Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

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markofcain
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Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by markofcain »

Some of you know that I have been working on a parsed, searchable Hebrew Bible (MT) on my website. I currently have the entire Greek New Testament there in a parsed and searchable format -- that project took a couple of years.

When I made the decision to do the same for the Hebrew Bible, I wanted to include a verse by verse audio portion to the site. There were many obstacles and some of them are yet to be cleared. I finally have a proof of concept page which includes 3 verses from the first chapter of Ruth (a small beginning).

If you have a few minutes, please stop by and try it out. I would appreciate your feedback.

Chrome and Fire Fox seem to work well. IE -- not so much. As I said there are hurdles yet to clear.

http://markcain.com/hebrew.html
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
Lee Moses
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by Lee Moses »

Very well done! I have my BibleWorks text linked to audio files, so I can listen to any chapter of the Hebrew Bible read aloud. However, I don't know any source that provides an audio Hebrew Bible on a verse-by-verse basis. If I understand correctly, you are planning shortly to provide the entire Hebrew text this way? If so, I look forward to it!
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Jason Hare
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by Jason Hare »

markofcain wrote:Some of you know that I have been working on a parsed, searchable Hebrew Bible (MT) on my website. I currently have the entire Greek New Testament there in a parsed and searchable format -- that project took a couple of years.

When I made the decision to do the same for the Hebrew Bible, I wanted to include a verse by verse audio portion to the site. There were many obstacles and some of them are yet to be cleared. I finally have a proof of concept page which includes 3 verses from the first chapter of Ruth (a small beginning).

If you have a few minutes, please stop by and try it out. I would appreciate your feedback.

Chrome and Fire Fox seem to work well. IE -- not so much. As I said there are hurdles yet to clear.

http://markcain.com/hebrew.html
I recognize the audio in your link as the one used on Mechon Mamre's Tanach. I do not think that their resources are public domain. Have you checked with them to make sure that these files are not protected and that you can use them on your site?

You mentioned on your site that his pronunciation does not reflect that of modern Hebrew in Israel. It actually is a great reading. His voice is clear, he pronounces the letters correctly. No one in Israel would have a hard time understand his speech, and most would say that he pronounced it the way that it should be pronounced.

[Edit: I just checked on there site, and the audio files that they use are from the United Bible Society (1976). Does this mean that they are free to use for online purposes? I was unaware. As for their typeset text, I believe it is copyrighted and that copying and pasting from their site for use on another is forbidden.]
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
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markofcain
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by markofcain »

Jason Hare wrote:
markofcain wrote:I just checked on there site, and the audio files that they use are from the United Bible Society (1976). Does this mean that they are free to use for online purposes? I was unaware. As for their typeset text, I believe it is copyrighted and that copying and pasting from their site for use on another is forbidden.]
Thanks for checking out the site and the comments regarding the clear reading of the text. It's good to have some positive feedback. The website's defense of using Abraham Scmuelof's reading is there because the site was quickly under fire from those who found fault with his rendition. Yet, as one might suspect, those who complained offered no viable alternative.

I am not a stranger to the copyright issue. In fact, it was the issuance of a cease and desist by UBS of a VERY popular Greek website that spurred me to get the online license from SBL to use "THEIR" text in the Greek portion of my website. My efforts there are interpreted by some to be an endeavor to give back to the community what others have taken away. Many have a problem with the claims of certain groups and individuals that they "own" a hand written document from antiquity in which the intent of distribution at large is both explicitly and implicitly found.

I have studied the copyright issue in detail and believe that all use on the website is within the fair use stipulations of copyright law. Specifically, both the Hebrew text, which comes from tanach.us, and the recordings by Abraham Scmuelof explicitly state their intent for physical and digital duplication and redistribution.
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
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Jason Hare
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by Jason Hare »

markofcain wrote:Specifically, both the Hebrew text, which comes from tanach.us, and the recordings by Abraham Scmuelof explicitly state their intent for physical and digital duplication and redistribution.
Certainly thank you for the rest of the information that you provided in this post. As for the text of Mechon Mamre, I would be careful in your position. This is what is found on their site's main page:

All of the material in this site is copyrighted. We are often asked how we can claim a copyright in a public domain book like The Bible. While it is quite true that no one can have a copyright that excludes all others from preparing their own unique copy of the Bible or other public domain works for copyright protection, our Bibles and other materials are not exactly like any others and are fully protected by copyright laws in all countries. If you want to prepare your own unique Bible or other Torah materials for the Web, we are open to giving help and advice toward that end.

Just like they said, they do not own copyright to the text of the Bible, but they own the rights to the work that they have put in to type out the text, insert the vowels, insert the cantillation marks ("trope"), edit and re-edit their files and programs. It took hours, weeks, months and years to put that material together, and it simply isn't fair for someone to take it as-is and put it up on their website. If there is an online Hebrew text with trope (since that seems to be what you want) hosted on a site that has released their text to the public domain, then by all means feel free to take the text and add a link at the bottom of the page for those interested in getting their hands on the source, too.

I'm just saying "be careful." Copyright can be a serious thing, as you know, and they claim that the works on their site (that is, the texts) are copyright as a result of their own labors. I wouldn't make use of them on my own site.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
ספר משלי י״ב, י׳
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Jason Hare
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by Jason Hare »

Jason Hare wrote:
markofcain wrote:Specifically, both the Hebrew text, which comes from tanach.us, and the recordings by Abraham Scmuelof explicitly state their intent for physical and digital duplication and redistribution.
Certainly thank you for the rest of the information that you provided in this post. As for the text of Mechon Mamre, I would be careful in your position. This is what is found on their site's main page:

All of the material in this site is copyrighted. We are often asked how we can claim a copyright in a public domain book like The Bible. While it is quite true that no one can have a copyright that excludes all others from preparing their own unique copy of the Bible or other public domain works for copyright protection, our Bibles and other materials are not exactly like any others and are fully protected by copyright laws in all countries. If you want to prepare your own unique Bible or other Torah materials for the Web, we are open to giving help and advice toward that end.

Just like they said, they do not own copyright to the text of the Bible, but they own the rights to the work that they have put in to type out the text, insert the vowels, insert the cantillation marks ("trope"), edit and re-edit their files and programs. It took hours, weeks, months and years to put that material together, and it simply isn't fair for someone to take it as-is and put it up on their website. If there is an online Hebrew text with trope (since that seems to be what you want) hosted on a site that has released their text to the public domain, then by all means feel free to take the text and add a link at the bottom of the page for those interested in getting their hands on the source, too.

I'm just saying "be careful." Copyright can be a serious thing, as you know, and they claim that the works on their site (that is, the texts) are copyright as a result of their own labors. I wouldn't make use of them on my own site.
Oh, I misread the post above. You meant all use on your website is from tanach.us. I thought you meant that you believed that Mechon Mamre had used the Hebrew text from tanach.us and that it was fine for you to copy it over. I understand what you meant now.

No problem. :)
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
ספר משלי י״ב, י׳
markofcain
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by markofcain »

Jason Hare wrote:Oh, I misread the post above. You meant all use on your website is from tanach.us.
My apologies for the less than clear statement. Your second reading is compatible with my intent. For the record the text of the Hebrew Bible contained on the website http://www.markcain.com is sourced from tanach.us but has gone though considerable manipulation on my part as I prefer hex code and sql databases rather than human readable extensible markup (XML).

The website is still going though various refinements and will at some point in the future allow for the toggling of cantillation marks, accents, and niqqud. In my mind some of the catillation marks in the unicode range U+0591 through U+05AF are more meaningful than "mere" cantillation -- e.g. Etnahta/atnah (U+0591). Eventually users of the site will be able to login and set defaults to create their own experience on the site or they may choose to remain anonymous and create a fresh experience on each visit.

I suspect that eventually I will include links to my sources. Thank you for the suggestion.
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
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Jason Hare
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Re: Verse by Verse Hebrew Audio

Post by Jason Hare »

Well, Mark, it looks like an admirable and worthwhile project. Best of luck to you in your work.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
ספר משלי י״ב, י׳
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