About:User Guide/Part1–Basics

User Guide Part I – The Basics

Getting Started

• From the AlHaTorah.org home page, select a Parashah from the Main Site button's dropdown menu.

Selecting Topics

There are multiple ways to access topics:

• Lenses – On the menu bar at the top of the screen, hover over the desired category (Backdrop / Core / Details / Educators / Family) and then select a topic from the dropdown menus.
• Topic List – From the Parashah's home page menu, select Full Topic List and choose a topic.
• Chapter Text – From the Parashah'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's home page, click on Opening Questions and/or Selected Highlights, and follow the hyperlinks from there.
• Shabbat Table Topics or Puzzles from the Family menu offers an assortment of topics of interest.

Navigation Within a Topic

• Left Side of the Screen – 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. The left side menu allows for navigation between pages within the same topic.
• Right Side of the Screen – Presents an array of resources to enhance the learning process, including Sources, Side Notes, Chapter Text, Visual Aids, and Interactive Text. This array of supplements varies depending on the topic.

Navigation Within a Page

• Level Customization – For longer pages, one can select one's 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, using the headings in the left side navigation menu.
• Language – For the Chapter Text and Sources on the right side, one can toggle between languages by pressing the EN/HE on their title bars. On the Chapter Text page, one can also select Text with Cantillations and access the accompanying audio file.
• 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

• 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.
• Footnotes – Clicking on a footnote number displays the note, while clicking anywhere else except for on the text of the note turns off the footnote display. The Notes button on the right side of the screen opens a pane allowing for continuous viewing of the footnotes. When this pane is open, clicking on a footnote number will scroll to the text of that note.
• Notepad – Take notes as you read using the Pad toggle.

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.