[ad_1]
The sprawling nature of the Talmud, the place dialogue of 1 matter leads seamlessly to a different, generally with solely the loosest of connections, has invited comparability with the Web, the place a reader can comply with one hyperlink after one other to roam farther and farther afield from the topic with which she or he started. However the comparability solely goes up to now, writes Gil Scholar:
Whereas there’s some fact to this summary comparability, [the differences] deserve our consideration as properly. [The Talmud] begins with web page 2a of Tractate Brakhot and continues for two,711 pages till it concludes with Nidah 73a. After all, you can begin wherever within the center, significantly in the beginning of any of the 37 tractates. However it has a discrete starting and finish. . . . Against this, the Web has no entrance or exit. Each article incorporates hyperlinks to many others. Each individual has his personal starting and solely stops when different considerations beckon.
[In studying the Talmud], we examine the textual content, maybe with further instruments when obtainable, however at all times remaining on, or a minimum of returning to, the web page. The Web, [by contrast], has no anchor, sending you throughout the globe with countless hyperlinks.
Lastly, notes Scholar, whereas the Web encourages social isolation, the Talmud is typically studied communally—with a examine accomplice, or in a category, and even individually within the public house of the synagogue or examine corridor.
Signal Up For Our E-Mail Record Get the newest from Mosaic proper in your inbox
Learn extra at Jewish Motion
Extra about:
Web, Talmud
[ad_2]
Source link
