A computer tool for
Talmud study.

The 22lookup program began as an experiment I crafted to see if I could use a computer to help me learn Talmud. I often found myself doing look-ups up in various dictionaries and being frustrated at not being able to find the words. I didn't remove the prefix. The infix letter was not added. The suffix was not right. I was looking for Aramaic words in a Hebrew dictionary. The list goes on. And verbs… forget about it!! I tried typing a few pages from a dictionary into a specialized program that I designed and very quickly it was apparent to me that my program could do more than provide single definitions… it could provide multiple definitions for every word on a page.

I found that given a large database in the computer, any source text would work with this system. Therefore, whatever source texts I was able to obtain could be passed through the section of the program that matched the dictionary database meanings and the result would be a word-by-word listing of the source text word, its location on the source page, its meaning, and the location of the definition in the relevant dictionary. This capability has been implemented for Shas Bavli, Rashi on Shas Bavli, Tosfos on Shas Bavli, Tanach, Chumash Rashi, the Rosh, The Rif, the Maharsha, the Netziv, and more with definitions from Jastrow, Frank and other dictinaries. Because the 22lookup program is very modular, additional source texts will be added over time in response to user's requests. While this is not a translation (i.e., a targeted phrase describing a source word designed to convey the meaning of the word in its current usage), the definitions provided may be found to be very helpful when trying to ascertain an understanding of the text.

My programming efforts then moved on to searches. Searching for a particular string in Shas and being told the search string may be found in Sanhedrin Daf 39b is helpful but once one opens the Masechta to that Blatt (which is quite lengthy), it may take quite a while to find the search string. To avoid this issue, I instructed the computer program to return not only the the daf, but to return the location of the target string as a percentage of the way down the page. Additionally, the word-by-word print outs have the percentages listed to facilitate synergy. For Rashi and Tosfos (which are generally more concise), I print out the entire Rashi or Tosfos, (both the Dibbur HaMaskil and the content) and highlight the target string. It may be possible in future versions to convert percentages into line numbers as an enhancement.

Next, I contacted Safaria.org and was given permission to use their elucidated Talmud Bavli. This was seamlessly added to 22lookup including percentages. Information on Talmudic measures, Tannaim and Amoraim in relation to their rebbeim and talmidim, were also included. For fun, Gematria was added enabling a user to enter a name or other string of Hebrew letters and the program will provide a listing of everywhere in Tanach where consecutive words have a matching Gematria.

Because there are so many options and capabilities of 22lookup, it was decided to go "old school" as far as the man-machine interface. Thus, the user is presented with a command line and there he/she will enter a command such as "blatt chullin 59a" to obtain a word-by-word print out of that amud. If the user types "BLATT chullin 59a", then the user will see an elucidated daf explained in a similar fashion to the ArtScroll Schottenstein gemaras. Naturally, there are no elucidated versions of the Rif, or the Rosh but a user of 22lookup, can at least, benefit from word-by-word definitions of these and other similar source texts. Indeed there is a bit of a learning curve but the Help pages and videos on this site will speed along the process.

In case it was not obvious, the name 22lookup stemmed from the idea that the program could help look up Hebrew and Aramaic words which are composed from a 22 letter alphabet!

To discuss Future Plans, we need to start with the current status. There is a Development version of 22lookup and a Production version. Everything demonstrated on this web site is fully operational in the Development version The Production version, which is for Mac Desktops, has word-by-word for the blatt, and Rashi & Tosfos for Talmud Bavli working well. With a few more hours and Quality Control, an initial version may be offered.

The additional work to bring the Production Version up to the level of the Development Version will take some more time but the major factors and programming have all been implemented. That leaves the effort required to migrate the code to Windows platforms as well as iPad and mobile devices. It is contemplated that either Program sales, Club sales, or donations will be required to fund the migration effort.
Beyond this, there is need for participation of the user community… i.e., Club members.

I have developed a framework but the knowledge and ideas of the users will serve to allow 22lookup to become more user-friendly and a better learning platform as well.
Thank you for your interest in my project.

Please enjoy the rest of this site and utilize the Contact Me page for further information.

Jan Buckler