About Torah Graph

Torah Graph traces how foundational ideas in Jewish mystical thought develop, transform, and sometimes collide across seven centuries of kabbalistic literature. Rather than treating each work in isolation, it maps the conceptual threads that connect them—revealing where later authors build on, redefine, or challenge earlier teachings.

The result is a structured exploration of 82 core concepts, from Ein Sof and the Sefirot to practical applications of kabbalistic thought, each traced through the primary sources that shaped them.

The project draws from seven foundational works spanning 1100–1786 CE, sourced from Sefaria’s open library of Jewish texts:

• ·Zohar — the foundational text of Kabbalah (c. 1100–1400)
• ·Sefer Etz Chaim — Isaac Luria’s cosmological framework (c. 1570s)
• ·Derekh Hashem — Moshe Chaim Luzzatto’s philosophical framework (1736)
• ·Mesillat Yesharim — Luzzatto’s path of ethical perfection (1740)
• ·Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah — Luzzatto’s 138 gateways to kabbalistic wisdom (1785)
• ·Tanya — Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s Hasidic synthesis (1796)
• ·Nefesh HaChaim — Chaim of Volozhin’s Mitnagdic counterpart (1824)

Each text in the corpus is analyzed to identify which concepts it engages with, and how. The analysis classifies each text’s treatment of a concept into one of four types:

• Explains— defines or elaborates on the concept
• Redefines— offers a new interpretation or framework
• Applies— puts the concept into practical or ethical use
• Challenges— disagrees with or qualifies a previous treatment

A confidence score accompanies each classification, reflecting how strongly the text engages with the concept. Concepts are organized into a taxonomy of parent-child and part-whole relationships, enabling exploration of both broad themes and specific sub-ideas.

Concept extraction and classification is performed by Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, with human review of the resulting taxonomy and relationship structures.