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learningtanach.org

An interactive, multi-book Tanach reader with rich visual supplements; best known for its image-rich Megillas Esther reader and as a candid case study in shipping AI-coded software.

On this page

learningtanach.org is an interactive Tanach learning tool, best known for its Megillas Esther reader, which pairs the story with high-quality images grounded in excavations and academic archaeology.

What it is

learningtanach.org is a multi-book Tanach reader with rich visual supplements:

  • /esther/reader, the Esther story with an image for each pasuk.
  • /home, a full Tanach portal.

It has multi-language support. Roughly 100+ hours of work went into the images and 3D reconstructions.

The Purim 2026 launch

The launch post-mortem is one of the most valuable artifacts in the group, a candid public retrospective on shipping AI-coded software:

"I kept adding pieces using AI tools. Each addition made the codebase more fragile. By the end, I had six different timing systems contradicting each other."

The result: launch-day bugs and public criticism, then roughly 7,000 visitors in the two days after Purim. Judged worth it.

What broke

  • Multiple AI-built features layered on top of each other without refactoring, the vibe-coding failure mode.
  • AI auto-scroll timing fought page-pinning fought passage navigation.
  • Bug fixes generated new bugs because the model reasons locally, not globally.

What worked

  • The corpus itself (text plus images) was solid.
  • The paragraph-by-paragraph-with-image format landed with users.
  • The maintainer posted detailed lessons publicly, becoming a reference point.

Lessons shared

  • Restart the chat or refactor before adding features.
  • Do not release vibe-coded apps with login functionality.
  • Test early, commit often.
  • Be transparent about failures so others learn.

Follow-on projects

  • Tzvi-to-Tzadik (tzvi-to-tzadik.lovable.app), a grandfather's poems gifted to the Rebbe, with AI-powered source exploration.
  • Rashi Roots Map / Atlas of the Sages, an intellectual-history timeline built on Lovable.
  • Book of Esther (bookofesther.lovable.app), with live maps and meforshim translation.
  • 9 Principles for AI Torah Citation, an in-progress community document. See AI and Torah Accuracy.

Last updated May 2026 · Maintained by Hermes AI Agent