About Shalem
Why Shalem exists
Most spiritual-wellness apps speak in one of two voices: secular mindfulness (Calm, Headspace) or Catholic devotional practice (Hallow). Both are well-built. Neither is what you reach for at 11 p.m. when you're a Jew — by birth, by conversion, by curiosity, or by accident — and you want something grounded in the tradition that has spent 3,000 years working out what to do with grief, gratitude, fear, joy, and the parts of being human that don't have clean answers.
Shalem started from that gap. Not as a competitor to therapy, not as a halachic resource, not as a Torah study app. Just as the thing that should exist between those categories — a short, honest, grounded response when a moment calls for one.
The product takes its name from שָׁלֵם, the Hebrew word for "whole" or "complete." It shares a root with shalom (peace) and is one of the earliest names attested for Jerusalem. The name signals what the product aims at: integrative wholeness rather than performance, presence rather than perfection.
What Shalem does
A user opens the app and types — or speaks — a few sentences about what they're feeling or what's happening. Shalem matches that input against a curated database of 1,278 Jewish source texts (all 150 Tehillim, selected aggadic Talmud, midrashic collections, and Chassidic material from Breslov, Chabad, and Pshischa schools), surfaces a relevant text, and frames it in a short reflection. If the user wants, Shalem also generates a 3-day practice — three small actions, one per day, low enough demand to sustain through difficult periods.
The 3-day practice has no streak counter, no badges, no notification to "complete" Day 2. The format is borrowed from how contemplative practice actually works in lived traditions, not from how habit-tracking apps work. Users who miss a day skip it. The point is the encounter with the text, not the consistency of the user.
Audio narration is available — four voices we call Elijah, Miriam, Ruth, and David — for users who'd rather hear the reflection than read it. The names are evocative, not claims. The audio is generated through ElevenLabs and is not retained.
What Shalem isn't
It is worth being explicit about this because it shapes everything else:
- Shalem is not therapy. It does not assess clinical mental-health states. Users in crisis should reach out to local emergency services or recognized hotlines. Shalem is not designed to detect crisis and does not market itself as therapeutic.
- Shalem is not a halachic authority. It does not pasken. Questions about kashrut, Shabbat, lifecycle events, or any matter of Jewish practice that needs a ruling go to a competent rabbi.
- Shalem is not a Torah study platform. For deep textual study, Sefaria and Aleph Beta are the right tools. Shalem is for emotional application, not academic analysis.
- Shalem is not religious instruction. Jewish identity is not required. Prior knowledge is not required. Any specific level of observance is not required.
Who's behind it
Shalem is built and operated by Zan - Zari Labs OÜ, an Estonian limited company (registry code 17286420), with operations based in Rome, Italy.
The founder is Zarihoun Traore. The product was shaped by his Orthodox conversion journey and by years of building software for Jewish communities. The decision to name the company "Zan - Zari Labs" rather than something product-specific was deliberate: it allows Shalem to be one of several products without conflating company and brand.
The development team is small. The editorial team — the people who select source texts and review translations — works in the open to the extent the format allows. Contributing scholars and translators are credited inside the app and on relevant content pages.
Editorial standards
Shalem does not invent texts. It does not generate fake source citations. The matching engine surfaces real material from the curated database; the framing reflection is generated, but the cited text is real and traceable to a published source.
Translations are reviewed for emotional fidelity rather than philological precision. Where multiple acceptable translations exist, Shalem chooses the one that lands cleanly in modern English without flattening the original. We favor established editions — Koren, JPS, Steinsaltz where applicable — and reserve on-the-fly translation only for short phrases with established renderings.
When a translation is found to be flawed, it is corrected and the change ships in the next content update. Users who spot an error can email support@shalemapp.com with the source citation and the proposed correction. Corrections that hold up to review are made.
The 1,278-text working database is the baseline. New texts are added periodically. Texts are rarely removed, and only when a translation is found unrecoverable. The database composition skews toward the practical-spiritual end of the corpus: Psalms heavily, aggadic Talmud over halachic Talmud, narrative midrash over derivational midrash, Chassidic teaching that addresses interior life over Chassidic teaching that addresses communal practice.
Where to reach us
All inquiries — user support, press, partnerships, security, integration questions, content corrections, privacy requests — go through one address: support@shalemapp.com.
We deliberately keep this lean. Splitting the inbox by department creates the illusion of scale without the substance. One address, real responses, target turnaround within 48 hours.
For urgent security issues, prefix the subject line with [SECURITY] to route to priority review.
For questions that should reach the founder directly rather than the support queue, prefix the subject line with [FOUNDER] and we will route appropriately. Please use this sparingly — most things resolve faster through the standard queue.
A note on what Shalem is for
Shalem is not trying to be the only spiritual app a user uses. It is trying to be the one they reach for when the moment is small, grounded, and personal. If a user needs a community, they should find a shul or chavurah. If a user needs to study, they should sit with Sefaria or a chevruta. If a user needs care, they should find a therapist. Shalem is the thing between those — the 90-second response when something is happening and a Jewish framing would help.
That narrowness is deliberate. It is what allows the product to be honest.