The ArtScroll App - A Peek Behind the Scenes

[Music] Welcome to Inside Arts Scroll, where the books that we read and the people that write them come to life. This episode is very unique because it's not the books that we read or the people that write them. It's the incredible arts curl iPad that we use and the guy behind the brains behind so much amazing amazing tire learning. It's a and a pleasure to welcome Ellie Drabkin to Ars Studios. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Ellie, where do you live? So, I live in Baltimore. Okay. That's our little digital section of Art Scroll down there and Baram. We have a wonderful crew that's all remote are really around the world. We have a team in Muny, team Isisel. Guys are really the blend of tech and Torah is amazing. Fantastic. And we're here today with one of the crown jewels I guess in probably in arts girls history and that is the Arts World digital library which kind of looks like a cipher. Yeah, we do. And by the way, you could get your name embossed in gold. Correct. That's part of the promotion, right? If you buy an iPad in the next whatever it is, you get a like a 30% 20% discount, whatever it is. And then you also get Yeah. free personalization. Get your name on the front of it. That's so cool. Now, this is not a safer book, even though it looks like it. It's an iPad. Okay, so let's jump right into this because this is so fascinating. And I think when people hear the statistics of users and what's available on here, no one knows about this. It's like a dream come true. So tell us a little bit about why it's incant, why it's amazing to be the owner of of an art scroll iPad and what it comes with. So Barakam as of now we have on the iPads come the entire English shas Hebrew shas bavi also now which is a new development is your shami so we've done both the English and Hebrew sets of your shami we have English and Hebrew sets not just English and Hebrew meaning the English set and the Hebrew translation the blue and the brown the blue yes blue and the brown the Mishnas is the light blue and the dark blue right um both of Yes. So we have Shas Bavi, Shas Aayur Shami, Mishnayas, Kitser Shanar. We recently uh finished the Zar Shimon set. So we have Zar Shimshon, Miss Shasharim, Kiter, Shanar, Sedorim, Kamashim, Tanak. It just keeps going. How many Sparum are on the Arts Girl? As of now, just we just hit over 500 Sparum that come downloaded on there. So you pick this up and you're holding 500 sparm. actually holding way more because you're holding the whole shots bodish. Amazing. Um, so tell us a little bit about what the user you know the user group looks group looks like. How many people own an iPad? How many people are using this on a regular basis? Is it hundreds? Is it thousands? That's a great question. We have roughly probably over 400,000 devices. 400,000 downloaded the app. Not necessarily art school iPads but uh people have downloaded this all across the globe. Uh we have millions of volume downloads of this fararm across the entire spectrum and bar people are using this daily. I get reports of people who really sit down for hours using it. And when you learn a little bit more about the features you'll see why. So that's fantastic. That's that's wonderful. It also shows the the reach that Arts Scroll has. It's not it's not just the you know New York and you know it's not just the United States and Canada the whole world 28 countries officially over 28 countries have had app downloads and we get we get questions coming from every shape and size. Now is it available in Hebrew or the app itself? Yeah the app it so it is localized to your to your device language. So it does actually if you set your device to Hebrew all the app, all the menu, all the buttons will display in Hebrew. Yes. Fantastic. And Spanish also. You're saying whatever language is soon. Soon. Oh, but that's amazing. So it's literally teaching to the entire world. Okay. So I think what what's f was so fascinating to me was explain what the user experience is like when you're learning Adafar. Oh, it's a good question. So for that I'm gonna have to show you. Please. So on the iPad itself, when you open it up, by the way, I'm a visual learner, so perfect. Okay, there we go. So on the iPad, the first step you'll go to is the Art Scroll app. This is a really nice size one, too. This is the big one. This is the deluxe edition. This is the 13-inch iPad. This is the big one. This is about the size of a full size Art Scroll Gamarra. The regular size one is about the size of the midsize, like the Dafomi size art scroll gam. That's the size of the the regular size iPad. Okay. So, when you're looking at the your page of Gamara, you would simply or sorry, when you're looking at the page of Gamarra, first of all, you can zoom in and out. So, you can make this really big. That so that's that's like an amazing resource for someone who's visually challenged. Correct. This has really changed the game for a lot of people who have certain vision challenges besides just the fact that it's back lit and then you can see the actual words better. that Zoom it literally is enabling people to learn now when they couldn't have previously. We had a request from somebody who was uh legally blind and he needed it. We had it up to 200%. Said that's not big enough for the text. So we have up to 500%. Which is not a lot on here but you see the mess neesh that people are doing. They want to learn and this is literally enabling people. Just I'll throw in one more story. Well two maybe if I can. one we have somebody had called me up an older gentleman who wants to learn. He did not grow up in the yeshiva background and he wants to learn. Unfortunately through certain um maladies that he had he lost his sense of touch. So he couldn't hold a physical safer anymore. He couldn't turn those pages. So he said the iPad I just need to tap. I can even I I don't have to know that I'm moving something. It literally opened up learning for him. We've also recently helped some people with unfortunately ALS or other um yeah with people with uh yes with with ALS lerigri and who are losing their ability to to move their arms unfortunately and through the amazing things that are built into the iPads the where there was voice recognition there's also now eye tracking built into the iPads they can now control and be able to learn just right on the iPads that's incredible somebody just share with me that they would be able to see him that someone who who has ALS made literally by using his eyes to turn the pages. Yeah. Wow. It's fantastic. Okay. So, bring us right back in. Okay. So, now let's say I'm I'm on the fourth line in Gamarra. I run into a word. I don't understand that word. What do I do? So, all you have to do is tap on a phrase. You tap on a phrase on the do. You get the translation right with you. If there's any footnotes, they'll pop up right here on the page. Amazing. If you also want to learn from just the English side, you can have you can swap over to there and you have the translation with the elucidation, the footnotes on the bottom. Now, one thing you want to do both. What do you do? Can can you split the screen? Oh, you could split the screen. Great question. So, if you rotate your device like this and then you hit split, now you have it's like literally having the Daffy Amigamar in front of you. Yeah. Amazing. It's incredible. Okay. Now, if I'm not mistaken, one of the most amazing fe features about the iPad is hyperlinks. Ah, take us into the crazy world of hyperlinks. Okay. Hyperlinks. It is a crazy world of hyperlinks. We have roughly 9 million hyperlinks. That means Okay. What's a hyperlink? Let's Let's just go. We know what it is because I've seen the creative stuff on this. But what's a hyperlink? Explain to our viewers. A hyperlink means anytime something is referenced on the DAFF. So if you're on a daff of garamara here, if you'll notice on the side, you have misorus ashas, you have gillian ashas, you have a mishbite, you have anything or for example, let's take this one. This is a tofus that's quoting another gamarra. You'll see it's underlined in blue. Just tap on it and you'll be taken to that place right in front of you. Now, could you get English on that or not yet? Uh, not on toas yet, but soon. But the hyperlinks if yes if you tap on a hyperlink on the translation side of the page you'll get a the English on the Hebrew side of the page you get the Hebrew. That's incredible. Now how about in you know the commentary on the bottom let's say they reference something. Can you get that too? Yes. So recently uh through a lot of work from our amazing team we actually put in a second round of hyperlinks which links almost every reference that's made. So originally we had every reference that was made to another place in Shas to Mishnas things that we had as part of the digital library the art scroll digital library but now we've expanded that to anything you can pull up a Mishna Bura here I'll show you right over here if you pull up this shagasar you tap on it and it'll pull it up right in front of you wow so I know a lot of people invest in this program where they have the where you can get a thousands of farm you know at your fingertips but you literally have thousands of farm at your fingertips by just getting this. I think it's worthwhile to talk about some of the not just special features of the iPad itself, but special people and special situations where the iPad is a tremendous gamecher. Why don't you share with us a little bit about Hatalo? ahala. We got a call from Yetsy Cast who was involved with a myy hatala and they had they had noticed that the guys on their way back from calls were spending a long it was a long drive. They actually had iPads already in every hotel there's there is an iPad. So he had asked could we set up load up the app on the iPad so the guys could learn on the way back and bar as of now I think we have uh up to 25 hotel ambulances now and the guy's moms use it they go to calls on their way back from the hospital sometimes a long drive these guys are able to learn in the back and you can only imagine that the seat the shaya and the spiritual energy that that creates for sure helps them do a better job when they're on the way to the hospital. Yeah, that's so beautiful. That's really magnificent. And I I also heard something about the soldiers in Israel and the app. What's been happening with that? So that's amazing. So, you know, everybody has their devices with them. They not not they're not always able to have a physical safer um but they always have their phones. And we get requests from kyaleim who are going into either miluim going to some type of service wherever they are and they want to take their learning with them. They really do and so kaleim who are calling in I have we have here of sum that are happening it's amazing garum mishnayas they want to be able to learn wherever they are that's amazing so in other words our scroll is really helping Israel in the war that's really what it is because if the terra is that engine and it creates so much incredible you know positive the shaya so having that wow yeah tora magnum matla that that's totally true it's also so beautiful that like these guys even in in situations where you know you could say okay it's you'll learn when you get back they they want to continue learning and they probably couldn't do it without the app. Yeah. And some of them even it's it's fascinating the type of people who are calling in not necessarily people who were learning before this but these are kaleim who feel connected or they want to connect. So whether they're downloading tahelm or they're starting to learn gamarra it's amazing they they want to jump in they want to learn gamarra they want to learn mishnas. Some of them might not have ever learned Gamarra before and this enables them and and they they really want to do something. We even have a a Mada volunteer who called us in. He is that's Mendome like the ambulance service in Israel. Yes. Mendome and he specifically is in an ATV and he's stationed where he is and there is some downtime. So he accepted upon himself post October 7th to make a shisha Mishna and Barashem he has his iPad with him wherever he goes wherever he is in in the forest wherever wherever he's driving and he's learning and he actually recently told me that he completed he made his what that's so special um speaking about summ do people like let you know oh I finished my learning plan or I made a on this or I did a on that that's a that's a good question we do get some nice some nice feedback from people who really have finished um some really interesting people who have used it to learn uh all around the globe. For example, uh Schulam Leur, he's he loves the app and he's they're all over the place. You know, Baram, our singers are are constantly on the move and he he loves using he loves using the app. Here's something that I was thinking about. You know, we're coming up in literally in two years on the Dafium Hash. Um, has the has the has the app been around since the beginning of this this DIY cycle? Yes. So, Baram, we actually launched the app right before the previous SMAS. That was our our big push when we released Brahas on the app. That's amazing. So, there are going to be people who finished Shas Bavi on the app. Yeah. Yeah. That's an accomplishment. They better send you some type of message. Hey, thank you. I couldn't have done it without you. I heard from somebody that this is a great tool for showing bias. How do you how do how does that work? So I got a call from somebody who this is what he's telling me. It's he's saying that this thing has really brought him shell and bias. I do mean how does this thing bring bring you shell and bias? He said he used to drive his wife crazy because at night he would like to sit up and learn in bed. So he'd have the light on next to him and he used to keep her up and they'd always whatever you know fight about it and he says now it's a mica he sits there the light is off his wife can sleep he has the iPad it's back lit screen he can sit in bed says his mom is a mai sits back and learn all night so there's no excuse whatsoever not to learn in bed get the arts girl iPad that's really fantastic um wow sounds like it it just sounds like it's impacting so many situations in Kal Israel and so many individuals and I could only imagine the many people who probably wouldn't be learning without this really beautiful you know tool like you said that's impacting millions of people. Yeah. I've uh for example I have there's actually a there was a rashiva who called me up and he said that he loves using the app. So I asked him why what's what's the thing? He said he's always going to other simas around. He has a shaft with another rebi and whenever they're on the move you know at nights there a lot of weddings so he's going waiting at one he calls he has a shaft with his the other they both have it on their phones and they're able to learn together while waiting for the arts actually put out like a one minute very inspirational clip a few months ago of a guy who finished a few a mumra just by learning you know at at simka's and little by little like the daffy each daff just one daff a day and and the rest is history. I try to tell people that don't be afraid to be that guy who's learning at the or in standing in line by the grocery store, pull out your phone, just one just have your that is yours. It's always on your phone. Any situation you find yourself in, just pull it out and learn your Mishna. The Mishna elucidated, which is the new English Mishna and and and the Hebrew, the riseman. Uh we have both both editions on the app. They're so clear. You can get shot. You can sit there wherever you are and learn and not just learn them, but really get one Mishna. That's it. One Mishna. Just do it. Do it in that situation. And then before you know it, you're you're finishing and you're finishing. Yeah. Now, I know one place that you don't really need an iPad and that's on LL flights, right? You'd think that you wouldn't need them on there, but actually if you ask them for one, there's a special place in the galley. If you'll notice, it's a little art scroll logo. And in Baram, we have many iPads spread around the LL fleet. And if you ask for it, they have a little section there with an iPad that if you want to learn your entire way to or back, you can learn. Incredible. I remember as a bacher, you know, you'd learn and you'd have to get this garamara and you get that ram and you have to get this in the shelf. Like everything is in your palm. So there's no excuse not to learn. Ah, no excuse anymore. I'll tell you something amazing. There's a guy who I dabin with and he comes in every morning carrying his gar underneath his arm and one time I noticed that it's actually an iPad. It looks like a garamara from the outside, but this guy is hooked. I know that there's something that's truly um transformational about using the iPad and that is learning plans. could you bring us into that really beautiful customized world? Uh yes, the learning plans are a very exciting addition that we had to the app. So what that allows you to do is to set up a learning plan for what you would like to do or for example if you'd like to join Dafyomi. So we have some built-in sort of pre-made plans that you can join and it shows up on the page. You have a whole calendar you can check off what you've done on the DAFF itself. There's a little check box. So once you finish learning, you just check off that check box in case you want to review. That's a good four of them because you should read every dot four times. It' be 1001. Yeah, be 1001 or of praa 400 times. There we go. We'll just keep adding it. Another great uh feature that that allows if let's say you want to learn for a yard site or for a schlloim or even if you just want to set up your own learning plans ora like you want to do an Orisa. We have um some fathers like to set up Mishnas learning plans with their sons before the bar mitzvah. So you put in the date that you want to finish it, how much you want to learn, which makas the range and it calculates for you what you need to learn every day and it delivers it to you on a silver platter. Displays it for you right on top what you need to do every day. Hello, let's learn. You know there is there used to be like you you know you you had to get a you had to get a gar was expensive. you have now I mean it's just there you might as well learn that's fantastic so that was gar um but I know that there's also many other holy swarm like you mentioned amazing sparmum that are all available now when I buy the actual iPad um they come preload all these farm come pre-loaded or I have to connect to like a Wi-Fi how does that work correct so when you buy the iPad these everything comes preloaded on here so all this farm out of the box don't have to connect it to the internet you never have to connected to the internet. There are updates that come. So updates are updates. You will have to connect to get those. But to use it straight out of the box, it's good to go. No internet needed. You have like 500 sparm preloaded all good to go with all the hyperlinks and everything. Correct. You don't need internet access access for hyperlinks. Oh, good question. So the the hyperlinks to Sparmm that we have as part of the library, those will be available offline. Anything that is the extra that second round those are web- based hyperlinks so you would need to be connected for those. Okay. Okay. I think to myself like you know if you're traveling somewhere you know I always think to myself which swarm do I do I really need to take I need my garam and I want to take my I would look but you just take the iPad and you take it on you on a plane and it's got the backlight so you don't need to turn that light out on top of you and uh even if it's dark so you want to make it a little bit bigger you're in. Yeah. So, if anyone is watching this right now, we're having this amazing sale where you literally get a huge percentage off of it. It'll change your life. It's transformational. Buy it, use it, and you'll become a overnight. Not almost. Okay. Um, Ellie, I want to just ask you a question personally. So, I know you're a techie. Tech is something that that drives you kind of. Um, and I know in our conversations that you also love to learn. Is this not a dream job then? This is the ultimate dream job. I I re It's funny that you mentioned that. So when I I was in a college for information systems and I had heard a friend of mine was that they had started this project down here in Baltimore. So I I walked into the office to uh to Mayor Pastnac and I said, "Could you tell me a little bit about what you're doing here?" And he starts showing me the files and the nitty-gritty and the you know, we had to everything here is done by hand. all those phrases hand those were all everything's by hand the hyperlinks this is this is a lot of work AI could not do this and he's showing me these things and I I remember I made a uh I made a comment I said oh this is really cool and he said this is really cool said this is amazing this is tech and Torah in in the most amazing way so yeah it's it's cool I believe that Akash Barkle gave Steve Jobs the insight and the initiative to make an iPad had so that people could learn from it. That's what I believe. Not to watch all those crazy things and all the entertainment. It's to learn. It's really to learn 100%. Especially when they put out the big one. This is literally the size of a full-size Gamarra. I have two final questions for you. Question number one. Is there a feature where you can where there's audio so you can listen to while you learn? It's a good question. So, there's so much Torah online. So much Torah available this that. So, we have a feature that on the app, it allows audio to play while you're using the art scroll app. So, you have play anything else that you want to have on your device and you can use the app at the same time. So, you can listen to like do by or at least the fansky while you're literally using that and you can fact check them. Yeah. Okay, great. My second question is what's next? I mean, the possibilities are endless and I know that there's a really amazing update that's in the plans. Yes. Uh, give us a sneak peek. Ah, sneak peek. So there is yes barm big update coming. Uh it's going to change the whole design, the feel, the look of the app as well as some really cool new features. These are features that will literally change the game. Uh just a sneak peek like you said we're in Hashem going to have some audio integration with the app as well as a kusa learning type style thing where when one person taps on a phrase or something over here it will tap and show up wherever those other people are across the world. So you can have a mag who's going to be following along here and wherever they are it'll be they'll be able to follow along just by him tapping away. So, but you have two two guys on and one of them's like, you know, we should probably check out the shagasari. Boom, they both have the shagasari. One of them taps and the other one has a shagasar. Wow, that's incredible. Um, it's been to talk to you. Sounds very exciting. Like I said before, you want to buy this. It's going to be transformational. And at home, in the workplace, you have a lonely action. You literally take out your iPad. If anyone comes in, it looks like you're working anyways. So, it works well. I have had a lot of people tell me that. So I want to give you a braha that you should continue to disseminate to clal. It's such a I don't know if you ever think about this. You're you're not a guy who works in tech. You're perhaps one of the biggest maides in in the entire world. There's over a million people that are in your or in your yeshiva the article article the article article yeshiva should give you all those brilliant you know brain bursts to keep updating it and more and more people should get the iPad should get the app and should just continue to to be spread across the face of Kaiser. Amen. [Music]