6/1/2023 0 Comments Davka software cheapBar Ilan has added many of the seforim that are needed outside of the responsa field, in Tanach commentaries, Talmud and halachah, but surprisingly, it is still lacking Tosafot for Shas.ĭavka has started offering several of the Soncino translations as separate products using the same user interface and search engine as the Windows-based JCL. TES took over the marketing of the Bar-Ilan product and split out a second, lower-end product with some of the texts locked out. And TES had the only products with English translations included. Davka’s Judaic Classics Library (JCL) included the most commonly used works (and many not-so-common ones) of all other areas of Torah study. When they first appeared on the scene, each camp carefully marked off their turf - Bar-Ilan’s Responsa Project put hundreds of volumes of responsa literature at your fingertips. Increasingly, the good news is that quality Torah software need not cost much more than a good shtender. To be sure, Torah learning can go on without either, but they both help when you really need them. Torah software has become an accepted accoutrement of Torah study, just as the shtender that graces every Torah study hall. Looking at the handouts our children bring from school, and the constantly escalating barrage of questions we get from colleagues, we no longer have to do any convincing. When we first visited these products two years ago, we felt we had to convince the reader that these were not toys for the pious, but serious tools for the home, the classroom and the beit midrash. The competition between Davka (80) and Torah Educational Software (TES 80) has led to an apparent winner: the consumer! Two vendors have grabbed the market for major Torah libraries on CD-ROM. By Barry Simon and Rabbi Yitzchok AdlersteinĪs surely as Microsoft’s dominance grows, Torah software gets better.
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