2002
updated 12/16/2002 - rge
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