About:User Guide/Part1–Basics

User Guide Part I – The Basics

Getting Started

• From the AlHaTorah.org home page, go to the Books drop down menu in the top menu bar and select a Parashah or Chapter. Or, to explore the Torah portion of the week, simply click on the Parashah Study button.

Selecting Topics

There are multiple ways to access topics:

• Lenses – Hover over the selected Parashah/Chapter in the top menu bar and, from the drop down menu, choose the desired category (Backdrop / Core / Details / Educators / Family) and then a topic.
• Topic List – From the Parashah/Chapter's home page menu, select Topic List and choose a topic.
• Chapter Text – From the Parashah/Chapter's home page menu, select Hypertext Parashah and click on the blue hyperlinks in the text (some words have multiple links).
• Need help deciding? From the Parashah/Chapter's home page, click on Opening Questions or Selected Highlights, and follow the hyperlinks from there.
• Shabbat Table Topics from the Family menu offers an assortment of topics of interest.

Navigation Within a Topic

• Left Side Contents Menu – Allows for navigation between pages and sections of the same topic.
• Center Pane – Displays the analysis. Brief topics have a single Summary page, while longer topics are divided into an Introduction, Exegetical Approaches, Points of Dispute and Related Topics.
• Right Pane – Presents an array of resources to enhance the learning process, including Sources, Notes, Parashah/Chapter Text, and Visual Aids. These supplements vary depending on the topic.

Navigation Within a Page

• Level Customization – For longer pages, select the preferred level of detail using the Levels button or the Expand/Collapse All button at the top of the page. One can also expand or collapse levels throughout the page by clicking on the and icons.
• Table of Contents – One can easily move between the different sections of a page by using the headings in the left side Contents menu.
• Language – For the Parashah/Chapter Text and Sources on the right side, one can toggle between languages by pressing the EN/HE on their title bars. On the Parashah/Chapter Text page, one can also access the text with cantillations and the accompanying audio file by pressing the EN/HE/♫ toggle.
• Interactive Text – One can press the buttons for the individual exegetes to view the text through their eyes.
• Structure, Literary Analysis, Textual Variants – These pages have special buttons and drop down menus allowing one to choose which levels and features are displayed.

Tips

• Sources – Clicking on a source link will display the individual source in the right pane. Hovering over a source link allows one to select from a drop down menu of the various relevant passages from that commentary or to learn more about that commentator's exegesis. To view all of a topic's sources together as one source sheet, press the Sources button on the top of right pane.
• Full Screen Overlays – Clicking on the full screen icon or anywhere on the graphic in the right side pane will open its contents in a larger overlay. To exit the overlay, click on the X or anywhere outside of the overlay. In Artwork, clicking on an individual painting provides a full screen version.
• Notes – Notes can be accessed individually as popups or all together in the right pane. To display an individual note, click on the footnote number, and to close the note, click on the X or anywhere outside of the note. To view all of the Notes collectively, press the Notes button on the top of right pane. When this pane is open, clicking on a footnote number in the main text will scroll to that note.

Taking a Test Drive

• CLICK. Learn how to uncover the text's structure and literary devices.
• CLICK. Contrast the ways different artists interpret a Biblical story.
• CLICK. Find out how to enhance your Shabbat table with animated Torah discussion.
• CLICK. Analyze the pros and cons of the various approaches on the spectrum.
• CLICK. Discover how knowledge of the Ancient Near East sheds light on the chapter.
• CLICK. Read a commentator's intellectual profile and gain insight into his methodology.
• CLICK. Select a flowchart to help teach the text in the boardroom or classroom.
• CLICK. Explore how the Masoretic text compares with Qumran and the LXX.
• CLICK. Trace the evolution of a Hebrew word from Biblical times until today.