2008 Woodie Awards
WikiTorah
Ben Greenfield
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Kol Hamevaser
Yet no miracle is required - only WikiTorah. If a bahur with Rabbi Sobolofsky composed a page on shelakot, if a rookie with Rabbi Rosensweig uploaded the conceptual underpinnings of shekhitah as a mitzvah, if a person in Ponovizh posted his hakira in migo, that miraculous state of affairs would appear before our computer-focused eyes. A constantly expanding and self-editing guide to iyun Gemara would emerge, providing talmidim and talmidei hakhamim alike with the Torah's greatest resource since Matan Torah. With expansive knowledge of shitot and hakirot taken as basic knowledge, shiur would offer Roshei Yeshiva opportunity to dazzle their students with novel interpretations, critique of radical new posts, and analysis of how last week's suggestions radically affect far-off sugyot. By the next morning, his 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 sugyot, 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 hakhanah and hazarah - where the sum total of Roshei Yeshiva's thoughts on any covered sugya 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?
Ben Greenfield is a new addition to the Kol HaMevaser staff and editor of the pshat-based DvarTorahProject.blogspot.com
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 sugyot, 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 hakhanah and hazarah - where the sum total of Roshei Yeshiva's thoughts on any covered sugya 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?
Ben Greenfield is a new addition to the Kol HaMevaser staff and editor of the pshat-based DvarTorahProject.blogspot.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
shmuel
posted 3/05/08 @ 1:09 PM EST
Seforim will never be placed by on-line material as long as computers and other such technology is off limits on Shabbos and Yom Tov
Ariella
posted 3/05/08 @ 4:09 PM EST
Want Wiki-Torah?
Go to Hebrew Wikisource: he.wikisource.org
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