Midrash X

One membership.
A world to explore.

MidrashX — a media center for discovering, watching, listening to and experiencing ancient Jewish wisdom in a modern way.

Discover what’s inside

The Midrash X membership

Ancient Wisdom.
Modern Lives.

First 500 members. Free for life.No credit card details required.

$0/ month
For life · first 500 confirmed members

The first 500 people to confirm their email receive lifetime free MidrashX membership, with everything listed below.

Your Lifetime Membership will include

  • Unlimited access to The People’s Talmud
  • Unlimited access to The People’s Zohar
  • The MidrashX video library, online media and exclusive content
  • Early access to digital editions of MidrashX books and products
  • Virtual and in-person classes with Rabbi Gedaliah
  • Project updates and opportunities to connect with the MidrashX community
Be one of the first 500.

Sign up with your email. We’ll send confirmation instructions, then your access details when membership opens. Places are assigned in email confirmation order; after 500, you can join the waiting list.

By submitting, you agree to receive your confirmation link and membership access details by email. Places go to the first 500 people to confirm their email; later confirmations join the waiting list. An account is not created today. Privacy

Another way to take part.

Help bring Jewish wisdom to more people. Explore dedications, project sponsorships and partnerships, or support the work with a gift.

Explore opportunities to support

The wisdom is ancient.
The questions are remarkably modern.

For thousands of years, some of the greatest conversations about life have been sitting inside Jewish texts.

Questions about love. Family. Money. Justice. Happiness. Failure. Faith. Human nature. Death and what happens after we die. Why bad things happen. How we treat one another. And what it means to live a meaningful life.

Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein has spent more than four decades teaching Jewish wisdom and finding ways to make it understandable, relevant and accessible to people today.

He created The People’s Talmud around a simple idea: this wisdom belongs to everyone. Rather than producing another dense, scholarly translation, The People’s Talmud brings the ideas, conversations and stories of the Talmud into a form that people can engage with in contemporary life.

Together with The People’s Zohar, that vision now becomes something larger: MidrashX — a media center for discovering, watching, listening to and experiencing ancient Jewish wisdom in a modern way.

In the press.

The People’s Talmud

“The People’s Talmud opens a Talmudic wonderland for you to explore. Surprises guaranteed.”

AishIndependent editorial profile · 2023-03-28

“The People’s Talmud is unique in presentation, dynamic and engaging in approach.”

The Jewish Press — Editor’s NoteEditorial note · 2024-01-01

“A remarkable online resource that makes the Talmud accessible to all who are curious, even those with little Jewish knowledge.”

Jewish Journal / Accidental Talmudist PodcastEditorial podcast description · 2024-06-27

“…make the wisdom of the ancient Jewish text accessible and relevant to all.”

The Jerusalem PostIndependent news report · 2018-10-23

The People’s Talmud.
The People’s Zohar.

Two platforms for exploring Jewish wisdom. Here’s what you’ll find inside, and how each one works.

The People’s Talmud platform, with a map of subjects to explore01 / The conversation

The People’s Talmud

A discovery engine for the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, built around the things you want to understand. Thousands of entries and subject links let you trace an idea across the text and make connections of your own.

  • A subject-led search engine

    Search through categories and detailed listings: relationships, faith, business, people, places and everyday life. You can also explore the books in their traditional order.

  • Thousands of connections

    Follow 3,500+ subject-based links across 7,500+ core entries. Gather different discussions around one question and see how an idea develops across the Talmud.

  • Brain Teasers that open doors

    More than 3,000 short prompts turn surprising questions into starting points for learning. Each one leads you into the text behind the question.

  • A wider world of learning

    Content providers connect the subjects you discover with further teachings and resources from educators and organizations.

The illuminated world of The People’s Zohar02 / The inner world

The People’s Zohar

Explore Jewish mysticism with no prior knowledge of Hebrew or Kabbalah required. Search illustrated teachings, compare interpretations and keep your own reflections as you learn.

  • SEEK & SORT: two ways into the text

    Search by theme and follow related subjects, browse by reference, or move through the teachings using the Torah’s structure as your guide.

  • Essential Text & Mystic Flow

    Start with an accessible explanation, then enter a more contemplative interpretation. Illustrations and additional perspectives offer different ways to engage with the same teaching.

  • A New Soul’s Voice

    Explore a teaching through the perspectives of writers and thinkers, then see how their voices are brought together. Compare those interpretations with the essential text and discover another angle on its meaning.

  • My Cave: your personal laboratory

    Write reflections alongside a teaching and save them to My Cave. Keep your learning history and personal challenges together in a space for returning to ideas and developing your own understanding.

Hear Gedaliah’s welcome

The libraries and teachings behind The People’s Talmud

Teachings featured

Rabbi Sacks Legacy

Selected teachings are linked through The Rabbi Sacks Legacy.

Source content · independent response

Steinsaltz Center

Steinsaltz Center material appears within the platform; CEO Meni Even-Israel responded to the project in his own name.

Open library · powered-project listing

Sefaria

Sefaria lists The People’s Talmud among projects built with its open Jewish library.

Educators’ reviews.

Teachers, scholars and educational leaders on The People’s Talmud.

Original letters · full text preservedEight voices
Direct endorsement
Letterhead naming Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Hayman

“In our day, the vast majority of Jews have never experienced the Talmud or any of its contents. The People’s Talmud aspires to make the contents of the Talmud accessible to all, inviting Jews everywhere to begin their learning path in Jewish sources.”

Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Hayman
Direct endorsement
Steinsaltz Center letterhead

“What you have done in creating the Talmudic Primer is exactly what the Jewish world (and, perhaps even the whole world) sorely needs to begin the path to Wisdom, especially Talmudic Wisdom.”

Sincerely,Meni Even-Israel,CEO Steinsaltz Center
Educator response
Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies letterhead

“Every teacher who is trying to reach today’s young college students and millennium’s with the wisdom of Torah and in particular the Talmud are challenged by the sheer difficulty of translating the difficult, complex and often abstruse concepts into contemporary language. It seems that you have achieved this, by creating a tool to make thousands of Talmudic concepts accessible and relevant to any Jew, regardless of background and education.”

Shlomie Gestetner
Exploratory note
The Sefaria Project letterhead

“I loved leaning about The People’s Talmud, and I very much identify with your mission to make the Talmud more accessible. We should explore if we can connect Sefaria users to The People’s Talmud”

SincerelyDaniel SeptimusExecutive Director
An exploratory note preserved in its original context; not a current partnership claim.
Direct endorsement
David Cardozo Academy letterhead

“The People’s Talmud is a like a defibrillator to the heart. It is an approach to Jewish wisdom that indeed excites, amazes, and astonishes. What the People’s Talmud has done is revolutionary. While the Talmud holds the key to thousands of years of wisdom, it is cloaked in mystery. It may be revered and loved by millions, but easily accessible, it is not. You have changed that.

It is timely, necessary and majestic in its scope.”

Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Community response
Beit Ha’Chidush letterhead

“I really want to express my awe at the project you created: The People’s Talmud. Not only the underlying concept is praiseworthy, also the execution of the concept is wonderful: inclusive, clear, attractive, deep, beautiful.

The members and friends of the two kehillot in the Netherlands that are under my guidance and students not connected, use The People’s Talmud with joy. It allows them the entrance to the Talmudic world in a way that does not intimidate them or gives them the feeling of ‘never be able to grasp even a bit of it’, but helps them along.”

Best wishes,Rabbi Tamarah Benima, Amsterdam
Early-adopter letter
The Jewish Agency for Israel and Partnership2Gether letterhead

“Following our meetings regarding the People’s Talmud, I would like to say that we are ready to be early adopters of your digital platform for educational content and we are committed to running focus groups with various target market populations.”

Sincerely,Lionel MitelpundktContent Director – P2G Network Initiatives
A statement of readiness at the time of the letter.
International response
Israel Chamber of Commerce in China letterhead

“I’m Isabella Li. I’m working at the Israeli Chamber of Commerce in China. It was truly a blessing that I met Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein in Beijing and get to know his interesting project “The People’s Talmud”. There’s an awaking demand from the Chinese that they want to explore the Jewish wisdom, integrating it to their lives.”

Isabella Li
Endorsement01 / 01

MidrashX values.

Our Mission

To make ancient Jewish wisdom accessible and meaningful to everyone, wherever they are starting from.

01

For everyone

You do not need to be a scholar, religious, or already familiar with Jewish texts to belong here. MidrashX is for anyone who is curious about life, meaning, relationships, purpose, faith, the soul and the questions we all ask.

Come as you are. Start where you are.
02

Accessible

Ancient Jewish wisdom can be deep without being difficult to enter. We want people to understand it, connect with it and feel comfortable exploring it.

03

Curious

Good questions matter. MidrashX is a place to ask, challenge, wonder and explore — not simply to be told what to think.

04

Relevant

The texts may be ancient, but the questions are still ours. Love. Family. Happiness. Loss. Purpose. Relationships. Faith. Human nature. We bring ancient ideas into the reality of modern life.

05

Authentic

We respect the depth and tradition of the original sources while presenting them in a way people today can understand.

06

Human

At the heart of MidrashX is conversation. Real questions. Real discussion. Real connection with Rabbi Gedaliah and with ideas that have shaped Jewish thought for thousands of years.

MidrashX · Delivering Ancient Jewish Wisdom

Read it. Watch it.Discuss it. Question it.Live it.

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