7. The Open Source Beit Midrash
Yesterday, I spoke about the need to create a repository of sacred Jewish texts encoded in XML, a format that would enable software developers to take the creation of Jewish educational Web applications to the next level.
Today, I’m going to show you an application I’ve been dreaming about in various incarnations for about five years, The Open Source Beit Midrash, which will only be possible when such a repository comes into existence.
Let’s say you wanted to study parshat hashavuah (the weekly Torah portion) with a friend online. Using today’s presently available resources, this is generally how you’ve been forced to do so:
On the top left, I’ve got my Hebrew scripture, on the right my English translation, on the bottom left my Hebrew/English dictionary, and to the right of that a Skype session open featuring my beloved coworker Avi.
It’s a cluttered mess, obviously. And worse yet, none of this stuff is talking to each other. Avi can’t see what I’m looking at, nor I he, and I have to flip through a bunch of windows to accomplish the simplest task.
At some point it occurred to me, “wouldn’t it be great if all this stuff was weaved together and my chevruta (study partner) and I could share the same screen?”
I’m not the only one to whom this thought has occurred. A couple years after I started prototyping this project, Rabbi Chaim Brovender launched the WebYeshiva, an online beit midrash (study hall) that uses the WebEx Web conferencing suite to get multiple people looking at the same page of text, with a teacher guiding a live, video-enabled shiur (lecture).
WebYeshiva is as good as it gets, for the time being. But it could be done so much better — especially if it can be matched with the power of interactive tools which make the most out of XML encoded Jewish texts.
So, I present to you my version of the Web yeshiva (with gracious nods to TanakhML where from I pilfered the Hebrew rendering):
There’s a lot going on here, obviously, so allow me to break it down.
At the top of the page is a series of page tools for navigating the text. On the left, there’s a tool bar containing research and annotation tools, and on the bottom is a study partner window that enables you to interact with your chevruta. (You like my khop thumb?)
The page tools allow you to: Select a source (Tanakh, Mishnah, Gemara, etc.), a volume (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc.), a chapter, and a verse; page back and forth between chapters, verses and volumes using “previous” and “next” buttons. Toggle on and off Hebrew vowels and cantillation marks. Play audio of the full text read aloud. Select a translation language, open a split screen containing the translation (shown below), interweave an interlinear translation into the text, and hide or show the translation. Mark the page as a favorite, add it to a personal folder of collected texts, copy the URL of the page to your clipboard, email the page to a friend, download an MP3 of the audio reading, download a PDF of the full text, or print the page.
Then there is the toolbar.
The toolbar will let you: Choose a pointer to point at text like a yad. Translate text on the fly with pop-out translations similar to my Pop-Up Jewish Dictionary. Click on words for a full concordance indexing every mention of that word throughout the entire text database. Get audio pronunciations of a given word on mouseover. Highlight a specific section of text. Add annotations anywhere in the text and view others’ annotations. Tag portions of text with keywords. View and add cross-references to other texts, such as Meforshim (rabbinic commentators). And zoom in-and-out on the current page’s text.
Finally there is the study partner window:
The study partner window will let you: Choose study partners, whether on your personal buddy list or those just hanging around online looking for someone to learn with. Grab a URL of a link to that learning session to send to others who may not be online. Turn on-and-off your Web camera. Mute your microphone. Join a text-based chat. View a user’s profile or report and block them for inappropriate behavior. You can also choose the mode of study: You can “lead” which will allow you to control the session, so that whatever happens on your screen happens on your partner’s screen. You can “follow” so that none of your mouse movements interfere with the lesson. Or you can “collaborate” which will allow all partners to control the session at once.
When it all comes together, it’ll look something like this:
When I started with this project, some of the ideas I had for this application presented exceptional challenges. The technology just wasn’t caught up with my thinking. I’m pleased to say, however, that today there is nothing this software can do that present technology will not allow for. You could even throw gematria and Bible codes in the spec, or let people choose two different verses and see how many hops across rabbinic commentaries it takes to get from one to the other. The only missing piece (apart from having a software development team at my disposal) is having Jewish texts encoded in such a way that enables them to be cross-referenced and interacted with in such advanced ways.
This application has the potential to change the way we regard Jewish texts now and forever. It would enable the most meager novice to dive into learning our sacred texts and empower even our most erudite scholars to engage with these texts in ways they had never imagined. Its potential ramifications for the future of Jewish learning are unquantifiable.
Again, this kind of tool is absolutely necessary should we desire to make Jewish learning accessible to those whom can’t afford or who have become alienated from traditional institutions of learning.
G-d willing, one day this idea will move beyond the realm of dream, into reality.
