Answer-layer measurement · by subject
Where to read the primary texts
One source carries this subject. sefaria.org supplied 15 of the 39 links shown, 38% of everything displayed.
Perplexity · captured 2026-09-21 · 39 links · 18 domains
The primary texts are well represented: 32 of 39 links went to text libraries, so a reader following the sources can reach the sources.
No forum, blog or upload appeared in this answer.
Hekhal did not surface for any of these questions on this date, although it publishes the primary material listed below. That absence is the measurement working: it is recorded the same way anyone else's would be.
Why this subject looks like this
These are the acquisition questions: someone has decided to read the material and is asking where to get it. They behave differently from the definition questions, concentrating hard on a few large open libraries rather than scattering across commentary. That concentration is the most useful finding in the study for anyone publishing in this space, because it shows the answer layer does route people to primary texts when an accessible, well-known home for those texts exists, and it names exactly which homes it already trusts. For anyone deciding where to put editorial effort, this is the most actionable pattern in the study. Definition questions are already answered by institutions with a century of accumulated authority and no reason to stop. Acquisition questions go to whichever open library is best known, and that standing was earned rather than inherited: it went to the libraries that made whole corpora free, addressable by a stable link, and consistent enough to quote from. That is a reachable standard, and it is the one an edition should be built to meet.
The questions, and what each one returned
where can i read the zohar in english for free
24 links · 9 domains · largest single source sefaria.org at 42%
sefaria.org (10), bethamidrash.org (3), en.wikisource.org (3), sacred-texts.com (3), bookofthezohar.com, digital-brilliance.com, sefaria.org.il, zohar.com, zoharonline.org.
Composition: primary-text library 23, other site 1. Absent entirely: journal, press or university, encyclopedia or reference work.
best open access primary sources for jewish mysticism
15 links · 10 domains · largest single source sefaria.org at 33% · ⚠️ Two links contained the string 'hekhalot' (archive.org, openlibrary.org) and are NOT hekhal.org. Matched on registrable domain, not substring.
sefaria.org (5), nli.org.il (2), archive.org, external.dandelon.com, jewishaz.com, libguides.lmu.edu, newsbreaks.infotoday.com, openlibrary.org, smithsonianmag.com, timesofisrael.com.
Composition: primary-text library 9, other site 4, journal, press or university 2. Absent entirely: encyclopedia or reference work.
The sources that appeared exactly once here
archive.org, bookofthezohar.com, digital-brilliance.com, external.dandelon.com, jewishaz.com, libguides.lmu.edu, newsbreaks.infotoday.com, openlibrary.org, sefaria.org.il, smithsonianmag.com, timesofisrael.com, zohar.com, zoharonline.org.
13 of the 18 domains on this subject appeared a single time. On a subject whose primary texts are old, multilingual and largely out of copyright, that is the space an accessible edition is competing for.
Every source that answered
- Primary-text library · 32
- Other site · 5
- Journal, press or university · 2
What Hekhal publishes on this subject
Free to read, openly licensed, and free to assign. Every edition shows the language it was rendered from and names the edition it rests on.
What this does not show
Method and raw data: protocol.json · the capture, both CC-BY 4.0. Run it on an engine we did not and send the file; reruns are published beside this one, not merged into it.