Sefaria Jewish Library MCP server

The Sefaria Jewish Library MCP server provides access to Jewish texts from the Sefaria library through a standardized interface, allowing Large Language Models to retrieve and reference these texts easily. It supports retrieving both primary texts and their associated commentaries.

Installation Requirements

• Python 3.10 or higher

Installation Options

Via Smithery

Install automatically using Smithery for Claude Desktop:

npx -y @smithery/cli install mcp-sefaria-server --client claude

Manual Installation

Clone the repository and navigate to the project directory:

git clone https://github.com/sivan22/mcp-sefaria-server.git
cd mcp-sefaria-server

Running the Server

Direct Execution

Run the server directly using:

uv --directory path/to/directory run sefaria_jewish_library

Through MCP Client

For Claude desktop app and CLI, add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {        
      "sefaria_jewish_library": {
          "command": "uv",
          "args": [
              "--directory",
              "C:/dev/mcp-sefaria-server",
              "run",
              "sefaria_jewish_library"
          ],
          "env": {
            "PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8" 
          }
      }
  }
}

Using the Server

The Sefaria Jewish Library server provides two main tools:

Retrieving Texts

Use the get_text tool to retrieve specific Jewish texts by reference.

Examples of valid references:

• Genesis 1:1
• שמות פרק ב פסוק ג (Exodus 2:3 in Hebrew)
• משנה ברכות פרק א משנה א (Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 in Hebrew)

Retrieving Commentaries

Use the get_commentaries tool to retrieve a list of commentaries for a given text.

Examples of valid references:

• Genesis 1:1
• שמות פרק ב פסוק ג (Exodus 2:3 in Hebrew)
• משנה ברכות פרק א משנה א (Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 in Hebrew)

The server handles both English and Hebrew references, making it flexible for different user preferences.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "sefaria_jewish_library" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","C:/dev/mcp-sefaria-server","run","sefaria_jewish_library"],"env":{"PYTHONIOENCODING":"utf-8"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "sefaria_jewish_library": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "C:/dev/mcp-sefaria-server",
                "run",
                "sefaria_jewish_library"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "sefaria_jewish_library": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "C:/dev/mcp-sefaria-server",
                "run",
                "sefaria_jewish_library"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PYTHONIOENCODING": "utf-8"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect