The Talmud and the Internet : A Journey between Worlds

Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking essay- memoir
Review: This is a very thought -provoking essay-memoir. Rosen connects Talmud and Internet as ways of reading hypertext, of skipping back and forth, of placing commentary against commentary, of finding diverse worlds in the text. This comparison on one level works while on a deeper one does not. The Internet is easy and children can manage to work on it. Talmudic Study is extremely difficult, tremendously challenging intellectually, requires a very practiced and sharp mind. I learn in a Daf Yomi shiur in which we study each day one page of the Talmudic text. I find tremendous difficulty in even understanding what is going on, much less contributing meaningfully to the discussion. I use the Internet all the time, without much difficulty. I read articles on all kinds of subjects and find understanding no great problem.
Rosen uses his comparison as many Amazon reviewers pointed out to help him get into and tell his own family story. He does this in a moving and interesting way. On this level the book truly works. Also his interest in Judaism and knowledge of it is considerable .The problem is he taking the Internet as model tends to use one historical stage of Jewish existence the stage of exile and wandering as Ideal. This is of course in total contradiction with the Tradition itself, whose ideal is not scattering but rather ingathering. Return to Israel, Ingathering, fulfilling the Biblical Covenant are the Ideals Jews held through the centuries and those given in the Tradition. Rosen's private definition of Jewish being everywhere and nowhere at once connects with other such historical definitions such as Neitzsche's about Jews being ' the first Europeans'. But it does not really speak to the Tradition.
Another point about the Internet. The Internet enables everyone in the world to say anything they want to say. This is in one sense a miracle and a great realization of human dreams. On the other hand it enables the worst elements - the Evil, the Haters,
the Jihadists, Nazis,- all those who diminish our Humanity to have their say. The Talmud on the other hand is a religious text sanctified in its learning. The moral difference between the two kinds of text and activity is night and day. And here I should make the point that the Internet too can and is used for noble purposes. However so far as I know it is not primarily a sacred text.
Again this is a thought - provoking and interesting work. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The Talmud, the Internet and much more
Review: This is a wonderful book that is much more than the sum of it's parts. It equates the endless possibilities of Talmud study with the various infinite links on the Internet. The book reads as a tribute to the survival of the Jewish people and how those heros(or anti-heros) such as Yochanan ben Zakkai and Josephus felt a need to spread the roots of Judaism to what has become the Diaspora. These were not perfect men the way Rosen describes them but they violated the rules to secure a belief. Jonathan Rosen also mentions his own search within his family as he attempts to unite the contradictions between both his grandmothers's life experiences. Since I also have somewhat of a similar backround, with my grandfather and my aunts having died in the Holocaust, I can identify with his search by way of the Internet. My father who was born in Poland also studied in Vienna but escaped the Nazis by way of France. The reference to Marcel Proust is a good one. Here is a half-Jew who was always writing about the beauty of contradiction in his observations about time and life. The endless Talmudic argumentations are also filled with the kind of contradictions that lead to a healthy survival.

Rating:
Summary: A fine read
Review: This is an excellent book, even though the least convincing part of it is the attempt to show similarites between the Talmud and the internet. It is really a meditation on what Judaism means to the author. The book consists of the author's reflections on many Jewish themes, with the essential theme being the acceptance of contradictions. Judaism can be viewed in many ways that may seem like opposites, but in reality create a profound way of thinking that reflects the contradictions in life. I give it four stars, not five, only because, at about 100 pages, it is really a long essay, not a book.