How the Rabbis Invented
Web 2.0 Before Its Time
Dr. Ellen Frankel
efrankel@jewishpub.org
BibleTech 2009 Seattle, March 27, 2009

History of Jewish Journeys
& Jewish Books
Before the Common Era
1800 BCE Abraham and Sarah leave Ur (Babylonia) and settle in Canaan
Israelites leave Egypt and journey to Canaan
1400 BCE
David establishes Jerusalem as capital; Solomon builds Temple
1000 BCE
Assyria conquers Northern Kingdom of Israel, exiles population
722 BCE
Babylonia conquers Judah, destroys Temple, exiles leaders
586 BCE
536 BCE Persia conquers Babylonia, Jews return to Israel, rebuild Temple
2nd C. BCE Maccabees drive out Syrian Greeks, establish Hasmonean dynasty
Hebrew Bible translated into Greek Septuagint

History of Jewish Journeys
& Jewish Books
Common Era Begins
70 Rome destroys Second Temple, exiles Jews
Rabbis canonize Bible, compose Mishnah in Israel
1st-2nd Century
Rabbis in Israel and Babylonia compose Talmud, Midrash
3rd-6th Century
6th-10th Century Masoretes vocalize Bible; transfer text from scrolls to codex
11th-14th Century European rabbis write commentaries on Bible, Talmud; create codes
13th Century Moses de Leon composes Zohar in Spain;
Maimonides organizes Jewish law and philosophy
Spain and Portugal expel the Jews;
1492-1497
New Jewish centers established in Italy, northern Africa, Israel
1516 First ghetto established in Venice; Jews persecuted throughout Europe
16th C-WW II Rabbinic academies flourish in Eastern Europe; Talmud printed

History of Jewish Journeys
& Jewish Books
Modern Era Begins
18th Century Hasidic movement begins in Eastern Europe
19th Century Napoleon emancipates Jews, grants citizenship;
Modern forces divide community into secularists, Reformers, Orthodox
Persecution forces millions of Jews to flee
1880’s
Eastern Europe for America
Jewish writers, scientists, scholars rise to prominence in
20th Century
Europe and America
Hitler murders 2/3 of European Jewry,
1938-1945
destroys 1,000 years of Yiddish and rabbinic culture
1948 United Nations partitions Palestine; the modern state of Israel is created
21st Century Israel becomes high tech incubator; Jewish entrepreneurs create
Google, Facebook, Del.icio.us, and Craigslist

Sample page
from the
Babylonian
Talmud

Sample page
from the
Mikra’ot Gedolot

PaRDeS
Process of Interpretation
Peshat: literal; plain sense of the text
Remez: allegorical; historical parallels
Derash: homiletic; lessons for living
Sod: mystical; coded language

Sample of Masoretic Text

Features of rabbinic texts
compared with Web 2.0
Web 2.0
Rabbinic System
• Schools of rabbinic masters • Social networking
• Cross-generational • User-generated content
conversations
• Formatting standards
• Standardization of page format
• Coded language
• Extensive abbreviations
• Visual hierarchy
• Primacy given to center, left
parts of page and Usability
• Proof-texts • Citation
• Teachings passed orally for
• Viral transmission
centuries
• Social learning/IMing
• Hevruta, study pairs

Big Players of the Internet
•Sergey Brin, Google: Co-founded the world's most successful search engine
•Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook: Founder
•Terry Semmel at Yahoo, Jeff Skoll at e-Bay and Barry Diller at IAC: Served as Number 1
or 2 person in three of the world's four most valuable Internet companies according to a May
2004 Fortune study
•Jeff Pulver, established internet protocol communications with Pulver Order,
adopted by FCC
•Joshua Schachter, Del.icio.us: Founded most successful aggregator site for tags
•Yossi Vardi, ICQ: Israeli VC guru who brought instant messaging to the masses
•Craig Newmark, Craig’s List: Founded largest online free classified ad site
•Larry Sanger, Wikipedia: Co-founded most successful online collaborative encyclopedia

What exactly is
the Tagged Tanakh?
This is a chair This is a tagged chair
chair chair
furniture
ergonomic
Ikea
arm_chair
manufactured
office_chair seat

Now imagine how
you could tag this:
Related Midrash
father Etymology_of_Jews
veil
Gen 38:15
brother modesty
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot;
tribe
for she had covered her face sexual innuendo
Southern_Kingdom
Shared_customs_Islam

Tools and resources to connect
people and ideas to the Bible

Learn more about the
Tagged Tanakh and other
JPS products and services at:
www.JPSinteractive.org
www.jewishpub.org