Chabad.org’s Daily Study app is revamped in time for 3 Tammuz, the anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing
Daily Torah study has never been easier—be it in line at the bank, on the subway on your way to work or at your dining-room table after a long day at work. One of the most popular Jewish apps, Chabad.org’s Daily Study, first released in 2014, has been rebuilt from the ground up to add a new dimension of daily Torah study to your life.
The app, which is currently available for public testing pending its official launch, features Judaica Press’s lucid translation of Chumash with Rashi, Psalms, Tanya (in a newly remastered format), Hayom Yom in original English renditions from Kehot Publication Society the works of Maimonides as divided for the one-chapter and three-chapter cycles of study with Moznaim’s groundbreaking translation of Maimonides’ magnum opus and Sichos in English’s rendition of the daily mitzvah. Additional daily learning tracks are in the works.
The launch, opening up the app for the public after months of internal testing and refinement, arrives in conjunction with two major events on the Jewish calendar: The yahrzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory on 3 Tammuz, and the completion of the fortieth cycle of the annual study of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, an initiative the Rebbe established in the spring of 1984. The two events, coinciding this year on June 13th, have brought renewed interest and focus on daily study.
Each day, each daily study track is refreshed on the app, allowing the user to select from relevant text for daily study. The app plays to the diverse study needs of the public. Users can choose from audio lectures of multiple acclaimed Chabad.org teachers, including Rabbi Yehoshua B. Gordon and Rabbi Manis Friedman, and adjust the playback speed to ease study, as well as make it more accessible to the blind.
Among its new features are a cleaner layout, the capability to stream related classes on the daily portion being studied, and the ability to subscribe to and save classes in advance or from past days for offline listening. Users can preload up to two weeks’ worth of classes, making it ideal for travel when data connections can be spotty.
“We wanted to build an app that would empower the user to keep up with their daily study, no matter where they were in the world,” says Rabbi Dov Dukes, lead mobile developer for Chabad.org. “With the new app, users can study on an airplane or the subway or any other time they may not have an internet connection.”
The prominence of daily Jewish study has grown in recent years and the Daily Study app, with some 50,000 installs, has played an important role in that growth. User Terri Petro-Roy notes how the app “keeps me focused on a good daily practice and gives so much more.”
“The rich content offered is the backbone of this app,” says Dukes. “Chabad.org is eternally grateful to our content partners who have invested to ensure that these texts come to life and become accessible to the English-speaking audience. In addition to their availability in the app, every Jewish home should have each of these foundational Jewish works in its library.”
Feedback from the growing beta user base has been overwhelmingly positive with many users sharing how they are benefiting from the app as well as sharing suggestions for new features they’d love to see in future upgrades.
Now, access to the beta version is being made available to you as well, so that users can also begin benefiting from its new experience, ahead of the official public rollout.
The app, which is one of Chabad.org’s growing family of apps, offers students the opportunity to dedicate the studies from the app in honor of a loved one’s yahrzeit or other important life-cycle events.
Chabad.org’s suite of Jewish apps is graciously sponsored by Dovid and Malkie Smetana, Alan and Lori Zekelman, The Meromim Fund, and Moris and Lillian Tabacinic.
Android users click here to join and install the beta.
iOS users click here for instructions on how to join the beta using Apple’s Test Flight app.
