Free Awesome Torah and Haftorah Chanting Apps from PocketTorah

Barak forwarded this from Eytan Kurshan (first posted on 4/17/12)...

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know that I was involved in the creation of an app which has just launched! It is called PocketTorah and is available here. 

The app contains a recording of every aliyah in the Torah as well as all Haftorot. If you'd like to hear me, I recorded the parshiyot from Tazria to Acharei-Mot.

There is also a separate module containing recordings of just the trope of Torah, Haftorah, and Megilah....

Congrats to Rabbi Charlie Schwartz and Russel Neiss for putting this all together.

Eytan

We downloaded and reviewed the apps. They are awesome.

"PocketTorah is an application that  will provide the user the ability to learn the weekly Torah and Haftarah portion anywhere, at any time, on any mobile device or computer for free."

Denominational Alert! These two apps obviously were designed for Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. There are women Torah readers recorded on the apps, so officially they are not suitable for Orthodox users.

Learn to chant

1. Download for iOS
2. Download for Android
3. Use it on any computer in a web browser using Chrome or Safari.

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Forbes: Waze Will be the Wikipedia of All Maps and the Search Bar for the Real World

Forbes has a background article on Waze in the aftermath of the news that Google will buy the company. What Waze Adds To Google: A View From Waze's CEO

It turns out that Waze is not just a GPS app for your car on your smartphone. Waze is a community of users who will contribute to the indexing of the physical world. It aspires to be to the actual earth, what Google is to the Internet. Or something like that.

After reading the interview with the CEO of Waze, it seems to me that Waze wants to be more the user edited Wikipedia of the real world of roads and traffic. And keep in mind that the crowd-sourced quality of Wikipedia information is not always the greatest.

Bardin said the new user interface for search was the map. But how did Waze build its own maps, which are thought to be just as good, if not at times better, than the ones $410-billion-market-cap Apple produced? By crowd-sourcing GPS data, and “combining the algorithms of people.” It sounds straightforward in theory, but it involved building a hierarchical structure of passive users and editors, a self-managed community like Wikipedia. The community has country managers who oversee area managers, who then oversee the editors, with each level having a greater level of permissions to alter Waze’s maps.

And the big brag from the CEO that earned the company a bid of over $1 billion: “Whenever you’re going onto the web, you start with a search bar,” he said. “Wherever you’re going in the real world, you’re going to start with Waze.”

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Our Great Grandfather Harris Epstein the Inventor

I am named after my great-grandfather, Harris (Tzvee) Epstein, aka, Epstein the Inventor, who lived in New York City and Spring Valley. I probably inherited my technical curiosity from him.

He was the inventor and patent holder of many practical items, a folding umbrella, an extension ladder, a double sided toothbrush, a vegetable grater and more. Here are of his patents with their links from Google Patent search:

SIGNALING APPARATUS US Pat. 1060898 - H. EPSTEIN. SIGNALING APPARATUS, APPLICATION PILED JAN. 26, 19.11. Patented May 6,1913.

EXTENSION LADDER US Pat. 949529 - Filed Feb 10, 1909

VEGETABLE GRATER US Pat. 1799963 - Filed Apr 4, 1930... UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARRIS EPSTEIN, OF ROCKAWAY BEACH, NEW YORK VEGETABLE GRATER

GAS-CONTROLLING DEVICE US Pat. 968457 - Filed Jan 11, 1910

FOLDING UMBRELLA Patent number: 1666692 Filing date: Jan 29, 1927 Issue date: Apr 17, 1928

TOOTH BRUSH Patent number: 1111144 Filing date: Oct 4, 1913 Issue date: Sep 22, 1914

Papa Epstein, as he was called by his grandchildren, sure would have liked the age of the personal computer and the Internet, especially the iPad and smart phone.

[Augmented repost from 12/17/06]

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Stunning Cell Phone - Samsung Galaxy S3

We upgraded our cell phone to the stunning Samsung Galaxy S3.



In particular we love the clarity of the display and the speed of the processor and the Android system. The battery is a weakness. Especially when Sprint's signal is hard to find, the battery runs down quickly.

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We Have Browsed and Sinned - Ashamnu Confession for Internet Users

For those Orthodox Jews who believe that browsing on the Internet leads to sin, here is an Ashamnu A to Z acrostic to recite during the season of repentance for those Web actions that might lead one to sin.

Applenu (or Androidnu)
Blackberrynu
Clicknu
Downloadnu
Emailnu
Facebooknu
Googlenu
Hacknu
iPadnu (or iPhonenu)
Jokenu
Keyboardnu
Loginnu
Messagenu
Networknu
Outboxnu
Pornu
QWERTYnu
Retailnu
Surfnu
Textnu
Unfriendnu
Virusnu
Wikipedianu
Xboxnu
Yahoonu
Zinenu

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Thoughts on the publication of Alan F. Segal, "Sinning in the Hebrew Bible"

In an act of intentional irony we read in synagogue this morning during the reading of the Torah part of Alan Segal's book "Sinning in the Hebrew Bible: How The Worst Stories Speak for Its Truth".

We find Alan's book to be filled with erudition and common sense. That is why we admired Segal's past works and why we valued him as a friend. Segal believed in things that were mainly scholarly and he articulated them with clarity and enthusiasm.

The publisher's blurb for this book summarizes the many essences of the study:

Stories of rape, murder, adultery, and conquest raise crucial issues in the Hebrew Bible, and their interpretation helps societies form their religious and moral beliefs. From the sacrifice of Isaac to the adultery of David, narratives of sin engender vivid analysis and debate, powering the myths that form the basis of the religious covenant, or the relationship between a people and their God.

Rereading these stories in their different forms and varying contexts, Alan F. Segal demonstrates the significance of sinning throughout history and today. Drawing on literary and historical theory, as well as research in the social sciences, he explores the motivation for creating sin stories, their prevalence in the Hebrew Bible, and their possible meaning to Israelite readers and listeners. After introducing the basics of his approach and outlining several hermeneutical concepts, Segal conducts seven linked studies of specific narratives, using character and text to clarify problematic terms such as "myth," "typology," and "orality." Following the reappearance and reinterpretation of these narratives in later compositions, he proves their lasting power in the mythology of Israel and the encapsulation of universal, perennially relevant themes. Segal ultimately positions the Hebrew Bible as a foundational moral text and a history book, offering uncommon insights into the dating of biblical events and the intentions of biblical authors.

We has no idea that we would find it emotional to read a book by a dear friend who passed away in 2011. But we did feel the void of his loss even more while listening to the voice of his search for meaning and history in the texts of the Bible.

Alan was a religious man and a serious academic. Both of those traits of character and personality come through with ringing clarity in the pages of the superlative book.

We wrote this  appreciation of our friend Alan for the Jewish Standard in February 2011:

When my dear friend Alan F. Segal died at age 65 on Sunday, February 13, this earthly world lost a diligent, productive scholar of religions and a sparkling lecturer and teacher. And more than that, a great force of positive energy departed from our midst.

I knew Alan for over thirty years. During that time he served as a professor of religion at Barnard College in New York City and lived in nearby Ho-Ho-Kus. We met at first in professional circumstances as young professors of religion at conferences at Brown University and at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion. Both of us were enthusiastically discovering new facts and making original insights in areas of ancient religions. I concentrated more on explicating problems within the Talmud and Jewish liturgy.

Alan’s interests and energies ranged more broadly. He wrote at first about various topics such as mysticism and sectarianism in ancient Judaism that were published in his books "Two Powers in Heaven" and "The Other Judaisms of Late Antiquity." He branched out in a major work, "Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World," to explain how Judaism and Christianity took shape as sibling religions in late antiquity. And next he tackled the images of the apostle Paul, the founder of Christianity in "Paul the Convert: The Apostasy and Apostolate of Saul of Tarsus." Some scholars have called that publication the most important recent book on the subject of Paul.

Subsequently, Alan spent a decade investigating death and the afterlife in the world’s religions and published the results in "Life After Death: The Afterlife in Western Religions." His final book, which turns to subjects of ancient Israel, is complete and at the press awaiting publication. It surely will be influential in its own right. All of his books are widely cited in the scholarly literature.

Years ago, we discovered that we also shared a passion for new technologies. We continually probed how the newest software and hardware inventions could help us investigate some of the oldest and most puzzling problems of how humankind had searched in the past for God. At our professional conferences we talked together in equal measures about the theories and texts of scholars and about the releases and versions of advanced word processors and computers.

As a human being, Alan’s consistency was sublime. His written work in the history of religions was impeccable in its thought and accuracy. He maintained his cherished relationships with students, colleagues and friends with equal care and attention. And he continued always to be surprised and delighted by the advent of new technology.

Over the past year I spent time on many Mondays with Alan. When he was well enough, he would drive down to Teaneck to join me for a falafel lunch. And if he was not able to make it to town, I would bring him up a hot falafel or a fresh bagel to Ho-Ho-Kus. We would sit and eat and talk. Alan was concerned with his people, with Israel both in the community of nations and in the community of his campus. He was concerned about his friends. And when he could, he did wonderful and substantial things to help them.

Let me share one anecdote about Alan’s enthusiasm. One day just a few months ago I came to visit him to share a falafel lunch and I found that he needed my help. At my recommendation, Alan had ordered a new little Apple TV box and wanted to hook it up to his quite complicated home A/V system. We looked together analytically at this object as if it was a newly discovered archaeological find. And soon we realized that Alan was missing a component, an HDMI cable. I assured him we could get one at Staples at a later time. No, let’s go get one now, he replied. And though he was by that time weakened by his illness, he headed for the door. I had to hurry to catch up with him. I drove Alan a little way down Route 17 to buy the cable and returned back home with him. He would not let me leave until I had reached way back behind his TV, plugged in the new device and until we made sure that indeed it did work as promised.

In all ways, both profound and simple, I never met a person whose demeanor was more proper, whose mind was clearer and whose capacity to be a friend was more constructive. I feel privileged to have been one of Alan’s many friends. And although I am deeply sad that he and his wonderful energy are now gone from our presence, I am grateful that Alan F. Segal has left us all with his rich legacy of learning and with his exemplary affirmative lessons for our lives.

Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy is the author of many books and articles on the history of Judaism including, How the Halakhah Unfolds: Hullin, Part One and Part Two (2010), co-authored with Jacob Neusner. He lives in Teaneck and teaches Jewish liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City.

Published in the Jewish Standard (Teaneck, NJ) February 25, 2011.

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Is Marissa Mayer Jewish?

Yes, the new CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer is a Jew.

Hat tip to our friend David who points out, "I find it interesting that Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and as of Monday, Yahoo!, are all run by Jews."

Bloomberg reported:

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) said Marissa Mayer will become chief executive officer, appointing a vice president from competitor Google Inc. (GOOG) to stem user defections and market-share losses that have fueled three straight years of revenue declines at the biggest U.S. Web portal.

See a video interview of Marissa at the 92nd Street Y in NYC: Marissa Mayer on growing up in Wisconsin, getting hired at Google, and the origins of Adsense

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JTS publishes over 100 podcasts via Apple's iTunes

In a welcome initiative the Jewish Theological Seminary Announced the Launch of JTS iTunes U with quality recordings of events and presentations for the public at large.

The unanswered question in this press release is how (or whether) JTS leverages iTunes and all other digital technologies for instruction of its students in and out of the classroom.

The Jewish Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the launch of the JTS iTunes U site. The site, accessible via Apple’s iTunes, makes public lectures, Torah commentaries, and select JTS courses available for free streaming and downloading.

“The launch of the iTunes U site marks a fantastic step forward for JTS’s online presence,” says Rabbi Charlie Schwartz, director of Digital Engagement and Learning at JTS. “It is now possible to easily find, download, and experience the deep and meaningful learning that happens every day at JTS.”

The JTS iTunes U site features a wide variety of content. The weekly Torah commentary podcasts are easy to find and subscribe to, as are recordings of public JTS lectures and events, such as the popular series of Library Book Talks that feature JTS faculty and other distinguished authors discussing their latest books. Collections of lectures detailing issues in contemporary Jewish philosophy, theology, and ethics highlight how JTS scholarship engages with the challenges of the 21st century. In the near future, full courses—complete with course materials—will be made available, providing access to JTS’s world-class faculty and high-level Jewish learning. 

“Opening access to the wealth of learning, scholarship, and meaningful engagement with Jewish tradition that embodies JTS is core to the university's mission,” says Rabbi Marc Wolf, the newly appointed vice chancellor and chief development officer of JTS. “In the coming months, JTS will dramatically expand the ways, both innovative and traditional, that communities and individuals can be inspired by the energy of JTS,” Rabbi Wolf adds.

The JTS iTunes U site can be visited via iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/institution/jewish-theological-seminary/id472010491. 

Download iTunes for free: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer
  The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

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Video: Artscroll Talmud App for iPad -"This will change everything again" at what price?

At first we thought this was a Purim spoof video. It is not.

The overstated and over dramatized video promotion for the Artscroll Talmud App informs us that this is "far beyond anything" and that this new app "will change everything - again." And then it shows us (without a touch of self awareness) how the exact page of the Romm Talmud will be reproduced on the iPad and the exact page of the Artscroll elucidation will be reproduced on the iPad. This is the true irony of "look at how many new, new, new ways we can reproduce the old, old, old texts." They are at the same time absolutely faithful reproductions and "elucidations" and, gevalt, astonishingly new and revolutionary editions.

Putting all the irony aside, in fact the app video does show clever "fusion" technology for text study, a layering the original Hebrew and Aramaic text with the English translation, the notes and the sources. This is how the iPad (Kindle etc.) does brilliantly enable true hypertext reading and learning with potential interactivity. The ecosystem of the iPad is the revolution. Artscroll forgets to mention in its marketing pitch that it is actually a clever implementation of the revolutionary Apple platform. A bit overly self-centered, how much patting oneself on the back can one company engage in, now brought to yet another new pinnacle.

Everyone in the media and on the Internet wants to know how much all of this will cost.

It ought to be free. If the purpose of all of this innovation is to bring the Torah to the multitudes, let the wealth of our community (Schottenstein et. al.) bring it to us at no cost.

Unfortunately, the Artscroll-Schottenstein notion we fear is that once again the price will be higher and higher for access to Torah learning. The Artscroll shas 73 volumes on sale is $2,182.50. This high cost commercial model runs directly counter to all of the Talmudic values of our sages.

We hope that we are wrong about the pricing of the new apps and that the video claim "this will change everything - again" does not mean that "this will make Torah learning more expensive than ever - again."

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Feldheim Publishers in Israel in Deep Trouble

Reuven wrote to tell us "Oy Vey" that Arutz Sheva reports, "Feldheim Books In Israel in Danger of Collapse. Feldheim Publishing in Israel, which caters to the hareidi religious community, is in danger of collapse and may be bought out."

Book publishing is so over. Nobody buys physical books. The underlying story for Jewish books is that vanity authors are keeping some of the small Israeli and American Jewish presses alive, paying big bucks to have their books published.

Here is the Feldheim story from A7:

Feldheim Publishing in Israel, which caters to the hareidi religious community, is in danger of collapse but may be bought out.

Its financial difficulties, reported Monday by B’Hadrei Haderim, are the latest in the book publishing and distributing industry that has been overwhelmed by online publishers and e-books.

Feldheim officials said it has asked for a stay in proceedings of financial claims against the company, and an industry source indicated that the Or Chaim publishing house is negotiating with Feldheim Israel to buy it out.

The stay in proceedings has not affected the operation of Feldheim’s chain of book stores, at least for the time being.

The publishing company was founded in 1939 by Philip Feldheim and now is managed by his son and grandson, who have expanded the firm. His son operates the publishing house in Jerusalem, with several bookstores in the capital city in addition to other Israeli cities with a large hareidi religious population.

Feldheim is known for publishing high-quality books on Judaica and pioneered in adding fiction and non-fiction titles that suit religious readers to its range. Its stores feature books from other publishing houses as well as its own.

The news of its financial difficulties is a blow for authors and readers for whom Feldheim has been their favorite for marketing English language books geared for the orthodox Jewish community both in Israel and in the United States and elsewhere.

“This is very sad,” one author told B’Hadrei Hareidim. “Feldheim is very well organized and a very serious company, and the book market will miss it. If it collapses, not only hundreds of workers will be affected but also thousands of readers.”

Feldheim officials confirmed to Arutz Sheva the financial difficulties at its Israeli branch and added it will decide in the next few days between several possibilities it is examining for rescuing the company.

E-books are on the way in. Amazon owns Kindle, the dominant e-books ecosystem. For Hebrew books it looks like PDF is the way to go. Reuven also sent us this announcement from Jewish E-books:

Jewish E-Books-the most extensive Jewish digital library to date-has built a literary empire of over 1,200 English and Hebrew titles of an assortment of genres, including Judaism basics, Jewish law, Kabbalah, biographies, Jewish history, and fiction, to name a few. Representing major Jewish publishers like Feldheim, Israel Bookshop, Jerusalem Publications, Aish.com, and Sichos in English, the E-Book giant’s repertoire features bestselling Jewish authors like Akiva Tatz, Gila Manolson, Matityahu Glazerson, and Tziporah Heller.

"What makes us unique is that you can’t get our e-books on any other site," explains CEO Levy. "We’ve got classic Jewish books for half the price of hard copy."

Jewish E-Book’s Hebrew sister site, www.j-ebooks.co.il, boasts over 600 Hebrew titles-and has just went live with its one-of-a-kind Hebrew e-Book lending library.

But the e-book titan hasn’t confined itself to the bookshelf: in a trendsetting move, the company recently kicked off its Jewish E-Magazines Department, starting with the AMI e-mag-the very first Jewish digital weekly-and the Comics eMagazine for kids.

A massive breakthrough in Jewish publishing, the unprecedented partnership between Jewish E-Books and AMI Magazine inaugurates an entirely new e-mag market, setting a new standard.

"At Ami, we bring readers from all segments of Jewry a high-quality, intelligent and informative publication," says Rechy Frankfurter, senior editor at the magazine. "As part of our aim to reach a larger and more diverse readership, we’re excited to branch out with Jewish E-Books."

But more than just an e-commerce site, Jewish E-Books has used a cutting-edge business model to become a powerful marketing platform for Jewish authors and publishers. With a widespread presence on Jewish social media like Facebook and Twitter, as well its very own Jewish E-Books Blog-featuring fascinating author interviews and the latest news about Jewish books and everything Jewish, Jewish E-Books.com has become a hub of Jewish action and info, transforming the landscape of Jewish book promotion.

"We want to get the word out-big time," says CEO Levy. "We want every Jew and non-Jew-wherever they’re located-to get the Jewish books they want."

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WSJ: Tel Aviv is the World's Top Technology Business Hub

Here is confirmation from the WSJ of what many of us already knew.

...Who is going to be Europe's main technology hub? While London and Berlin both see themselves as claimants to the title, if you look at the numbers (and you take a Eurovision Song Contest view of the Continent) arguably neither can challenge Tel Aviv.

It was Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv's 13-year mayor and a former combat pilot, who, while London's Tech City was not even the subject of an interdepartmental memo, had got on with building a tech center second only to Silicon Valley. He did it not by installing high-speed fiber or hosting conferences. His approach, as he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, was much simpler.

"Tel Aviv had become a city that people used, not a city they lived in," he said. "We are creating a good place for hi-tech people to live in—I am doing it for the people working in hi-tech," he said.

It is the ''Field of Dreams'' model. If you build it, they will come. It is no coincidence that Tel Aviv was recently named the world¹s best gay city.

"It is about building an environment that is supportive," he said. Young digital entrepreneurs tend to be counter-cultural— attracted to cities that are vibrant, diverse and international. One third of the city is under the age of 35, and there is one bar for every 200 residents.

His bottom-up model—worry about the people—has proved successful.

According to a report commissioned by the city, Tel Aviv and its surrounding area, hosts more than 600 early stage companies. Access to venture capital is, per capita, 20-fold greater in Israel than in the rest of Europe. "If you take the amount of VC per capita, in Europe, it is $7. In the U.S. it is $72. In Israel it is double that," Jan Müehlfeit, Microsoft's European chairman asserted last year...

"God's Favorite Prayers"- innovation in Jewish Theology

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