Idan Dorshav Dershowitz עידן דורשב דרשוביץ

Digital Humanities

Etnachta, Masoretica, the Valediction of Moses digital book and synoptic edition, the Kennicott Key, Computerized Source Criticism of the Bible, and the Aleppo Codex digitization project.

Etnachta

Research platform for biblical cantillation, centred on a fine-grained search tool for investigating accent sequences, word forms, clause patterns, and complex relationships across the 21-book corpus.

Masoretica

Uses computational analysis and scholarly review to index nearly 70,000 digitized pages, aligning Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic Targum, and Greek manuscripts by verse for on-image lookup and side-by-side comparison.

Valediction Synoptic Viewer

Read the Valediction of Moses alongside its parallels in Deuteronomy and Numbers, with reversible reading order and visual links for transposed passages.

The Valediction of Moses: Digital Book

Read the open-access book online, with updated material and direct links to the critical synoptic edition and Paleo-Hebrew manuscript view.

Computerized Source Criticism of the Bible

Computational source-criticism work applying algorithmic methods to biblical texts, with attention to authorship signals, textual segmentation, and source-critical analysis.

Aleppo Codex Digitization Project

Project lead for the Aleppo Codex digitization project, a Ben-Zvi Institute collaboration with the University of Haifa's Eliyahu Lab. The project is developing an advanced search interface, aligning searchable HTR text with high-resolution page images, mapping lines and words to their exact locations, and supporting text-reuse detection and future comparison layers.

Etnachta

Etnachta is a resource for biblical cantillation, known in Hebrew as te'amei hamiqra. Cantillation marks guide the traditional chanting of the biblical text and reflect the syntactic analysis of each verse.

For researchers, Etnachta's centrepiece is a fine-grained cantillation search environment covering the 21 books that use the Tiberian prose system. It supports highly specific queries for individual marks, accent sequences and combinations, word forms, and clause patterns. Researchers can also define relationships between marks by the number of intervening words or syllables, making it possible to isolate and compare structures that are difficult to investigate with conventional text searches.

The search tool is complemented by a step-by-step account of the ranks, syntax, and interdependencies of the cantillation marks. An interactive tikkun displays parsing highlights that reveal how phrases and clauses divide within each verse, while reading calendars give direct access to Torah, Haftarah, and Megillah readings. Guided lessons and a fill-in-the-blank quiz provide further ways to test and refine an understanding of the system.

What the tool does

Research-grade search

Builds precise queries across the 21-book corpus using marks, sequences, combinations, word forms, and clause patterns.

Structural relationships

Finds marks separated by a specified number of words or syllables for fine-grained comparison of accentual structures.

Syntax and verse analysis

Explains the hierarchy and interdependencies of the marks and visualizes how phrases and clauses divide.

Interactive tikkun

Connects research with the living reading tradition through exact Torah, Haftarah, and Megillah selections.

Masoretica

Masoretica uses computational analysis and scholarly review to organize nearly 70,000 digitized manuscript pages—and counting—from ancient and medieval biblical manuscripts. It identifies the biblical passages preserved on each page, including obscure or fragmentary sources, and indexes the material by verse, textual tradition, date, manuscript type, and other features. By reconciling repository pagination, manuscript structure, and versification, it leads users from a book, chapter, and verse to the corresponding page and highlighted location.

The expanding collection encompasses Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic Targum, and Greek biblical texts, including Masoretic and Babylonian-vocalized Hebrew witnesses, Samaritan Pentateuchs, Targum manuscripts, and Greek codices. Some manuscripts preserve more than one tradition. The material ranges from complete codices and scrolls to composite manuscripts, single leaves, and small fragments, with links to the holding repositories and source facsimiles.

A common reference system makes it possible, for the first time, to compare the same passage across hundreds of ancient and medieval biblical manuscripts side by side. Scholars can examine differences in text, layout, textual tradition, vocalization, and preservation directly on the manuscript images, without locating and navigating each repository separately.

Masoretica offers a brand-new way to study the evolving biblical text and its manuscripts, without relying on the very incomplete second-hand representations of manuscript evidence in critical editions.

What the tool does

Computational page index

Combines computational analysis and scholarly review to identify biblical passages across nearly 70,000 pages, including obscure and fragmentary sources.

Cross-tradition versification

Reconciles reference systems across Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic Targum, and Greek witnesses so the same passage can be located across traditions.

Countless witnesses side by side

Places corresponding passages from innumerable ancient and medieval manuscripts in parallel for direct comparison.

On-image evidence

Highlights the selected verse on zoomable scans, provides page text where available, and links to the holding repository or source facsimile.

Scholarly indexing

Organizes witnesses verse by verse and by textual tradition, date, manuscript type, and other features.

Manuscripts of every scale

Brings complete codices and scrolls together with composite manuscripts, single leaves, and small fragments.