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<!DOCTYPE HTML> <HTML> <HEAD> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">  <TITLE>About / Mechon Mamre</TITLE> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=David Libre" rel="stylesheet"> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open Sans" rel="stylesheet"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/mtr.css?38d5666e26" type="text/css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/mtr.js?5bbbf7f40c"></script> </HEAD> <BODY> <noscript> <p>This site requires Javascript in order to function properly.</p> <p class='h'>אתר זה דורש Javascript כדי לתפקד כראוי.</p> </noscript> <script>toptable()</script> <H1 id='about' class="center">About…</H1> <ul> <li> <a href='#mamre'>Mechon Mamre and our work</a></li> <li> <a href='#texts'>Our texts</a></li> <li> <a href='#pisuq'>Text layout and punctuation</a></li> <li> <a href='#path'>Our path</a></li> <li> <a href='#audio'>Audio recordings</a></li> </ul> <div class='h'> לגרסת הדף בעברית, <a href='abouthe.htm'>נא ללחוץ על הקישור הזה</a>. </div> <H1 id='mamre' class="center">Mechon Mamre and Our Work</H1> <div class='e'> <P><B>"Mechon Mamre"</B> is Hebrew for "the Mamre Institute". Mamre is the name of the place where Abraham our patriarch lived (see <A HREF="e/et/et0113.htm#18">Genesis 13,18</A>). Abraham is the forefather of both Jews and Gentiles who live by the instructions of God, and our site is intended for Jew and Gentile alike.</P> <P>Mechon Mamre is a small group of observant Jewish Torah scholars in Israel who live by the plain and simple meaning of the RaMBaM's Mishneh Torah and actively encourage others to do so. Most of us belong to the mainstream "Baladi" Yemenite Jewish community, continuing the tradition of living by the Mishneh Torah since the very days when the RaMBaM lived, and are students of the <a href='/qaafih.htm'>Rav Yosef ben-Dawid QaafiH</a> zS"l (the leading rabbinical expert in recent generations on the teachings of the RaMBaM in general and on his Mishneh Torah in particular).</P> <P>But we have been helped in developing our Written and Oral Torah texts and freeware programs since 1990 by dozens of others from all well-known parts of observant Judaism, including Chasidim and Mitnagdim, Ashkenazim and Sepharadim, Europeans and Orientals, both from inside Israel and from all over the diaspora.</P> <P>We are currently particularly looking for proofreaders to help us polish the Yerushalmi. If you want to <SCRIPT>email('help us in our work,', 'want to help')</SCRIPT> You may also help us by providing <A HREF="donation.htm">financial support</A> for our work.</P> <P><B>Mishneh Torah</B> was the first, and is still the only, full codification of all of the divine laws of the special covenant between the LORD God and Israel as well as the general Noachide covenant between the LORD God and the Gentiles (no, we do not mean the so-called "New Testament"), with all of the rabbinic legislation developed in accordance with those laws: <I>for all people, for all places, and for all times</I> (until the reestablishment of the Sanhedrin in Israel--may we be blessed to reestablish it, in our time!).</P> <P><B>Our original main purpose</B> in this site was to put before you (whether Jew or Gentile) the most accurate currently available version of the Mishneh Torah Code in its entirety, to provide you with guidance for its proper study and understanding, and to encourage you to actually observe its clear and brief formulation of the divine laws. But we soon realized that since the Oral Law and the Written Law are ultimately one and they should be learned and observed together, we needed to complete our online Torah-learning resources by adding the Hebrew Bible in various versions tailored to the needs of learners at differing stages in their learning.</P> </div> <H1 id='texts' align="center">Our texts</H1> <P><B>Our version of <A HREF="i/0.htm">Mishneh Torah</A></B> in its Hebrew original has been carefully edited according to the majority of the Yemenite manuscripts, and we are certain that there is today no more accurate version of Mishneh Torah available either in print or for computer. Despite that, we continue to check the versions of the manuscripts for further refinements of our text.</P> <p>Our Hebrew versions of the Biblical texts are based upon the Aleppo Codex and similar ancient manuscripts.</p> <p>Our English versions of the Biblical texts are based upon the 1917 JPS translation, with minor formatting changes.</p> <p> Please note that while we provide the texts (for free!), we do not engage in textual interpretation. The very fine site <a href='https://sefaria.org/'>Sefaria</a> has resources of that nature, if that is what you are looking for. </p> <H1 id='pisuq' align="center">Text layout and punctuation</H1> <p> <b>"ktiv" vs "qri"</b><br> Where the Biblical text is written one way ("ktiv") and pronounced differently ("qri"), we've chosen to highlight the "qri" in this manner: <div class='h'> וְזָכַרְתָּ אֶת-כָּל-הַדֶּרֶךְ, אֲשֶׁר הוֹלִיכְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ זֶה אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה--בַּמִּדְבָּר: לְמַעַן עַנֹּתְךָ לְנַסֹּתְךָ, לָדַעַת אֶת-אֲשֶׁר בִּלְבָבְךָ הֲתִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֺתָו <span class='qri'>מִצְוֺתָיו</span> --אִם-לֹא.</div> <br> The white text with the grey background is the manner in which the written text should be pronounced. </p> <p> <b>layout</b><br> For those of you used to printed versions of holy texts, our layout and punctuation may seem strange, at least initially. For example: </p> <P class='h'>בראשית יז,יב ובן-שמונת ימים, יימול לכם כל-זכר--לדורותיכם: יליד בית--ומקנת-כסף מכול בן-נכר, אשר לא מזרעך הוא. <p> You may say it needs a colon at the end, not in the middle! And why is there a "--" in there, and a comma? </p> <p> The full explanation of these punctuation marks may be found in <a href='abouthe.htm#pisuq'>the Hebrew version</a> of this page. Here we'll give a synopsis. </p> <p> All pesuqim end with a period '.' and each half-pasuq (clause) may end with a comma ',' a double hyphen '--' a semicolon ';' or a colon ':' — corresponding to the <a href='c/ct/c0.htm'>"cantillation marks"</a> of the text. The marks in order of increasing "weight" are: ,   --  ;  :  .   </p> <p> In addition to this punctuation, you will find some other markup in the text: <ul> <li>{P} or <span class='h'>{פ}</span> : an "open parshiya"</li> <li>{S} or <span class='h'>{ס}</span> : an "closed parshiya"</li> <li>{N} or <span class='h'>{נ}</span> : a "new line" in the middle of a line (in Psalms, Job, and Proverbs)</li> <li><span class='h'>{ר}</span> : empty line (in some books)</li> <li><span class='h'>{ש}</span> : empty line at end of some books</li> </ul> </p> <H1 id='path' align="center">Our path</H1> <div class='e'> <p> The full explanation of our path may be found in <a href='abouthe.htm#path'>the Hebrew version</a> of this page. Here we'll give a synopsis. </p> <p> We follow the Law (e.g. <i>halakha</i>) as summarized by Rambam, to the best of our abilities. To understand why we do, our guiding principles are: <ul> <li>The high court in Jerusalem (the Sanhedrin), is the pillar of the Oral Law, and they establish the Law for all Israel (whether then or now, in the Land or in the Exile).</li> <li>Therefore whatever they permitted in their era remains permitted to us, and what they forbade remains forbidden, and likewise anything relating to "exempt" and "guilty", or "pure" and "impure", along with all other Torah laws.</li> <li>Until the Sanhedrin is reestablished, the rulings of the last one stands.</li> <li>Nobody summarized the Law as they established it, in full, except Rambam.</li> <li>Therefore, until the Sanhedrin is reestablished, we follow the Law as Rambam summarized it.</li> </ul> </p> <p> It is our firm belief, based upon what Rambam himself wrote in the introduction to Mishneh Torah, that every Jew, of whatever background in Torah study, can learn all the practical Law by diligently studying the Tana"kh as well as the Mishneh Torah. </p> <p> There is no need to refer to other halakhic works, in order to understand what the practical Law is. </p> <p> The only customs, enactments, etc. which are applicable to us are those which the Sanhedrin established in their day. Nobody subsequent to them has the halakhic authority to establish their own and force anyone to abide by them. </p> <p> We learn Law according to the simple meaning of the text, as Rambam was very precise in his wording. We learn "aggadic" material according to hermeneutic methods, rather than literal understanding. </p> <p> One who learns Talmud Bavli (e.g. "daf yomi" etc) without having a complete knowledge of the Tana"kh, Mishnah, Yerushalmi, and other pre-Bavli halakhic works is like one who builds a house without first building a foundation. Therefore, it is our opinion that the most accessible and correct learning method for those who don't have the ability or the time to very thoroughly learn the foundational texts, is to learn Tana"kh (Torah as well as Nevi'im and Ketuvim!) and Mishne Torah, as thoroughly as possible. </p> </div> <H1 id='audio' align="center">Audio recordings</H1> <div class='e'> <p> The audio (MP3) recordings presented on this site are used with permission from <A HREF="https://talkingbibles.org/" TARGET="_blank">Talking Bibles International</A> &copysr; 1992 (to request permission to use recordings write <A HREF="mailto:info@talkingbibles.org?subject=Request" TARGET="_blank">info@talkingbibles.org</A>); they are not chanted with a melody, but are clearly pronounced in Sephardic-style Hebrew. </p> <p> The person reading is apparently one "Abraham Shmuelof", a Jew born in 1913 who converted to Catholicism. In our opinion, that does not render the recordings invalid, as only scrolls written by a heretic are invalid. Use your own judgement, as always. </p> </div> <script>copy('8 March 2023')</script> </BODY> </HTML>