New Search Features at basehasefer.com!

בס"ד

יום שלישי, ז' אלול, תשפ"ד

The latest version of basehasefer.com has been released with new search features!

Filtering Search Results by New Pre-defined Sections of Tanach

Six new top-level elements for named section categories were added:

• Seder HaTefila: segments that quote whole sections of Tanach such as: פסוקי דזמרא, קריאת שמע, תחנון, הלל, שיר של יום, ועוד
• Mitzvos: that require writing or reciting sections of the Torah: פרשיות תפילין, פרשיות מזוזה, מגילת סוטה, משוח מלחמה/שוטרים, עגלה ערופה, חליצה, מקרא ביכורים, וידוי מעשר
• Shiros: mentioned throughout Tanach such as: שירת הים, שירת הבאר, שירת האזינו, שירת דבורה, שירת דוד, ועוד
• Tefilos: mentioned throughout Tanach such as:  תפילת יעקב (וישלח), ויחל משה (כי תשא), ועתה  יגדל נא (שלח), ואתחנן, תפילת חנה, ועוד
• Brachos: mentioned throughout Tanach such as: ברכת ה' לאדם, ברכת ה' לנח ובניו, ברכת נח לשם ויפת, ברכת מלכי צדק לאברם, ברכת יעקב לשבטים, ברכת כהנים, ברכות בלעם, ברכת משה לשבטים, ועוד
• Miscellaneous sections (shonos): עשר מכות, ויהי בנסע, עשרת הדברות (יתרו), עשרת הדברות (ואתחנן), שש זכירות, תהלים קיט

A new search result column named sections is available from the statistics column picker.  It displays named sections of Tanach related to each pasuk pertaining to the six categories above.

For example, just say we want to search for a word that exists within the pesukim quoted in our daily Tachanun:

Follow these steps:

1) Enter the word מאד into the search bar

2) Select the Advanced Search option to the right of the Search Bar

3) Select the Placement tab from the advanced options (you will notice some new options in the top section of this tab - we will expand upon this later)

4) From the Category dropdown in the top row of Named Section selections, select סדר התפילה (you will notice that this is one of six categories that were recently added to that dropdown)

5) Select תחנון from the dropdown selector for Section Name (clicking the Aliya/Chelek dropdown will reveal what subsections this includes - we will leave this unselected)

6) Click the Search button to launch the search

7) Once the search results appear, select Named Sections from the statistics column picker dropdown at the top of the search results window

8) View the results and see the Named Sections column for information about where the pasuk might occur in named sections.

I alluded to some new Placement tab options earlier.  One can now actually filter searches by specifying that a pasuk must apply to one or more general categories and/or not apply to one or more other categories. To see this in action, let's modify our search by clearing out the Tachanun filter and then specifying that search results for the word מאד must be limited to pesukim that are connected to Tefilos in general but not to pesukim quoted by our standard Seder HaTefila.

One can accomplish these results with the following steps:

1) Click the white Clear tab settings icon on the right (to remove the Tachanun selection)

2) Put a check in the Tefilos category checkbox

3) Put an X in the Seder HaTefila category checkbox

4) Click the Search button to launch the search

5) View the results and notice that the Tachanun content is gone even though it quotes pesukim from sections categorized as Tefilos since any pasuk also categorized as being part of Seder HaTefila will be excluded with the specified search parameters

This is exciting news since the site is now taking small steps to introduce searches based on concept/category tag filters.

As mentioned earlier, in the Placement tab, we can now select whether to Include pesukim that meet the specified location settings (default) or whether to exclude such pesukim.  To demonstrate a nice example of this, let's start a brand new search.  Here we will try to find whether any pesukim in Tanach begin with the exact phrase "אנכי יקוק":

One can accomplish these results with the following steps:

1) Enter "'אנכי ה" into the search bar

2) Select the Advanced Search option to the right of the Search Bar

3) Click on the first word of the phrase (אנכי) in the vertical list of search terms that appears on the right

4) Click on the Distances tab (where we will modify distance settings for the selected word אנכי)

5) Set distance from the beginning of a pasuk to 0

6) Now click on the Placement tab

7) In the first row in the Named Section selections, for category select "shonos" (miscellaneous) and for section name select עשרת הדברות - יתרו

8) In the second row in the Named Section selections, for category select "shonos" (miscellaneous) and for section name select עשרת הדברות - ואתחנן

9) Select Exclude from the Include/Exclude switch in the upper section of the placement tab (this will serve to exclude any results that occur within either section of עשרת הדברות - it also can serve to exclude matches to any general categories that are checked but we are not doing that in this example)

10) Click the Search button

11) We can see that the only result outside of the עשרת הדברות with the phrase "'אנכי ה" at the start of a pasuk is in תהלים פא:יא

In addition to filtering searches, these six new categories can also be used when specifying Tanach location in the Tanach Viewer, Text Comparator, Object Cloud Viewer and Tanach Family Tree features.

Displaying Year of Occurrence (שנת אירוע) and Using it to Order and Filter Search Results

Previously one could sort search results by year of occurrence. Now, using the statistics column picker, one can even display a column in the search results grid which lists the approximate year of occurrence.  Using the Pasuk Settings tab within the Advanced Search option, one can even filter search results by a range of year of occurrence.  Used in combination with the sort by year option, one can now view a nice timeline of events.  See the example below:

Notice how the pesukim in Sefer Bereishis are listed in year order and not in original pasuk sequence.  Also notice how some pesukim from Divrei HaYamim appear that are pertinent to this time frame.  One can accomplish these results with the following steps:

1) Select the Advanced Search option to the right of the Search Bar

2) Select the Pasuk Settings tab from the advanced options

3) Set a range of 500 to 1500 for years of occurrence within pasuk settings

4) Select a sort order "by Year of Occurrence" from the dropdown selector on the search settings panel on the right

5) Click the Search button to launch the search

6) View the results and see the Year of Occurrence column appear automatically due to the nature of your search.  (this column can also be displayed for any search by selecting Year of Occurrence from the statistics column picker dropdown at the top of the search results window)