The Index of References Dealing with Talmudic Literature

The Index was conceived as a research aid for Lieberman Institute
scholars who are preparing selected chapters of Talmud for publication
in critical editions  -- since that time, the utility of the Index for
any scholar of Jewish classical texts, linguistics, history, or Jewish
literature has become abundantly clear.

A principle central to contemporary Talmud study is the pursuit of every
reference in scholarly and traditional literature pertinent to the text
understudy -- no matter how far flung the source may be.

In order to facilitate the compilation of these extensive lists of
sources, the Lieberman Institute designed an index of references in
scholarly and traditional literature to any passage of Mishna, Tosefta,
both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds and the major midrashim.  The
index will also be able to select references to classical Jewish texts
from works on linguistics, geography, history and literature.

The index provides bibliographical information on references to a
selected passage of text from three broad categories of literature:

1. Books and monographs produced in the 19th and twentieth centuries.
   The works of J.N. Epstein, Louis Ginzburg, Saul Lieberman, Abraham
   Weiss and others are now indexed by passage reference.  References
   to classical texts in the midst of discussions of other topics,
   generally very difficult to track down, are indexed, as well as
   major passages devoted to text analysis. This category probably
   constitutes the most signficant contribution of this project to
   Jewish studies, for no other reference system available to scholars
   today is capable of providing this information.

2. Jewish scholarship of the early to late middle ages is steadily being
   added to the index.  Having this material on computer creates access
   to information in works which are rich in allusions to classical
   texts, but are not organized according by talmudic text order. The
   index also includes works, such as the 13th century Medrash HaGadol
   from Yemen, which have never been indexed before.

3. An "internal" cross referencing system has been developed in the
   index which provides the researcher with a list of Midrashim with
   parallel passages in all the other classical texts indexed on the
   program.


The initial stage of the index (including about 500 books) was organized
as a card file which has now been reproduced on pages and bound. Each
card, or set of cards, is headed by a reference to a specific passage of
Talmud, Mishna, Tosefta or Midrash.  Under the heading, the card
contains bibliographic references to publications in which that text
passage is cited. Photocopies of entries for specific passages may be
ordered from the Lieberman Institute.

The second stage of the project is computerizing the Index. Software
has been developed and approximately 200 books have been indexed
straight onto the computer. Data from the card index will be entered
onto the computer in parallel with the entry of new data.

Programming is now in preparation which will enable the index to
generate lists of references by historical period, discipline or author
as well as by passage. With sophisticated search techniques, the Index
will be able to generate specialized bibliographies of the works of
specific authors or schools of scholarship (by place and century).

The Index is coordinated by Mr. Menahem Katz and is based at the
Lieberman Institute's offices on the Jerusalem Campus of The Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.