Bar-Ilan University's CD-ROM Judaica Library, known as the "Responsa Project", is the product of over 20 years of research and development involving a select group of Bar-Ilan University Judaic scholars and computer specialists.
The CD-ROM disk is considered to be the "last word" in biblical, talmudic and halachic technology. Covering 4,000 years of Jewish written scholarship, users can search the several hundred texts by keywords and topics in order to collate and compare legal opinions in matters of Jewish law, and perspectives on philosophic matters across the ages.
It is, simply, the most comprehensive computerized collection of traditional Jewish texts available anywhere, and has been purchased by just about every serious Jewish studies library in the world, as well as by individual scholars from Israel to Japan.
The Responsa Disk Release 6.0, released in late 1998, adds several important volumes of modern Responsa literature and halachic commentary to the collection, along with improved Windows-based search and retrieval software. It features enhanced hypertext for cross-referencing in the databases. 160,000 references using hypertext and linking the Tanach with the commentaries, the Talmud and the commentaries, Shulchan Aruch and Responsa have been added.
The updated CD-ROM also contains new text, primarily the Tosafot on the entire Babylonian Talmud, the Yalkut Shimoni on the entire Old Testament, Rashbam on the Bible, the Shach to Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah, and several volumes of responsa by the late halachic decisor Rabbi S.Z. Auerbach, and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Bar-Ilan University's "Torah and Science" journal, published by Bar-Ilan University Press in cooperation with the ICJI, tackles the conflicts and confluences between modern scientific knowledge and Jewish scholarship throughout the ages.
Known as BADAD, a Hebrew acronym for Bekhol Derakhekha Daehu ("know Him in all your ways"), the bi-annual journal discusses in its latest issue, for example, Jewish business ethics; illustrations in Jewish law; the concepts of self, mind and consciousness as perceived by Judaism; the necessity of scientific disciplines for Talmud study and more.
The Journal also takes a penetrating look at the legacy of the late Bible teacher Nehama Leibowitz, and at recent biographical essays on the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. The Journal's articles are in Hebrew or English, with abstracts in both languages.
Volume 6 of the journal, winter 1998-99, was published in October 1998. Overseas subscriptions are subscription $25 per year.
Index of journal articles