Sefaria Jewish Library MCP Server

Enables Large Language Models to retrieve and reference Jewish texts from the Sefaria library through a standardized interface.

Local serverstdioPython 1

What is the Sefaria Jewish Library MCP server?

Connect Sefaria Jewish Library to Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client and it stops being a tab you switch to. Enables Large Language Models to retrieve and reference Jewish texts from the Sefaria library through a standardized interface. The sefaria jewish library mcp server is what makes that connection.

What the server does

  • Retrieve Jewish texts by reference
  • Retrieve commentaries on a given text

Installation

The server ships on npm as @smithery/cli, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.

Available tools

The toolset is worth reading before you wire it up, because it tells you what the integration is really for:

  • get_text — The get_text tool exposed by this server
  • get_commentaries — The get_commentaries tool exposed by this server

Credentials and setup notes

Configuration is passed through the environment: PYTHONIOENCODING. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

  • Python >= 3.10 - MCP SDK >= 1.1.1 - Sefaria API

Worth knowing first

  • It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
  • Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.

Where it fits

Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Sefaria Jewish Library's toolset — get_text, get_commentaries — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by OpenTorah-ai; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
get_textThe get_text tool exposed by this server.
get_commentariesThe get_commentaries tool exposed by this server.

How to install the Sefaria Jewish Library MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sefaria-jewish-library": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@smithery/cli"],
      "env": {
        "PYTHONIOENCODING": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

  • Python >= 3.10 - MCP SDK >= 1.1.1 - Sefaria API
VariableDescriptionRequired
PYTHONIOENCODINGConfiguration value read at startup.Optional

Example prompts to try

  • Use Sefaria Jewish Library to get text.
  • Use Sefaria Jewish Library to get commentaries.

Frequently asked questions

You can retrieve specific Jewish texts by reference (e.g., Genesis 1:1) and get commentaries related to those texts using LLMs. This allows your AI applications to understand and utilize Jewish textual sources.