Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Software |
Founded | 1982 |
Headquarters | , United States |
Products | Judaic games, encyclopediae, word processors, etc. |
Website | http://www.davka.com/ |
Davka Corporation is a software company specializing in applications related to Jewish history, customs and traditions and the Hebrew language. [1] [2] Founded in 1982, Davka is notable as the publisher of several early games for the Apple II computers including The Lion's Share (1983 video game) by Robert Aaron and The Philistine Ploy by Robert Aaron and Alan Rosenbaum. [3] [4] The company has published numerous software titles for the PC, Macintosh and Palm platforms including the ubiquitous Davkawriter Hebrew/English Word processor. [5]
The name Davka comes from a Hebrew word that is difficult to translate. At times the intent is to say "exactly so"; [6] often, the word "specifically" can be used as a synonym, but it has many other translations.
In the late 1990s and somewhat beyond, its major competitor was Jerusalem-based Torah Educational Software. [7]
DavkaWriter is a Hebrew-English word processing program for Windows. (A Mac version is available as well.)
Its built-in tools include a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a translating tool. It comes with the complete Hebrew texts of the Bible and many other volumes of Jewish literature. Its spellchecker recognizes both English and Hebrew words.
DavkaWriter Platinum [8] was reviewed in 2002, 2004 and 2006 issues of The Jewish Press, referring to updated versions. [9]
Davka also released a CD-ROM named Soncino Classics Collection that contains: [10]
In addition to The New York Times ' 9 paragraph 1998 review, a full page was devoted in The Jewish Press to this CD in 2003. [11]
The Talmud is, after the Hebrew Bible, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.
The Zohar is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology. The Zohar contains discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of ego to darkness and "true self" to "the light of God".
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writings. It aligns with the Hebrew term Sifrut Chazal, which translates to “literature [of our] sages” and generally pertains only to the sages (Chazal) from the Talmudic period. This more specific sense of "Rabbinic literature"—referring to the Talmud, Midrashim, and related writings, but hardly ever to later texts—is how the term is generally intended when used in contemporary academic writing. The terms mefareshim and parshanim almost always refer to later, post-Talmudic writers of rabbinic glosses on Biblical and Talmudic texts.
Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, gaon, Jewish philosopher, and exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate.
Tevet is the fourth month of the civil year and the tenth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It follows Kislev and precedes Shevat. It is a month of 29 days. Tevet usually occurs in December–January on the Gregorian calendar. In the Babylonian calendar its name was Araḫ Ṭebētum, the "muddy month".
A Torah database is a collection of classic Jewish texts in electronic form, the kinds of texts which, especially in Israel, are often called "The Traditional Jewish Bookshelf" ; the texts are in their original languages. These databases contain either keyed-in digital texts or a collection of page-images from printed editions. Given the nature of traditional Jewish Torah study, which involves extensive citation and cross-referencing among hundreds of texts written over the course of thousands of years, many Torah databases also make extensive use of hypertext links.
Rabbi Ezekiel Isidore Epstein was an Orthodox rabbi and rabbinical scholar in England. He is best known as Editor of the first complete English translation of the Babylonian Talmud, and for his role as Principal of Jews' College, London. He was also the author of numerous scholarly and popular books on Judaism.
Hebrew Bible English translations are English translations of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the Masoretic Text, in the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Most Jewish translations appear in bilingual editions (Hebrew–English).
Bemidbar, BeMidbar, B'midbar, Bamidbar, or Bamidbor, is the 34th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the Book of Numbers. The parashah tells of the census and the priests' duties. It constitutes Numbers 1:1–4:20. The parashah is made up of 7,393 Hebrew letters, 1,823 Hebrew words, 159 verses, and 263 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in May or early June.
Korach or Korah is the 38th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Numbers. It tells of Korach's failed attempt to overthrow Moses.
Soncino Press is a Jewish publishing company based in the United Kingdom that has published a variety of books of Jewish interest, most notably English translations and commentaries to the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. The Soncino Hebrew Bible and Talmud translations and commentaries were widely used in both Orthodox and Conservative synagogues until the advent of other translations beginning in the 1990s.
Jewish commentaries on the Bible are biblical commentaries of the Hebrew Bible from a Jewish perspective. Translations into Aramaic and English, and some universally accepted Jewish commentaries with notes on their method of approach and also some modern translations into English with notes are listed.
The primary texts of Kabbalah were allegedly once part of an ongoing oral tradition. The written texts are obscure and difficult for readers who are unfamiliar with Jewish spirituality which assumes extensive knowledge of the Tanakh, Midrash and halakha.
Reuvein Margolies, was an Israeli author, Talmudic scholar and head of the Rambam library.
Sifrei Kodesh, commonly referred to as sefarim, or in its singular form, sefer, are books of Jewish religious literature and are viewed by religious Jews as sacred. These are generally works of Torah literature, i.e. Tanakh and all works that expound on it, including the Mishnah, Midrash, Talmud, and all works of Musar, Hasidism, Kabbalah, or machshavah. Historically, sifrei kodesh were generally written in Hebrew with some in Judeo-Aramaic or Arabic, although in recent years, thousands of titles in other languages, most notably English, were published. An alternative spelling for 'sefarim' is seforim.
The Bar Ilan Responsa Project is a collection of Jewish texts in Hebrew, sold on CD and more recently on USB flash drive by Bar-Ilan University.
Tikunei haZohar, also known as the Tikunim (תקונים), is a main text of the Kabbalah that was composed in the 14th century. It is a separate appendix to the Zohar, a crucial 13th-century work of Kabbalah, consisting of seventy commentaries on the opening word of the Torah, In the beginning, in the Midrashic style. The theme of Tikunei haZohar is to repair and support the Shekhinah or Malkuth — hence its name, "Repairs of the Zohar" — and to bring on the Redemption and conclude the Exile.
Shimon Lavi was a Sephardi Hakham, kabbalist, physician, astronomer, and poet. He is credited with the founding of religious institutions and the revival of Torah study in Tripoli, Libya, in the mid-sixteenth century, where he served as spiritual leader and dayan for more than three decades. He authored a commentary on the Zohar titled Ketem Paz and the piyyut, "Bar Yochai", a kabbalistic hymn which became widely popular in the Jewish world. Libyan Jews consider him their greatest scholar.
Yehuda Liebes is an Israeli academic and scholar. He is the Gershom Scholem Professor Emeritus of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Considered a leading scholar of Kabbalah, his research interests also include Jewish myth, Sabbateanism, and the links between Judaism and ancient Greek religion, Christianity, and Islam. He is the recipient of the 1997 Bialik Prize, the 1999 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, and the 2017 Israel Prize in Jewish thought.
Torah Educational Software (TES) is a distributor of Judaic software based in Jerusalem. Its product Let's Keep Kosher received a rabbinical endorsement.