Wondering how to use Sefaria’s new topics pages to discover Torah texts? Enter a keyword and Sefaria’s topics sorting shows you the most relevant sources, user-created sheets, and related topics – all in one place.
Where can I find topics?
Topics on the Topics Page
Popular topics categories can be found in the Topics page. Click on any topics category to find subtopics and to narrow down your search.
For example, click on “Prayer” and select “Havdalah”.
Click on "All Topics A-Z" for a complete listing of Sefaria topics.
See what others are studying by clicking on a topic in "Trending Topics".
Topics from the search bar
Type a keyword or topic into the search bar and find the result with # before it to navigate to the topic’s page.
Understanding the topics page
1= Topic
2 = List of related sources listed by relevance (default)
3 = List of related user-created sheets
4= Filter the sources or sheets (see more below)
5 = Star for saving the text, … (three dots) is an explanation of why the source or sheet appears in the list (see more below)
6 = Related topics. Perhaps there is a related topic that you would also be interested in. Click on a suggested topic to go to its page
Sorting Results
The lists of sources and sheets can each be sorted and filtered by an additional keyword to help you to arrive at the most useful results.
Sorting Sources
Relevance - The search defaults to relevance. Relevance ranks the results by the number of times that the text is mentioned in other texts. Highly mentioned texts, such as Tanakh sources, will be listed higher when you sort by relevance than texts that aren’t quoted often, such as Tanakh commentaries.
Chronological - A chronological sort returns results in an order based on when the book was published.
Sorting Sheets
Relevance - The sheets are listed based on the relevance of the sources and tags, as well as the language of the sheet. Sheets that are more relevant will be at the top. If you are on the English site, English sheets will be deemed more relevant and if you are on the Hebrew site, Hebrew sheets are given preference.
Views - The sheets are listed from the most viewed to the least viewed.
Newest - The sheets are listed from the newest to the oldest.
Filter Results
Results can be further filtered by entering a second keyword. For example, within the results for Shavuot, you can further search for sheets about Shavuot that also mention Ruth. Type “Ruth” into the search bar.
Why is this being shown?
At times, you might wonder why a particular source or sheet is included in the results. Simply hover over the … next to the source to discover why it is there.
Connected by Sheets by Sefaria Users - The source is on a sheet that is tagged with the keyword or the sheet itself is tagged with the keyword. A source that is included in the most source sheets will be at the top of the relevance list.
Connected by Aspaklaria - Aspaklaria is a 30 volume index of Jewish texts which we have used to find the most relevant sources.
Related Topics
What else might be interesting when you are browsing a topic? Clicking on a related topic can open new possibilities for study and understanding of the topic.
For example, related to Abraham are members of his family, Torah portions that he appears in, stories related to him, and much more. Click on a related topic to open a new topic page.
If you have additional questions, please contact us at [email protected].