Search in Hebrew
Searching in Hebrew
When searching in Hebrew you can use either
FreeFind or Google with our Virtual
JavaScript Keyboard for Hebrew that requires no Hebrew keyboard support,
even to input vowels easily. FreeFind has indexed our site; but Google has
indexed the whole Web and you can search the whole Web using Google's powerful
engine and our page for easy input of Hebrew. To search in Hebrew with
Cantillation marks, you may either copy words or expresssions for searching from
our Bible with cantillation
marks or enter the text with cantillation marks yourself from our page for
search with cantillation
marks.
Why FreeFind and Why Google?
FreeFind has * and ? wildcards that allow for searching of
text with added prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (see explanation of options
below); but Google does not. Freefind can search for Hebrew you write
without vowels, and yet it finds the words with vowels, too; Google cannot find
voweled words unless you type in the vowels expressly. Google can search
for phrases as simple "quoted expressions"; but FreeFind can search for exact
phrases or inexact ones with other words in the middle (see below). "The
Whole Site" option at FreeFind above does include all of our English and
Hebrew-English pages as well as our Hebrew pages for Bible and Mishneh Torah;
but unlike Google, it does not include our
Sources of Oral Law Collection
in Hebrew (Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi, and Bavli) or our
Bible with Cantillation Marks.
FreeFind Options
The method for searching with FreeFind is quite simple:
By default it searches for pages that contain all of the search words.
If that is not possible, it tries to find pages that contain any search word
(and displays a message that this was done).
In addition, there are several ways to modify the default
search behavior:
- phrase search
The search engine supports three types of phrase search:
To match an exact phrase, use "quotes around the phrase"
To match a near (within a couple of words) phrase, use [square brackets around
the words]
To match a far (within several words) phrase, use {braces around the words}
- * wildcard
If a search word ends with a *, all words on a page that start the same way as
that search word will match; if it starts with a *, all words on a page that end
the same way as that search word will match; if it has a * at the beginning and
at the end, all words on a page that have that in the middle (or start with it
or end with it) will be found; if it has a * in the middle of the word, all
words on a page that start and end the same way as that search word will match,
whatever they have in the middle. This feature is particularly useful in
Hebrew when all are combined, because of Hebrew's free use of prefixes,
infixes, and suffixes!
Examples: form*, *form, *form*, form*ion, *form*ion*
- ? wildcard
If a search word contains a ?, any character will match that position.
Example: b?g
- + and - qualifiers
If you put a + before a word, that word is required to be on the page.
If you put a - before a word, that word is required to not be on the page.
Example: +always -never
- boolean search
You can use the following boolean operators in your search: AND, OR, NOT.
These operators MUST be in capital letters.
Example: (contact AND us) OR (about AND us)
- These techniques can be combined: +alway* -ne??r* *for*ion*
FreeFind Search Engine Used Here
Like other Web search engines, you cannot know how many times
what you have searched for appears on a page, unless you do a search with your
browser for the individual appearances or unless you read the whole page, so
that even if a term appears a dozen times, the results of a search will give you
just the first appearance. This seems to be a feature of all Web search
engines we have used, including Google.
We highly recommend the
FreeFind search engine for use on other sites, especially in Hebrew.
Offline Search Engines for Downloading
If you need a search engine for Mishneh Torah and the Bible
that will directly find all individual halakhot or verses that have your search
term, try downloading our MTR
freeware for the PC. Note that the MTR freeware's texts also include
Targum Onqelos, Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi, and Bavli. You can also do
global searches in our MTR Palm
freewares.
Mechon Mamre:
Originaltexte zur Heiligen Schriftder HHebräische und aram
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