Source: The New York Jewish Week
Julie Wiener tells of two new mobile apps that are poised to revolutionize bar/bat mitzvah preparation, and possibly the whole practice of learning to chant Torah. Recently, Rabbi Charlie Schwartz and Russel Neiss — Jewish educators, techies and friends — released PocketTorah, which enables users to read and hear every Torah and Haftarah portion from virtually any Android or Apple device (or PC).
In addition to containing the entire Hebrew text (viewed with or without vowels), plus English translation and links to a range of commentaries, the app has “on-demand” audio, with a karaoke-like feature highlighting each word of text as the recorded voice chants it.
PocketTorah comes out a few months after Neiss and Schwartz’s PocketTorah Trope, which teaches users how to do traditional cantillation — a skill that can then be applied to chanting all Torah and Haftarah portions.
Both apps are available for free.
See the whole article at the Jewish Week.