Downloading Hebrew Bible audio files to your iOS device

My Hebrew Bible iOS app streams Hebrew audio of the Bible books from the Mechon Mamre web site; however, people can sometimes have issues accessing the audio files if they have no Internet connectivity or the Mechon Mamre site is unavailable for some reason (the audio files are located here: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/ptmp3prq.htm#mp3). Therefore, you may want to download the audio to your device instead of accessing it from the Mechon Mamre web site as a backup measure (it's also nice to have the audio files locally as this means that you're not dependent on having Internet access to listen to the audio). In order to download the audio files onto a Mac device, simply right-click with your mouse and select "Save Link As..." to download the audio file to your Mac (don't change the name of the audio file). Then, attach your iphone (or other iOS device) to your Mac, open 2 Finder windows and copy the audio file from the Downloads directory on your Mac to the HebrewBible directory on your iOS device. This will give you a "local" copy of the audio so that it will not be necessary to have your iOS device connected to the Internet in order to play the audio. The screenshot below shows an example of this with the first 3 audio chapters of Genesis downloaded in the left Finder window (t0101.mp3 - t0103.mp3) and these have been "dragged over" into the HebrewBible directory on my Zeev iPhone XS in the right Finder window.

Problem accessing Hebrew definitions in Hebrew Bible app

A number of people have reported an issue with my HebrewBible app with the word lookup functionality (e.g. - when you touch a Hebrew word, the English definition should pop up). They are seeing something similar to the following:

ze2651.htm
Database error.  Error was could not execute statement (11 database disk image is malformed) (Code 1)

I'm not sure what the cause is; however, for those who have encountered this problem, it has been fixed by deleting the Hebrew Bible app from their device and reinstalling the app on their device. I assume that Apple has made some changes to where app-specific local files are stored when an app is installed on a device and this is probably the cause of the problem; however, I haven't been able to confirm that. So, if you experience this issue, deleting & re-installing the app should fix the problem for you.

Setting Default Hebrew Bible Version

A number of people have installed my Hebrew Bible iPhone/iPad app and have said that, when they open the app, they just see a blank screen. This doesn't seem to be happening to everyone; however, if you do experience this issue, it is easily resolved by simply selecting a Bible "version". To do this, you do the following:

1. Open the app and select the "settings" icon (the box with the arrow coming out of it):
   
2. Click on the "Change Settings" link:
   
3. Select the "Default Version" setting:
   
4. Choose the Bible version that you want to have displayed:
   
5. Then, when you return to the main screen, the default Bible version that you selected will be displayed (this setting will be "remembered" by the app):
   

Test of Hebrew-ZC iOS keyboard

Using the Safari app on your iPhone/iPad, touch this link.

Hebrew/Yiddish Matrix-like Screensaver

The movie The Matrix is one of my favourite sci-fi movies. The Matrix digital rain represents the activity of the virtual reality environment of the Matrix on screen. Quite a few screen savers have been created by people who liked the effect. I decided to create my own version which used Hebrew/Yiddish characters:

To see the effect, you can just click on the html file that you download in step#1 below and you'll see it in your browser. To install it as your own screen saver on a Mac (sorry, I haven't done Windows/Unix versions), just do the following:

1. Download Hebrew/Yiddish Matrix HTML file (titled: Hebrew-Matrix.html). Then, move the file to wherever you want it to be (or just leave it where it was downloaded).
2. Open the Mac System Preferences app and click on the "Desktop & Screen Saver" icon.
3. In the screen saver configuration app, scroll down the left side to the bottom and select the "WebSaver" screen saver.
4. On the right-hand side of the screen saver configuration app, click on the "Screen Saver Options..." button and select the file that you downloaded in step#1. You should then see the Matrix display shown in the box above the "Screen Saver Options..." button. You can click on the "Preview" button there or just wait until the screen saver starts up.

Hebrew Keyboard Bookmarklets

Introduction

Dan Sieradski's "31 days, 31 ideas" posts included his Hebrew Input Widget post. In it, Dan complains about the hassles he has when he has to setup a computer for Hebrew input or when he wants to enter Hebrew text in a browser when he's on a public computer (e.g. - when traveling or when using someone else's machine). This post attempts to provide a solution for that problem by providing a set of browser bookmarklets that can be easily used to enable/disable Hebrew input. Simply bookmark this post in Delicious (or some other online bookmark service), and you're set - just follow the instructions below whenever you're in a browser and you need to enter Hebrew or Yiddish text in a text area!

Text Areas (for testing purposes)

Text area#1:

Text area#2:

Instructions:

1. Hebrew Bookmarklets: Drag one of the following 4 bookmarklets to your Bookmark Bar (depending on which Hebrew keyboard layout you're most comfortable with):
   Hebrew-SIL (using the SIL Hebrew keyboard layout - this is probably the better format to use if you're more accustomed to typing in English than Biblical Hebrew)
   Hebrew-Tiro (using the Tiro Hebrew keyboard layout - this is the better format to use if you are accustomed to using an Israeli Hebrew keyboard)
   Hebrew-QWERTY (using the Mac Hebrew QWERTY keyboard layout - this is the better format to use if you are used to this keyboard layout on the Mac and don't need all of the Biblical Hebrew characters)
   Hebrew-ZC (using my own Hebrew-ZC custom keyboard layout - this format combines (IMHO) the best qualities of the Hebrew-QWERTY and Tiro keyboard layouts, supports Biblical Hebrew characters, and is a very efficient layout for someone who is a fast touch typist on US English keyboards)
2. Assistive Bookmarklets: Drag the following 2 bookmarklets to your Bookmark Bar:
   No Hebrew
   RTL/LTR
3. Click the "Hebrew" bookmarklet (whichever one you selected above) to enable Hebrew input in any textarea on the current HTML page that you are on (this works on any HTML page, not just this one but I've added two textarea's to this post so that you can experiment here). Type in Hebrew (the Hebrew that appears will correspond to the keyboard layout that you selected in step #1 above. If you're not familiar with the keyboard layout you selected, you will need to print out the keyboard layout from the documentation page specified next to the keyboard in step #1).
4. Click the "No Hebrew" bookmarklet to revert back to standard keyboard input in all textareas (e.g. - when you want to resume typing in English or whatever language was the default before you clicked the Hebrew bookmarklet).
5. Click the "RTL/LTR" bookmarklet to toggle the text direction in all textareas (if you're mixing Hebrew and English, you may prefer right-to-left or left-to-right rather than the default for the textarea).

HebrewBible Version 8.1 now available on the Apple App Store

A new version of my Hebrew Bible app is now available on the Apple App Store. It contains the following changes:

1. Enhancement: Support for iOS 8.
2. Enhancement: Support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices (with their larger screens).
3. Enhancement/Fix: In the past, Bible text audio was streamed from the Snunit educational site in Israel. This site has recently had extended down-time and performance issues so I now stream the audio from the Mechon Mamre site (also in Israel). The audio streaming from Mechon Mamre is much more reliable and the performance is better as well. My apologies to those of you who weren't able to hear the audio this past week while the Snunit site has been down. Also, for those users who don't want to rely on Internet streaming of the audio, I've posted some instructions detailing how to download the audio files to your device. Downloading all of the audio files will require about 1GB of space on your device so, unless you use the audio functionality a lot, you may choose to just continue streaming the audio from the Internet.
4. Fix: A number of minor text and other fixes were included in this release.

I recommend that all current users download the update from the Apple App Store (it is a free update for existing users of the app).

HebrewBible Version 7.3 now available on the Apple App Store

This release has a number of minor bug fixes (primarily text-related issues).

Limmud Vancouver 2014

I attended Limmud Vancouver (the first-ever Limmud conference in Vancouver!) yesterday. Quite an interesting and enjoyable learning experience. I was one of the presenters - my presentation was "Jewish Texts in the Digital Age". Here's a link to a PDF copy of the presentation along with my speaker notes for each slide: Jewish Texts in the Digital Age Any feedback/comments will be appreciated.

HebrewBible Version 7.2 now available on the Apple App Store

I've released an update with just a minor fix:

1. Changed "Translate" search to use Google Translate rather than Bing Translate (there was a problem with the Bing API).

The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users who have iOS 7 on their device download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app).

HebrewBible Version 7.1 now available on the Apple App Store

I've released an update that now provides compatibility with iOS 7. The update is iOS 7 only so can only be downloaded to devices that have been updated with iOS 7. However, in addition to the iOS 7 support, there are a fair number of additional enhancements and fixes in this update:

1. Updated look and feel of app to conform to iOS 7 standards.
2. Added new "on-device" Bible versions that all support the "touch Hebrew word for definition" functionality. They are:
   
   • Hebrew (cantillation)
   • Hebrew (vowels)
   • Hebrew (no vowels)
   • Hebrew/English (cantillation)
   • Hebrew/English (vowels)
   • Hebrew/English (no vowels)
3. Fixed issue which sometimes caused the word definition popups to not appear.
4. Fixed issue where Hebrew and English texts were not in-synch in Deuteronomy 5.
5. Fixed broken word link in Genesis 14.5.
6. Fixed numbering of verses in Psalm 70.
7. Increased the size of the "X" used to close the word definition popup.
8. On the iPhone version of the app, the "gear" icon has been eliminated. Now, you can temporarily switch Bible versions or change the app settings using an icon on the main Bible toolbar.
9. Some miscellaneous fixes/updates.

The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users who have iOS 7 on their device download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app).

iOS 6.0 and iPhone 5 (4" screen) updates for Hebrew Bible, Yiddish Bible, and Biblical Hebrew apps now in App Store

Over the past 2 weeks, Apple has approved updates for my apps. The latest updates to these apps provide support for iOS 6.0 and the larger (4 inch) screen of the iPhone 5. There were also some minor bug fixes. Here are the links:

• Hebrew Bible Version 6.1
• Yiddish Bible Version 2.2
• Biblical Hebrew Version 1.6

The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app).

iOS 5.1 updates for Hebrew Bible, Yiddish Bible, and Biblical Hebrew apps now in App Store

The following updates address the database compatibility issue in iOS 5.1 that affected my apps:

• Hebrew Bible Version 5.3
• Yiddish Bible Version 2.1
• Biblical Hebrew Version 1.5

After installing the update, you should make certain that the app isn't running in the background. If the app was running in the background when you downloaded the update, the "old" database location will still be the one that is being used. If the app is running in the background, you should do one of the following:

1. Close the background app (double-press the home button, press and hold the icon of the app until it starts to "wiggle", press the red "-" to remove it from the background).
2. Do a full power off and power on of the device (hold down home button and power button and slide the slider and the power back on again).
3. Delete the app from your device and re-install it from iTunes.

Options #1 and #2 are faster and easier to do but may not work in all cases (depending on when you took the iOS 5.1 update and a number of other factors). The solution that will work in every case is #3. So, it's best to delete the app from your device and reinstall it from iTunes (after you've downloaded the latest update with iTunes). Here are step by step instructions for doing this (in these instructions, I talk about the HebrewBible app but the same approach works for the BiblicalHebrew and YiddishBible apps as well):

1. Attach your device to the USB sync cable and start up iTunes.
2. Click on the "Apps" icon (in the left-hand sidebar) and then click on the "Check for Updates" link (in the bottom-right of the right-hand pane of the iTunes window). Download the HebrewBible app update to your Mac/PC.
3. Click on your device icon (in the left-hand sidebar) and then click on the "Apps" tab (at the top of the right-hand pane of the iTunes window).
4. Scroll down through the list of apps on your device until you see the HebrewBible app. It will have a check mark next to it (showing that it is installed on the device). Remove the checkmark and click the "Sync" button (at the bottom-right of the iTunes window). This will remove the HebrewBible app from your device but will keep it in your iTunes repository.
5. Once you have verified that the app is no longer on your device, you will reinstall it from iTunes. To do this, you repeat the above steps except, this time, you add the check mark to the HebrewBible app in iTunes. After the "Sync", the HebrewBible app will be reinstalled.
6. Disconnect the device from iTunes and the USB sync cable.
7. Startup the HebrewBible app. The first time it starts, there will be a delay while the startup "splash" screen is being displayed. During this first startup, the app copies some files and does some initial setup. This will only occur the first time you start the app. Don't cancel the startup - just wait until it completes.

The new versions of the apps are now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users download the upgrades (they are free upgrades for existing users of the apps). Once again, my apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.

Compatibility issues with new iOS 5.1 release

I've just found out that a change in the way Apple stores databases in iOS 5.1 (the version of iOS that was released this week) causes a problem in my apps (the words/dictionary functionality won't work). Therefore, if you use my Hebrew Bible, Biblical Hebrew, or Yiddish Bible apps, you should hold off upgrading to iOS 5.1 until Apple has approved my next version of these apps. I've submitted the fix to Apple and hope that the new versions will be available early next week.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

HebrewBible Version 5.2 now available on the Apple App Store

I've released a version 5.2 update. This update changes the default font from Times to Ezra Sil SR in order to provide better display of cantillation. There are many alternative fonts provided (change them via the Settings app) but many users never change the default font so this change provides an improved "out-of-the-box" experience.

The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app).

Yiddish/Hebrew font display differences

Sometimes the little things take the longest time to get right. After release #1 of my Yiddish Bible iPhone/iPad app, I started to get some feedback on things people liked and things they thought could be improved. Refoyl Finkel pointed out that the Ezra font that I was using for the Yiddish text didn't "raise" the vowels in the traditional Yiddish manner. Both the Hebrew and Yiddish languages use the same Hebrew Unicode character set (the range x0590 - x05ff). However, in Yiddish, for the "pasekh tsvey yudn" and "khirik yud" character combinations, the convention is to "raise" the vowel. This is done for Yiddish only, not Hebrew (which displays the pasekh and khirik in the same "lowered" position all the time), and these 2 character combinations are the only ones that are traditionally displayed differently in Hebrew and Yiddish. The following illustrates the correct positioning for Hebrew and for Yiddish:



However, getting this right wasn't simply a matter of changing fonts! In order to display the vowels in a "raised" manner for Yiddish text in a standards-compliant manner, the following should be done:

1. When you want to display the characters in the Hebrew (lowered) manner, you need to specify 'lang="he"' for the text that is being displayed. When you want to display the characters in the Yiddish (raised) manner, you need to specify 'lang="yi"' for the text that is being displayed.
2. The font that you are using needs to support different glyphs for Hebrew and Yiddish, differentiated by language.
3. The browser that you're using needs to be able to display the correct glyphs from the font based on the lang attribute that is specified.

So, #1 was just a simple matter of programming; however, #2 and #3 were a bigger issue. The problem is that very few fonts support different glyphs for the "pasekh tsvey yudn" and "khirik yud" character combinations. Also, until recently, no browser correctly displayed the different glyphs even if they were supported in the font.

Refoyl and I experimented with a number of different fonts. The GNU FreeFont fonts were one of the few fonts that actually had different glyphs to support display of both raised and lowered pasekh/khirik vowels. I chose the FreeSans font that is part of that package. However, although the FreeSans font did raise the pasekh in the "pasekh tsvey yudn" character combination, it didn't raise the khirik in the "khirik yud" character combination. I did some hacking on the font and came up with a fix that always raised the vowels for the "pasekh tsvey yudn" and "khirik yud" character combinations. This worked ok for me because I was only going to display Yiddish text with the font. However, it wasn't suitable as a general-purpose fix because the font (with my fix) would display the "pasekh tsvey yudn" and "khirik yud" character combinations with raised vowels all the time (regardless of whether the language was Yiddish or Hebrew). I therefore submitted my problem along with my hack as a bug report on the FreeFont bug list (see here for the details). After some exchanges with Steve White (the primary FreeFont developer), Steve came up with a fix. So, I now had solutions for #1 & #2. The browser issues still had to be resolved though as no current browser would correctly differentiate between Hebrew and Yiddish based on the 'lang' attribute.

Steve had previously submitted a bug report for Firefox for this issue (his bug report related to the use of different glyphs for Cyrillic text with Serbian/Macedonian instead of the usual Russian ones; however, the issue was the same as the Hebrew/Yiddish issue). So, he added my comments to his bug report (see the comments at the end of the Firefox bug report here) and I'm please to be able to report that this issue is now fixed in Firefox 10.0! However, in order to use Steve's latest font mods in my Yiddish Bible app, I needed the fix to be done in Mobile Safari as well since I was using a UIWebView control in my app to display the Yiddish text. Since Safari is Webkit-based, Steve suggested that I submit a bug report to Webkit and he would back up my bug report. Therefore, I submitted the bug report and Steve submitted his related Cyrillic example and we are hoping that the Webkit fix will be forthcoming soon (the Webkit bug report is here).

So, although I now had a fix for the font and a fix for Firefox, I still didn't have a fix for Webkit (which I would need if I wanted to use Steve's latest font in my app). So, in the end, I decided to use my original hack of his font in my app as it would allow me to display Yiddish character combinations correctly and I wasn't going to use the font for Hebrew. I've made the necessary changes and Version 2.0 of the app (which contains a number of other enhancements that I'm quite excited about) has been submitted to Apple for approval. When it gets into the App Store, I'll post about the new features.

Since I've modified the font, I've posted my mods along with the original source code here: GNU FreeFont mods. You can see my mods by diff'ing the "FreeSans.sfd" file with the original "FreeSans.sfd~" file. The mods are also documented in my FreeFont bug report. So, if you're looking for a nice font for Yiddish and you need it now, feel free to grab my modified FreeSans font. If you can wait until Steve's next release of the FreeFont fonts comes out and browser support catches up as well, then that's going to be better long-term as I eventually hope to switch over to the standard font once Webkit is patched.

Verse Index for Chanting the Hebrew Bible book

Joshua Jacobson's book Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Complete Guide to the Art of Cantillation (Amazon link) is a fantastic and wonderful resource for anyone who has an interest in either Hebrew chanting or cantillation. However, one issue that I have with the book is that there is no index. The book is about 1,000 pages long and, although it does have a very good Table of Contents, it would really benefit from having an index. I've exchanged emails with the author and he has indicated that any future update (if there is one) will have an index. I googled around a bit to see if anyone else had any supplementary material that would be useful. On Len Fellman's site, I found an index that he had compiled listing all of the scripture references in the book along with page numbers and chapter subheadings. Although the verse index that I found on Len Fellman's site was good to print out, it was not very useful for interactive searching. So, I spent some time converting it into an Excel spreadsheet (I also had to "rationalize" some of the section names that Len used as he wasn't entirely consistent). Now it can be used interactively (you can sort by page#, verse, etc or use any of the other data functions that are available in Excel). You can download the spreadsheet from here.

HebrewBible Version 5.1 now available on the Apple App Store

Hot on the heels of the Version 5.0 update to my HebrewBible App, I've released a version 5.1 update. This update adds support for local audio files (previous versions would stream audio over the Internet - this version allows the user to either stream audio or store it on their device and access it without an Internet connection). I had expected that this enhancement would take a lot longer to do (which is why it wasn't included in the 5.0 release); however, it's amazing what a few late-night development sessions will do! This enhancement will allow users to store and access on their devices either the standard audio (that is currently streamed over the Internet) or their own audio files. This could be useful for use with Bar/Bat Mitzvah audio training files or if you simply prefer a different set of audio readings of the Tanach or if you simply want to have the audio files on your device so that you can use them when you don't have Internet connectivity. Be aware that there are certain standards that you must conform to if you use your own audio files. Also, be aware that storing the audio files on your device could consume a significant amount of storage space. Full setup instructions are located here.

The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app).

HebrewBible Version 5.0 now available on the Apple App Store

This is a fairly major release since I've added an additional "Hebrew/English (reader)" Bible version to the app. This version is based on the Leningrad Codex Hebrew text and the JPS 1917 English text. As with the "Hebrew (reader)" version, it provides word-lookup functionality when Hebrew words are touched and the Hebrew text has full vowels and cantillation. The new version of the app is now available on the Apple App Store and I recommend that all current users download the upgrade (it is a free upgrade for existing users of the app). The following changes are in the HebrewBible App update:

1. Enhancement: Added "Hebrew/English (reader)" Bible version which provides a parallel Hebrew/English version of the Tanach with support for Hebrew word lookups (by touching on a Hebrew word, the definition is displayed with buttons to display verses or relevant page from BDB).
2. Enhancement: Changed word translate functionality from Google Translate to Microsoft Bing Translate.
3. Enhancement: Built with iOS SDK 5.0 but will run on any iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch with at least iOS 3.0.
4. Enhancement: Changed cache functionality so that cached Bible data is not backed up to iCloud (better performance, doesn't impact user iCloud storage limits, and is in keeping with Apple's iCloud guidelines).
5. Fix: Audio was sometimes not terminating properly on iPad.
6. Fix: Minor cosmetic fixes.

Here is a screenshot of the new "Hebrew/English (reader)" Bible version (shown after touching the Hebrew word for "serpent" and displaying the word-lookup definition information):

Video review of Hebrew Bible app

Rabbi Ari Sytner has created a great presentation titled ”Judaism In The 21st Century: How The iPhone Is Changing The Way We Observe The Torah“. In it, he reviews a lot of the currently-available iPhone/iPad apps that have Jewish content, including my Hebrew Bible app. The youtube movie of his presentation is broken down into 3 parts (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). There is also a nice summary (with links to the apps referenced in the presentation on "The Jewish iPhone Magazine" site. The section of the presentation where Rabbi Ari Sytner discusses my Hebrew Bible app is at the beginning of Part 2 (the first 3.5 minutes of the clip) in which he looks at the Hebrew/English Tanakh version, the verses lookup, and the maps functionality in the app.