About

Yehi Or is a scroll-driven telling of the seven days of creation. Scrolling moves time forward, from before the beginning to the first Shabbos. Every object in the scene, and every word in its text, is attached to a source: the pesukim, Targum, Rashi, other Rishonim, Midrash and Gemara.

What this is not

This site presents the Torah's account of maaseh bereishis with its classical commentaries, and stops where they stop. It does not take up the age of the universe or attempt to reconcile the account with science. A kabbalistic layer (Zohar, Arizal, Ramchal) is out of scope for this version.

How to read it

Scroll to move through the seven days. Click anything in the scene to open its sources. The depth dial in the bottom corner sets how much is shown: Pshat for the pesukim and a summary, Rashi to add Rashi in full, Everything for the Rishonim and Midrash as well. The dial changes what is shown, never what exists. A reading mode at /sources renders the same library as plain text, for a screen reader, for print, or if a browser cannot run the 3D scene at all.

Sources and credits

Every text on this site is fetched from Sefaria (sefaria.org).

Texts

• Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976: CC-BY
• Daat Bereshit Rabbah: Public Domain
• Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash: CC-BY
• Ha-Techiyah vol. ii, Berlin, 1857: Public Domain
• Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch, tran. and annot. by H. Norman Strickman and Arthur M. Silver. Menorah Pub., 1988-2004: CC-BY-NC (non-commercial; replace before any paid use)
• Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]: CC-BY-NC (non-commercial; replace before any paid use)
• Mishnah Yomit by Dr. Joshua Kulp: CC-BY
• Mishnah, ed. Romm, Vilna 1913: Public Domain
• Onkelos Genesis: Public Domain
• Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934: Public Domain
• Piotrkow, 1907-1911: Public Domain
• Tanach with Ta'amei Hamikra: Public Domain
• The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation (JPS 1917): Public Domain
• The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022: CC-BY
• Torat Emet 357: Public Domain
• Vocalized Edition: CC-BY
• Wikisource Bereshit Rabbah: CC-BY-SA (share-alike; anything we publish that includes or adapts this text must carry CC-BY-SA too)
• William Davidson Edition - Aramaic: CC-BY-NC (non-commercial; replace before any paid use)
• William Davidson Edition - English: CC-BY-NC (non-commercial; replace before any paid use)
• William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic: CC-BY-NC (non-commercial; replace before any paid use)

Hebrew is set in Frank Ruhl Libre and Noto Rashi Hebrew, English in Heebo, all under the OFL. The star field on day four uses the HYG Database, astronexus, CC BY-SA. The sky HDRI is from Poly Haven, CC0. The animal models are Kenney's Cube Pets, CC0. Full attribution for every version, font and asset is in this repository's LICENSES.md.

Divine names

Every Divine name on this site is substituted by default: Hashem in English, and the standard written substitutions in Hebrew. A setting can switch this to as written. No Divine name, substituted or as written, is ever rendered inside the 3D scene, an image, or a favicon.

Adam

Adam is never modeled as a figure with a face. He appears as a form of light, or as a shift to a first-person view.

Something wrong?

If a source is mistranslated, mislabeled, or missing, say so. There is no contact channel here yet; the operator will add one.

Where the tone comes from

אין דורשין בעריות בשלשה. ולא במעשה בראשית בשנים. ולא במרכבה ביחיד. אלא אם כן היה חכם ומבין מדעתו. כל המסתכל בארבעה דברים. ראוי לו כאילו לא בא לעולם. מה למעלה מה למטה. מה לפנים. ומה לאחור. וכל שלא חס על כבוד קונו. ראוי לו שלא בא לעולם:

They may not expound upon the subject of forbidden relations in the presence of three. Nor the work of creation in the presence of two. Nor [the work of] the chariot in the presence of one, unless he is a sage and understands of his own knowledge. Whoever speculates upon four things, it would have been better had he not come into the world: what is above, what is beneath, what came before, and what came after. And whoever takes no thought for the honor of his creator, it would have been better had he not come into the world.

Mishnah Chagigah 2:1
Mishnah, ed. Romm, Vilna 1913, Public Domain; Mishnah Yomit by Dr. Joshua Kulp, CC-BY
Read on Sefaria

It is because just as the beit is closed on all [three of] its sides but open in its front, so, you do not have permission to ask: What is below, what is above, what was before, and what is after.

Bereishis Rabbah 1:10
The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022, CC-BY
Read on Sefaria

This site shows the text and its commentators, and stops where they stop.