Two newly-released free apps are seeking to make Jewish practice and studies available to everyone.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFMichelle Cohen Farber's Daf Yomi women group studying Talmud in Ran'ana.(photo credit: ARDON BAR-HAMA)
Two newly-released free apps are seeking to make Jewish practice and studies more user friendly.Just in time for the beginning of the new 7-year cycle of Daf Yomi – a system that entails studying a page of the Talmud per day – the Orthodox Union, a major American Orthodox umbrella organization, has launched “All daf.”The platform will allow users to pursue the goal in a personalized way, with classes offered by several renowned rabbis, offering audio as well as video content.“The comprehensiveness of the All Daf app, such as its range of shiurim and resources, introduce an opportunity for each of us to identify the style and content that personally resonates,” OU President Moishe Bane said in a statement. “We are confident that this resource will expand the spectrum of people studying the daily daf, thereby increasing our collective and unifying commitment to increased Torah study.”The new Daf Yomi cycle will kick off on January 5.Meanwhile, a startup based in Brooklyn launched Azoi, an app providing illustrative guides that allows those less familiar with some specific Jewish practices to learn them through practical explanations and even choreography.Some of the practices include the donning of tefilin (phylacteries), the process of being called up to read from the Torah in synagogues, specific blessings, and the meaning and gestures involved when lighting candles on Shabbat (Jewish sabbath).“Our app is a revolutionary tool that will demystify Jewish practice and make it accessible to the average Jewish person,” Mendy Shishler, founder of Azoi noted in a statement.The app also provides viewers with further material to read on some of the practices, in relation to the time of the day or year. The app is now available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store for free, without ads.While the app is only available in English at the moment, Shishler said that they are making plans to release it in other languages.
