HaMapah aims to bring modern tools of quantitative and geographic analysis to Rabbinic literature. The tools we are developing allow us to quantify rabbinic authority quickly and easily. The visual representations of the data we harvest show spheres of influence through time and across space. They have already yielded numerous insights and surprises about the shape of rabbis’ network of correspondence and the trajectory of their careers. These phenomena, which have never been noticed before, raise a host of new questions, large and small, for a new generation of scholars and historians to consider.

Our initial work focused on responsa, answers to questions on Jewish law. More recently, we received a grant, together with Prof. Marcin Wodzinski of the University of Wroclaw, to create a comprehensive database of prenumeranten, the subscriber lists that represent the “kickstarter” campaigns to publish some 1,800 Hebrew books between the late 1700s and the mid-20th century.