Sefaria is a popular Web site with various translations of holy texts. Are any rabbinic authorities on record as endorsing or forbidding it?
Translations can be subjective. It is inevitable that one's view of Judaism will shine forth.
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3Adding in where the translations come from will provide more context for the reader. (I know some are crowdsourced but dunno what other sources are, which is why I didn't add the info.)– msh210 ♦Jul 25, 2017 at 3:42
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You can find the names of some of the men and women who contributed to Sefaria, here: sefaria.org/activity You can see each person's profile, by clicking on their name.– IsraelReaderFeb 12, 2019 at 5:59
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2 Answers
"Sefaria is one of my favorite things in the entire contemporary Jewish world. It is taking cutting-edge technology and doing something very spiritual by it. What it is doing is opening up the rich treasury of our texts — we, the people of the book, the people that never stopped writing and commenting on books — and it's opening that up to all Jews and indeed everyone, everywhere. And, secondly, it is allowing that extended conversation to be trackable, the way one text begets another text, and all the voices of our history are in conversation, trying to decode what G-d is trying to tell us about how we ought to live. Sefaria in general is just brilliant. ... The Talmud belongs to all of us, it is our shared heritage, and because of Sefaria it is now really accessible anywhere by anyone. So you've done something really, really important here, you fulfill the mitzvah of Talmud Torah and make the Sefer Torah, the ספרייה of our people and our soul, available through this great technology, across the world. Well done! I hope a lot of people use it."
(Source: Emeritus Chief Rabbi Jonathan H. Sacks. "In Praise of Sefaria". YouTube, LLC.)
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1Yair Rand, welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks for bringing this very on-point citation here! I hope you'll stick around and continue answering and asking questions.– Isaac Moses ♦Feb 11, 2019 at 21:31
Will modern commentaries be included in Sefaria?
Yes, although they may be presented differently than traditional, canonical commentaries. We want to offer access to as many points of view as possible, but we don’t want to impose points of view on anyone. Our first focus is in making the core texts of our tradition available. When we get to including modern and contemporary texts we may only display them once a reader has expressly asked to see them.
Jonathan D. Sarna, professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University:
“There are no heresies on Sefaria,” he said. The more democratic nature of Sefaria allows the inclusion of viewpoints that might not make it into more religiously observant settings, he added.
IsraelReader: Given the above, I wouldn't expect any mainstream Hareidi rabbinic authorities to go on record as endorsing Sefaria.
answered Feb 12, 2019 at 2:45
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1the OP asked about whether any rabbinic authorities endorsed or forbade it. You conjecture that some rabbis would not endorse it. I'm not sure whether that is a weak partial answer, or not an answer at all. I could just as easily write that "I'm sure that many Haredi Rabbis still forbid internet usage, and therefore they forbid its usage". (Also, the question was about the translations per se.) Feb 12, 2019 at 4:35
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1In an era where rabbinic authorities go on record as endorsing all types of things, I think that the collective Haredi Rabbinic silence regarding Sefaria is deafening. The folks behind Sefaria surely know that rabbinical endorsements are a key to fundraising efforts, yet they have not been able to get a single Haredi endorsement. The Haredi rabbis don't need to "forbid" or ban it, they're simply voting with their feet. Feb 14, 2019 at 1:08
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@MichoelR You can't prove a negative. But if they would have any endorsements from mainstream Hareidi rabbinic authorities, this would be the place to find them: sefaria.org/testimonials Don't bother looking for them. There are NONE there. Aug 27 at 16:56