About The Site
Our Aim
The Yeshiva Website was established in Adar of 2000 by the Beit El Yeshiva Center, through the initiative of a number of its students. The purpose of the site is to spread the Torah among the people of Israel, as a Shofar for G-d’s words in Israel and worldwide.
The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed Shlit"a,
is the spirit and driving force as well as the head of the Beit El Yeshiva Center institutions and website. Several times when the Rosh Yeshiva spoke about the site, he said that as there is a first year, second year, etc., there is also a "Klal Yisrael year." Indeed, over the years the site has grown and made a very important breakthrough for Torah websites.
The Yeshiva Website was the second Yeshiva style site to be established, when the Internet was not quite as common among the general public. Since then, the site has served as a pathway to the world of Torah through the Internet. Many took the website as an example, and were aided by the site staff in the development and setting up of their own websites. Just as it served as the breakthrough Torah website, it was also the first Torah mobile website to be established.
As stated, the purpose of the site is not commercial, but to spread Torah L’shma – for the sake of spreading the Torah. Nevertheless, the Yeshiva does not see the site as a secondary project, but makes great efforts and invests resources in its maintenance and development. The site currently has a staff of 15 employees, responsible for technical maintenance, inserting and editing text and video content, graphic design and more. Besides this, many volunteers, rabbis and others, engaged in providing Halachic answers to askers, filming lessons, managing forums and the Wiki-Yeshiva and more.
Website Sections
Ask the Rabbi
In the famous Ask the Rabbi , you can find answers by many of the great rabbis and institutions of the Religious Zionist sector. These include: Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Dov Lior, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Rabbi David Chai HaCohen, the Chief Rabbinate, the Chief Military Rabbinate, Puah Institute, Torah and Land Institute, and more. In addition, the site runs the
Beit Horaa for Taharat Hamishpacha (Purity of the Family)
, the only one of its kind online, which provides answers to questions on these issues within 3 hours!
The staff is very careful about maintaining high quality of both content and technique. For this reason, The Yeshiva Website employs workers to maintain and administrate the Ask The Rabbi section in Hebrew and English, despite the high costs involved (the only site to do so!). The role of editors is to classify the subjects of the questions, address all questions to the appropriate Rabbi, make sure that there is a response from the Rabbis at all times, and also to refer the askers to the already existing database, thus easing the burden on the shoulders of the Rabbis.
Over the years it became clear that the Ask The Rabbi would attract many who are seeking their way to Torah and Mitzvot. This situation has given rise to the need to address these particular applicants and guide them where they must go and what to do. For this purpose, a Rabbi was appointed to address the many applicants who fall into this category. These questions are not posted at all on the site and the link is made directly into a personal acquaintance between the rabbi and the applicants for guidance. Thank G-d, there are many applicants and we see the great awakening and thirst of the people of Israel to hear the word of G-d.
Beit Midrash
The Yeshiva Website is, in fact, the largest Yeshiva in the world, judging by the fact that more than 250,000 unique users browse the content of the site each month. As such a large Yeshiva, it is only fitting that its Beit Midrash should be large and great as well, and indeed in the Beit Midrash of Yeshiva site you can find more than 25,000 lessons in Hebrew and English, classified under a very wide variety of topics. The lessons were given by hundreds of different rabbis, conferences, seminars, and events in the Yeshiva itself. Many of the lessons can be watched as a video and listened to as mp3 files, and all these downloaded for free without any limitation. Of course you can also print or read the lessons just as many visitors do daily.
With the understanding that there are many who want to take part "remotely" in the Beit Midrash, we provide a service of daily emails to thousands of subscribers who receive the lessons and Halachot directly to their email inbox, at the frequency they choose.
The Beit Midrash is growing by the day, and there are staff members whose job it is to edit content and upload new lessons to the site on a daily basis.
The Yeshiva Website Library
is also extensive, and has a large number of books that can be read in full text. Among them, you can find the popular book series by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, "
Pninei Halacha
" - "Pearls of law", the books of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Ztz"l and more.Books of "Meavnei Hamakom" Publishing are also displayed on the website and can be ordered online
The Website also operates a "Yeshiva Channel
" - an internet TV channel that broadcasts Torah lessons 24 hours a day. As part of its activity, the channel also holds live conventions, seminars, programs, Question and Answer sessions, and more.
WikiYeshiva
In Tammuz 5769 team launched a "WikiYeshiva
" platform. This is based on a platform of the famous free encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Unlike Wikipedia, the purpose of WikiYeshiva is to deal only with Torah topics and concepts related to Judaism and define them subjectively according to Judaism rather than "objectively," so to speak. E.g., the term "Messiah" will hold only the definition according to Judaism and not according to other religions. WikiYeshiva made a tremendous impact in when it was founded, and brought the attention of many media outlets in the country, which gave positive coverage to the new venture.
Thanks to a unique collaboration between the Yeshiva and The Responsa Project of Bar-Ilan University, you can now open any source mentioned in WikiYeshiva, and broaden the scope by reading the entire source.
Rich Content
Among the many resources of the Yeshiva Website stands a Jewish Calendar
which contains the exact Zmanim (Halachic times) of the day anywhere in the world. Our staff also developed a unique, sophisticated system which allows you to send an SMS and receive an immediate response with the
Zmanim of the day to anywhere in Israel.
On the Yeshiva website there is also a section of
tests
, which help many students and teachers to test their knowledge of the Mishnah, Halacha, Tanach and Talmud. The letters we’ve received from users indicate the considerable benefits it brings the learners.