NavTorah
Tested on real scrolls

Find your place in the Sefer Torah with your phone

Point the camera at the open column. NavTorah tells you the book, parashah and aliyah, and how many columns to move to reach the reading.

See how it works View on GitHub
The app showing 47 columns to the right, toward Bereshit

How it works

From a photo to the exact line

TargetLech-Lecha, first aliyah
↓ Keep scrolling
✓You're now atVayera · column 18
→6columns
to the right
✓ You're there· Starts on line 10

  1. 1Choose where to go

    Today's reading, a holiday, a parashah or any verse.

  2. 2Scan the open column

    It reads a few lines, mistakes and all, and finds them among the Torah's 80,316 words.

  3. 3Move the sefer

    It tells you how many columns are left, and which way.

  4. 4You're there

    It marks the line where the reading starts.

Built not to guess

When it isn't sure where you are, it says so. We measured it.

words of Torah, all indexed
80,316
words of Torah, all indexed
confident wrong answers in 2,000 trials, even with half the letters misread
0
confident wrong answers in 2,000 trials, even with half the letters misread
columns in the standard scroll, with exact column and line
245
columns in the standard scroll, with exact column and line
per scan, from photo to answer
15 s
per scan, from photo to answer

Tested on real scrolls

A worn sefer. Target: the first aliyah of Yom Kippur. The scroll is open at Acharei Mot, column 132, and the app says 1 column to the right.
A printed tikkun. Target: the maftir of Rosh Hashanah. The book is open at Balak, column 181, and the app says 9 columns to the left.

Recorded with an earlier, Spanish-only version of the app.

Open source

NavTorah is in testing and not open to the public yet. The code is open source: you can run your own copy.

View on GitHubRun your own copy