Long-time HN lurker here! Was excited to see this discussion around my major interests of Talmud, Kabbalah, and tech.
There are a lot of misconceptions and mystique surrounding the Talmud. I'd like to take the opportunity to clarify some fundamental aspects, as relates to the discussion here:
The famous "Talmud page" (discussed in the links in the parent comment) was set by a Christian printer in the 16th century.
It emulated a common layout in medieval Christian manuscripts for Christian primary texts and commentaries [0].
The analogy of the Talmud to a hypertext isn't especially apt, IMO. The Talmud indeed extensively cites Bible and Mishnah, and uses lots of technical terms. In this regard, a better analogy is to legal literature (which is what the Talmud in fact is). While being couched as a (fictional) "conversation"/dialogue between rabbis who lived over the course of ~400 years (100 CE to 500 CE).
In fact, Kabbalah (as another commenter mentioned) is a better example of a “hypertext,” since it’s full of recurring symbols that point to different Sefirot and other core concepts.
(By way of credentials: I hold an MA in academic Talmud and Kabbalah, write on these subjects in several venues, and have presented at academic workshops. Over the past two years, I’ve also been developing digital-humanities projects related to this work.)
That's awesome!! Thank you very much! I would have next asked you, what do you think of those apps for studying the Talmud, https://www.sefaria.org/app et al, but in those links you already mention it. Looking forward to reading these, thanks!
Sefaria is incredible, it's revolutionized access to classical texts. And their API gives full and complete access. My vibe-coded Talmud reader website fetches Talmud, Bible, and translations from Sefaria, you might be interested in checking it out :)
> The analogy of the Talmud to a hypertext isn't especially apt, IMO.
Isn’t it? Every page of the Talmud includes marginal notes (Masoret HaShas, Ein Mishpat, Torah Or) giving cross-references to relevant parts of the Torah, Talmud and other legal codes. In a web-based version I think it would be natural to represent those with hypertext.
>"Isn’t it? Every page of the Talmud includes marginal notes (Masoret HaShas, Ein Mishpat, Torah Or) giving cross-references to relevant parts of the Torah, Talmud and other legal codes. In a web-based version I think it would be natural to represent those with hypertext."
But my point is that those marginal notes are an artifact of the 16th century print edition. It's not anything inherent in the Talmud text.
The famous 16th-century Mikraot Gedolot edition of the Bible also features extensive marginal notes (the Mesorah) which function much like a dense network of cross-references.
In fact, the Mesorah is a medieval work (drawing on ancient sources) and is arguably was one of the most elaborate systems of cross-referencing found anywhere, at the time it was promulgated.
This differs from the Talmud’s cross-referencing, which doesn't predate the printed edition (as I note in the Seforim Blog article; the page citations are reliant on the universal page numbers that started from the first print edition).
> But my point is that those marginal notes are an artifact of the 16th century print edition. It's not anything inherent in the Talmud text.
OK, fair enough, if ‘the Talmud text’ is taken to be only the Mishna and the Gemara. (Though when I think of the Talmud it’s the printed edition that comes to mind, with all its accompanying commentary.)
Oh, just let two instances chat with each other and either let me read the conversation logs or have them present me what they learned/came up with since I've last checked on them. And that would be the end of all it all.
Author is very kind! In practice, many times I saw only the CR/CRU of CRUD getting implemented.
For example: as a company aspires to launch its product, one of the first features implemented in any system is to add a new user. But when the day comes when a customer leaves, suddenly you discover no one implemented off-boarding and cleanup of any sort.
They are designing it to sell. Their potential buyers are sociopaths just like them. These buyers, in turn, will also not benefit from the software, but I do imagine it would sell nicely. SNAFU.
Good that does not sustain itself is quite sad - you can see the efforts going down the drain. Aligning good and sustainable (utilitarian) is worthwhile imho.
I have a similar monitor at work. I find my adhd deals better with a single, wider monitor than with multiple monitors.
That said, as I type, my keystrokes make the monitor shake. This is visibly irritating and I still haven't solved this issue. Looking at this monitor I'd sadly expect the same to happen.
(*maybe, not 100% sure)