Put down your sefer. By the end of our century,
talmud Torah will be completely computerized and, barring some
terrible downturn in human progress, it is inconceivable to think
otherwise. As such, what follows is an idea that, whether you like it
or not, will happen. It represents both the future of Torah study and
its ideal state. I merely explain the impressive uses of such an
innovation and argue why Yeshiva University should act immediately to
take center stage in developing this extremely important project . .
.
WikiTorah
If we stuffed the Yeshiva World into a single Beit Midrash, what would emerge? For one thing, the quality and quantity of your personal learning would skyrocket. Next time your ventures in Berakhot inadvertently lead to a complex concept in Bava Metzia, simply walk over to Meir in the Mir preparing it for shiur and request a quick but thorough explanation. When Nachmanide's commentary can be read several ways, find the Porat Yosef student rehearsing a class on that exact topic. After all, how many thousands of Jews have poured thousands of hours into the very page sprawled open before you - if all those individuals sat together, you could finally benefit from collective knowledge. You would be left with the time and resources to better investigate more sizable and weighty sections of the Talmud. And when you uncover your own interpretation of Nachmanides or when you discover a solution in the Bavot fits poorly into Berakhot, head back over to your new found friends and share your discoveries. For it goes both ways: both imbibe and refine a sea of Torah knowledge constantly expanding and purifying itself.
But apart from your personal growth, imagine the effect on shiur. The current system is inherently skewed, for a student hears the voice of but one Rebbe. The brilliance and creativity of our Roshei Yeshiva taken as obvious, we nonetheless cannot expect each individual Rebbe to provide every minor medieval opinion and sub-opinion on a given topic; we cannot hope to hear every theoretically possible conceptual explanation and analysis; and we cannot demand to test every possible interpretation across the entire Talmud, charting how it affects topics and positions in other realms. And if we somehow could expect such exhaustive rigor, a miracle might be necessary to lay it out in clear and time-efficient language. For no matter how sweet and sage our rebbe's voice is, it is no match for the roar of a full Beit Midrash.
Yet no miracle is required - only WikiTorah. If persons in Ponovizh posted a page on a law of the paschal offering, students with Rabbi Sobolofsky submitted relevant sources on the topic, rookies with Rabbi Rosensweig wrote up new rationales for a major halakhic argument – that miraculous state of affairs would appear before our computer-focused eyes. A constantly expanding and self-editing guide to advanced Gemara would emerge, providing talmidim and talmidei hakhamim alike with the Torah's greatest resource since Sinai. With expansive knowledge of any topic already organized and accessible, shiur would offer Roshei Yeshiva opportunity to dazzle their students with novel interpretations and critique. By the next morning, their latest thoughts will appear online, ready for acceptance or rejection by the Torah community at large.
And that community should begin with YU. Yeshiva University is uniquely positioned to realize the WikiTorah dream. It is perhaps the world's only institution with sufficient financial resources, proper ideological support, and richness of Torah minds to get WikiTorah off the ground. What would be required? How about five kollel guys working on a short list of topic, and a stipend for Shiur Assistants committed to posting insights from shiur? Even if this does not immediately enter haredi or Israeli circles, simply imagine the effect on RIETS alone. An online resource - for both preparation and review - where the sum total of Roshei Yeshiva's thoughts on any covered topic exists open for all to see.
But seeing requires vision. Face it: the world is moving on-line. To quote a YU librarian: "Don't worry too much about the Library, it'll be gone in twenty years." So even if you disagree with the approach taken here, you, too, must ask yourself: when the library disappears, where will the Beit Midrash be?
1 comment:
Would we not then have the same problem as googling for information - overwhelming quantity and uneven quality. I have seen research that shows that instead of using a greater variety of sources to reach their conclusions, search-based research tends to focus on the top 10. That leads to a narrower, not a wider view.
That's the first problem - not insurmountable, but needs to be recognized.
The second problem is quality. How do we know that what we're reading is valuable, if everyone can write and be published? Just as there's a lot of nonsense that comes up in any given google search, there will be a fair amount of useless information that will come out of this as well.
It will not make things easier. It would make things more interesting.
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