Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Torah in a box

Here's an interesting letter from the Debrecener Rov of Boro Park in Hamaor (5748/ 1988), about the computerization of Torah:


A follow-up in the next issue.

12 comments:

  1. I'm surprised they published the follow-up. He says that the Be'er Moshe (i.e. the sefer authored by R. Stern) has "דברי הבל ושותא רינוקא ופסקי הלכות שיש
    בהם להכשיל את הרבים"

    http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=28038&hilite=1c853b41-74f7-42fa-a772-3c6111c2cf6f&st=%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%A7%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9F&pgnum=25

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  2. This comment seems like it was said 20 years too early.

    I was still in diapers then, but I can't imagine what in the world he was talking about back then when windows was still 2.0 and personal computers still all that common. What kind of Torah programs did they have then?

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  3. I assume it is referring specifically to the Bar Ilan database which was not yet on CD-Rom in 1988, but was already available in universities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah_database#The_Bar-Ilan_Responsa_Project

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    Replies
    1. The question is whether he would take this line with otzar hachochmah or hebrew books. Take the disdain for Kehati as an example.

      Delete
  4. I agree with Anonymous that this comment is very surprising given the year. It's also tragic/comedic for obvious reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting, I'm just wondering who a added to the Debrecener rov the name 'shmuel' 15 years after his passing... In other words, the letter was not written by the Debrecener rov!

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  6. This is not Debrecener, in fact I know this guy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ditto.

      If he was trying to impersonate the Debrezener, you'd think he at least knew that the Be'er Moshe never signed "Shmuel".

      Delete
  7. Actually, this sort of complaint is nothing new. Replace "kompyuter" with "Mishneh Torah" and you have a typical reaction to Rambam's project ca. 1180.

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  8. Dan Klein - "haha!"

    In response to these article...heh...If only it would be that easy. Talmidei Chachamim think cause I have a computer I can suddenly pull up every little thing in a second...Far from the truth. Especially if you only have Hebrew Books ... The advantage is is that you have more seforim to work with. Granted Otzer HaChachma and Bar Ilan one can search easier...But in any case you still need to put in a lot of work...

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  9. The essential processing of the information is lacking on the computer. This isn't the first nonsensical Ma'acha'ah to be made yet.

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  10. I wonder, did whoever wrote that check out p.2 of the journal (http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=28037&st=&pgnum=2)? :)

    Oh, and whatever you do, don't give him or his family an ArtScroll book as a gift!

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