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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:	BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:	1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:	SMURF::FENSTER

Created:	Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1524
Total number of notes:	18709

49.0. "TALMUD - Online" by RDVAX::SENECHAL () Sun Nov 17 1985 02:15

Sometime ago, I came across a brief reference to a project starting up
in Israel in which the Talmud, commentaries and associated writings (I
believe) were to be put into an online system.  Can anyone provide any
details about this project or, perhaps, direct me to one or more of the
principals involved?

Presumably the goal is to develop a 'living' system whereby online
querying, searches, cross-referencing, mapping, etc, etc would be
supported rather than a simpler text based system.  Creating such a
system will require resolution of a number of database issues/problems,
for example: semantic parsers, natural language i/f, structures that
will be portable (ie. database with a lifetime measured in 100's of
years compared to business systems with data lifetimes of 10-20 years).

If you wish, replies could be mailed or posted here (others may be
interested).


Paul Senechal
CRA
Kanata - KAO 2/3   (University of Waterloo)
Hudson   HLO2-3/N11  (GIA External Research)

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
49.1		TAV02::GOLDMAN		`Mon Nov 18 1985 00:28`	8
	From your description, I think that the project which you are referring to is the Responsa ("Shootim") Project which has been going on for quite a long time at Bar-Ilan University. I think that Yakov Shveka is the person who is currently in charge. -alan
49.2		RDVAX::SENECHAL		`Wed Dec 04 1985 10:39`	6
	Alan, Thanks very much for your quick response. I don't suppose that Yakov Shveka is net-accessible (a la CSNET, USENET)? ADVthanksANCE Paul
49.3		TAV02::GOLDMAN		`Wed Dec 11 1985 00:19`	7
	I asked around a bit and could not get a solid answer as to whether he is net-reachable. From my experience, non-Vaxmail e-mail is not all that much more reliable than the Israeli postal system! -alan
49.4		RDVAX::SENECHAL		`Thu Dec 12 1985 23:20`	4
	Thanks, I'll try to follow up directly as you suggest Alan. Chuckle, chuckle ... Paul
49.5		TAV02::ROSENMAN		`Thu Jan 02 1986 01:52`	8
	I believe that Bar-Ilan University is accessible on the BITNET college network. I regularly route my mail thru the following gateway into BITNET. RHEA::DECWRL::"[email protected]" to my former colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science. There is a BITNET map somewhere on Gateways that I seem to remember-anyway besides the bitnet address of Bar Ilan you need the correct userid. What I therefore suggest is to send electronic mail to the most knowledgeable person at Weizmann whose id is VSHANK who can certainly give you the exact address you seek.
49.6		R2D2::GREG		`Fri Jan 03 1986 05:18`	13
	The following locations are to the best of my knowledge on BITNET. Please note that the link to node HUMUS is expensive so please don't waste $$$. Hebrew University of Jerusalem Dept. of Computer Sc. node HUMUS Tel Aviv University Dept. of Mathematical Sciences node TAURUS Weizmann Institute, Rehovot node WISDOM Ben Gurion University, Dept of Math & Science, Beersheva node BENGUS Technion, Haifa node TECHNION To route mail via UUCP use the following address format RHEA::DECWRL::"[email protected]" Greg
49.7		RDVAX::SENECHAL		`Mon Jan 06 1986 15:48`	7
	Re: .5,.6 Thanks for the suggestions. I have already sent a letter through the postal system; all I need is a reply. Paul.
49.8		GALLO::JMCGREAL	Jane McGreal	`Tue Apr 01 1986 15:46`	33
	I found the following in the book: "The Universal Machine- Confessions of a Technological Optimist" by Pamela McCorduck. Chapter 3 "Technologies of the Intellect" Page 40 "A project at Bar Ilan University in Israel to store all the historical precedents of Jewish law in a form that will allow questions and answers to be easily consulted and compared is already changing the practice of law there; moreover, it is having a subtle sociological effect as previously neglected commentaries from the Sephardic tradiction appear right beside the dominant Ashkenazic traditions and thus must be taken into account." Chapter 4 "Books" Page 51 "When the project to computerize the commentary on Jewish law got under way at Bar Ilan University in Israel, the programmers faced a puzzle. Jewish law prohibits the name of God once written from being erased or the paper upon which it is written from being destroyed. Could the name of God be erased from a video screen, the disks, the tape? The rabbis pondered the programmers' question and finally ruled that these media were not considered writing; they could be erased. In other words, electronic text is impermanent, flimsy, malleable, contingent."
49.9	Well ?	NONAME::MAHLER	Michael	`Thu May 01 1986 13:51`	5
	What is the status of the project ?
49.10	Another Project	34823::LENOW		`Thu May 12 1988 18:05`	18
	You may be interested in this additional information. The Babylonian Talmud and the Yerushalmi Talmud are both being entered full text onto a computer at the Saul Lieberman Institute by a team headed by Sharma Freedman. I will get more information and post it here. The implications are clear. It is impossible to know the entire B. Talmud and to be able to check one portion against another let alone know all of the commentaries and midrashic literature. At a page a day it takes over seven years to study the entire work. I have been working on it over 40 years and I am ashamed to admit how much I don't know. Being able to manipulate the text with query language is only one of the nice things that will happen. I understand that different versions are also being entered to assist in understanding where some emandations might have occured. Marty Lenow language is only one of the nice things that will happen.
49.11	A related project	TAV02::SID	Sid Gordon	`Mon May 16 1988 16:50`	8
	A related project was originally developed as a "psak halacha service" -- that is, the user would enter a halachic question and the computer would respond with the appropriate answer. However, an even more useful service was then developed. The user enters the halachic question, then the answer he would like to receive, and the computer tells him which rabbi to ask... :-)