Earlier this month, Sefaria, a nonprofit organization devoted to Jewish text learning, announced it had uploaded 22 tractates of the renowned Steinsaltz English-language edition of the Babylonian Talmud and will post the remainder as they are translated and annotated.

The Hebrew version of the Talmud will begin going online by the end of the year at Sefaria.org.

The Talmud, considered the canon of Jewish law, is central to rabbinic Judaism but has mostly been the purview of rabbis and scholars, in part because it is written in Aramaic, and in part because it encompasses multiple volumes.

“Ninety percent of the world’s Jews speak Hebrew and English,” said Daniel Septimus, Sefaria’s executive director. “The Talmud is in Aramaic. From an accessibility point of view, it’s a game changer.”

Although there are other online Talmud editions, they are not in English or cost hundreds of dollars to access. Sefaria’s edition has a Creative Commons noncommercial license, meaning anyone can use it as part of the public domain for noncommercial purposes.

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