Free Download of the Soncino Talmud in English Online at Halakhah.com: 25,000+ satisfied customers a month

The Soncino Babylonian Talmud English translation is online - at a site that is not anti-Semitic or polemical.

Download the Talmud in English free at http://www.halakhah.com/ - 25,000+ downloads each month! 300,000+ each year.

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY AND INDICES UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF RABBI DR. I. EPSTEIN B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit. FOREWORD BY THE VERY REV. THE LATE CHIEF RABBI DR. J. H. HERTZ. INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. THE SONCINO PRESS, LONDON.

Contains the Sedarim (orders, or major divisions) and tractates (books) of the Babylonian Talmud, as translated and organized for publication by the Soncino Press in 1935 - 1948.

The site has the entire Soncino Talmud edition in PDF format and  about 8050 pages on line in browser compatible HTML format, comprising 1460 files — of the Soncino Talmud.

Please add a link to the site http://www.halakhah.com on your web site or blog.

Highlights:

• A newly formatted 2-column PDF version of the Soncino Talmud at Halakhah.com.
• A Kindle edition of the Soncino Talmud available from Amazon.com: The Kindle Soncino Talmud in English

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Technology to the Rescue to Solve the Social Problem of Sock Puppets

The integrity and value of social networks and of commercial product and service reviews depends on the authenticity of the content.

Big companies like Amazon and big universities like Cornell and others are hard at work developing policies and algorithms to solve the problem of sock puppet posting of reviews and other content on the Internet.

Here are three examples:

1. Cornell software fingers fake online reviews: Cornell brainiacs have come up with software that spots fake reviews, something we humans aren't good at. Fictitious happy customers beware.

2. A sock puppet detection algorithm on virtual spaces. Knowledge-Based Systems (January 2013), 37, Complete, pg. 366-377.

"On virtual spaces, some individuals use multiple usernames or copycat/forge other users (usually called “sock puppet”) to communicate with others. Those sock puppets are fake identities through which members of Internet community praise or create the illusion of support for the product or one’s work, pretending to be a different person. A fundamental problem is how to identify these sock puppets.

"In this paper, we propose a sock puppet detection algorithm which combines authorship-identification techniques and link analysis. Firstly, we propose an interesting social network model in which links between two IDs are built if they have similar attitudes to most topics that both of them participate in; then, the edges are pruned according a hypothesis test, which consider the impact of their writing styles; finally, the link-based community detection for pruned network is performed. Compared to traditional methods, our approach has three advantages: (1) it conforms to the practical meanings of sock puppet community; (2) it can be applied in online situation; (3) it increases the efficiency of link analysis. In the experimental work, we evaluate our method using real datasets and compared our approach with several previous methods; the results have proved above advantages."

3. Amazon Tackles Review Problem, Deletes Wrong Reviews (Forbes): Amazon is quite strict about their policy. They take questionable reviews right down, and if questioned they explain it bluntly:

I’m sorry for any previous concerns regarding your reviews on our site. We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product.

We have removed your reviews as they are in violation of our guidelines. We will not be able to go into further detail about our research.

I understand that you are upset, and I regret that we have not been able to address your concerns to your satisfaction. However, we will not be able to offer any additional insight or action on this matter.

As is often the case in the world of high-tech, social problems can be solved in part by developing even more high tech.

We recommend these books for you!

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Jewish Channel's Steven I. Weiss Reveals that Rabbi Hershel Goldwasser is the Sock Puppet identity of Rabbi Michael Broyde

The tireless journalist and spirited blogger at the the Jewish Channel, Steven I. Weiss, revealed yesterday that Rabbi Hershel Goldwasser has been the sock-puppet identity of Rabbi Michael Broyde for twenty years, "An investigation by The Jewish Channel reveals a fake rabbi’s connections to a leading rabbinical court judge."

Weiss is a thorough reporter who has no sympathy for supposedly good rabbis who hide their identities to do bad things. In 2005 for example, he reported with care on goings on connected to a rabbi in Teaneck who hid behind a fake identity to rant about the State of Israel in ways that went far beyond the norms of acceptable communal discourse.

There's probably nothing criminal in making up a fake identity and having "him" praise your real identity or having "him" express opinions that you are afraid to express yourself, as Broyde did. It is creepy behavior, that's for sure. And there will be those who make the case that it is unprofessional behavior for a rabbi with a leadership position on a Jewish tribunal to engage in this level of deception for this many years.

Weiss' report is long and detailed and conveys to this blogger a clear sense that Broyde is rightfully embarrassed to have been exposed.

Late yesterday Broyde admitted his charade and tried to apologize for his actions in a strange way on a quirky Orthodox web site, including this final awful attempt at justification, "Basically we were told that given the level of unpleasant discourse in our Orthodox Jewish community, some things just need to be said pseudonymously." 

Our continued admiration goes to Steven I. Weiss for writing stories such as this one.

We recommend these books for you! 

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Video: Bangladesh Fanatics Demand Death Penalty for Blog Blasphemy

Bangladesh fanatics gathered to demand the death penalty for blog blasphemy:

"Hundreds of thousands of people have held protests in Bangladesh to demand that the government introduce an anti-blasphemy law that would include the death penalty for bloggers who insult Islam."

See the video report on AlJazeera.

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The Pitputim Blog Makes us a Wonderful Post

Thanks go out to the wonderful blog Pitputim for the promotions for our publications by Reuven Brauner et. al.. They said:

I am pleased to inform you that several new ETC publications by Reuven Brauner are NOW available on Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy’s wonderful Torah resource site http://www.halakhah.com (http://halakhah.com/index.html).

Newly uploaded are:

1. An updated and revised edition of 25 RULES FOR PERFORMING MITZVOHS derived from the famous Halachic compendium, the Chayei Odom. This is available at http://halakhah.com/rst/25rules.pdf.
2. A completely new translation with commentaries of SEFER MISHLEI (the Book of Proverbs). This you can find at http://halakhah.com/rst/mishlei.pdf.
3. The first volume (Bereishis) of Dr. Seligmann Baer’s (author of Siddur Avodas Yisroel) famous MASORETIC TEXT OF THE TANACH. This can be accessed at http://halakhah.com/rst/baer1.pdf. The remaining books of Tanach (except for Shemos through Devorim which were never produced) will be available, too, but due to their large size we are trying to figure out if it should be made available as zip files or on Drop Box or something like that.
4. Another volume in the Hadgashas Hane’emar series, SEFER YONA http://halakhah.com/rst/yona.pdf. Soon to be available on halakhah.com, please G-d, will be Sefer Esther (in time for Purim) and Sefer Ruth http://halakhah.com/rst/ruth.pdf. BTW, the entire Tanach has been formatted like this and, please G-d, will be made available in due time, as well. I think this format is an excellent study tool, particularly for young students, facilitating faster and better comprehension of the text.

Besides these items, halakhah.com hosts a number of other ETC monographs and works including the comprehensive Hebrew Verb Root thesaurus Shoroshim http://halakhah.com/rst/shoroshim.pdf, hundreds of non-esoteric passages from the Zohar http://halakhah.com/rst/kkz.pdf, an index to the usage of all verses and passages from Tanach in our liturgy, called Shimush Pesukim http://halakhah.com/rst/pesukim.pdf, a nice translation of Pirkei Avos with many unique and interesting lists http://halakhah.com/rst/pirkeiavos.pdf and lots more unique, fun and educational material.

On top of all this, you have the entire two-column, easy to read and download, REFORMATTED SONCINO TALMUD – the only complete, online, English language translation of the Talmud at http://halakhah.com/indexrst.html as well as the more traditional format of the Soncino, found scrolled-down lower on the same page. 

Rabbi Zahavy has made available some of his excellent works there, too, including access to an outstanding, world-class and highly-recommended philosophical exposition called Whence and Wherefore written by his late father, Rabbi Zev Zahavy, ztz”l. This book explores the most fundamental issues of the purpose and meaning of the creation, life and existence.

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NYTimes: A Dissident Egyptian Blogger's Visit to Israel

Inspiring courage. From The New York Times:

THE LEDE BLOG: A Dissident Egyptian Blogger's Visit to Israel

Maikel Nabil, an Egyptian blogger who was jailed for eight months last year by Egypt's military for expressing his views on politics and religion, began a tour of Israel...

http://nyti.ms/VV7HSt

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Is science fiction Jewish?

It's a fair question. Is science fiction Jewish?

Some bloggers say yes, science fiction, is Jewish!

The Exploring Our Matrix blog brings up the question in this way, "Is the Oldest Science Fiction in the Talmud?"

The basis for the question is this text from the Talmud (b. Menahot 29b) which presents Moses as a time traveler.

Rab Judah said in the name of Rab, When Moses ascended on high he found the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in affixing coronets to the letters.

Said Moses, ‘Lord of the Universe, Who stays Thy hand?’

He answered, ‘There will arise a man, at the end of many generations, Akiba b. Joseph by name, who will expound upon each tittle heaps and heaps of laws’. ‘Lord of the Universe’, said Moses; ‘permit me to see him’. He replied, ‘Turn thee round’.

Moses went and sat down behind eight rows [and listened to the discourses upon the law]. Not being able to follow their arguments he was ill at ease, but when they came to a certain subject and the disciples said to the master ‘Whence do you know it?’ and the latter replied ‘It is a law given unto Moses at Sinai’ he was comforted.

Thereupon he returned to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said, ‘Lord of the Universe, Thou hast such a man and Thou givest the Torah by me!’ He replied, ‘Be silent, for such is My decree’.

Then said Moses, ‘Lord of the Universe, Thou hast shown me his Torah, show me his reward’. ‘Turn thee round’, said He; and Moses turned round and saw them weighing out his flesh at the market-stalls. ‘Lord of the Universe’, cried Moses, ‘such Torah, and such a reward!’ He replied, ‘Be silent, for such is My decree’.

Well beam me up Scottie. I for one am convinced totally that the Talmud has the earliest science fiction!

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Times Mag: Does Swimming Make You Smarter?

Yes, according to an article in the Times Magazine, "How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain" by Gretchen Reynolds, swimming does make you smarter.

The value of mental-training games may be speculative, as Dan Hurley writes in his article on the quest to make ourselves smarter, but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering evidence of the beneficial relationship between exercise and brainpower. But the newest findings make it clear that this isn’t just a relationship; it is the relationship. Using sophisticated technologies to examine the workings of individual neurons — and the makeup of brain matter itself — scientists in just the past few months have discovered that exercise appears to build a brain that resists physical shrinkage and enhance cognitive flexibility. Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does...

Just how exercise remakes minds on a molecular level is not yet fully understood, but research suggests that exercise prompts increases in something called brain-derived neurotropic factor, or B.D.N.F., a substance that strengthens cells and axons, fortifies the connections among neurons and sparks neurogenesis. Scientists can’t directly study similar effects in human brains, but they have found that after workouts, most people display higher B.D.N.F. levels in their bloodstreams...

We swim a mile a day. That's why this blog is so darn smart.



The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English
Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer

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Tzvee's Talmudic blog in New York Magazine

Tzvee's Talmudic blog was mentioned in New York Magazine Comments this week

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer
The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

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Announcing fewer book promotions on Tzvee's Talmudic Blog - Moving those to our new Talmudic Books blog

We are moving our promotional book postings to our new blog. (There have been many here.) We want to keep this blog purely for our topical Talmudic analysis of the world.

Announcing fewer book promotions here - we are moving all of those to our new Talmudic Books blog. There you will find the news, events and reviews of our Talmudic Books publications.

Don't forget that you can download many of our offerings for free at Halakhah.com!

Look for this PDF link graphic on our new blog.

So if you want to find out about our new Kindle volumes for Erubin and Pesahim (and who doesn't?)  please go directly to Amazon or to our new blog.

Or click on a link below - it will take you to an Amazon Listmania! page (where you conveniently can buy all of our books with just one click on the bottom of the page).

Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer

The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English

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The Sunrise and the Redemption of the Jews in Yerushalmi Berakhot and in the Book of Esther

Talmudic life extends the space-time continuum with an acute awareness of the physical here-and-now and deepens the spectrum of thought and meaning with trajectories back into the distant past of the scripture and forward to the hopeful expectation for salvation.

This passage below from the Talmud Yerushalmi Tractate Berakhot demonstrates key aspects of the logic of a Talmudic life - what we explore every day in this blog. The rabbis in the passage practice a mindfulness of the natural world on a seamless continuum with thoughtfulness about their textual world, their imagined pasts and futures.

Below, in this passage that we cite, they want to understand the dynamics of sunrise, part of their everyday natural lives. They need to know when day begins so they can start to say their daily prayers at the correct hour.

On their way to determine this they talk about visual observation and use poetic terms from scripture. They measure the elapsed time of a pre-dawn period by specifying durations for physical activities of walking. But their walking has no physical or temporal boundaries. The dusty roads of the Land of Israel in late antiquity lead them directly into the book of Genesis.

The four miles that the rabbis might walk to determine a period of elapsed time are the same four miles that Lot and his wife and daughters would walk at the behest of heavenly angels. And if those biblical four miles were really not four miles, miracles made them so.

And yet the passage tells us, when rabbis Hiyya and Simeon once were walking in a real valley at daybreak, they were not satisfied to speak about the technical definitions of the durations of the pre-dawn periods, though they surely could have done just that and stopped.

They instead looked at the rays of the dawn and launched their time machine into the future, into a peroration on the redemption of the Jewish people. As they mindfully noted the real rays of that dawn, they pondered the equally real rays of the prophetic words of Micah and of the melodramatic story of biblical Esther.

(We cite the passage from our 1989 translation of Talmud Yerushalmi, The Talmud of the Land of Israel: Tractate Berakhot, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, page 13 and following.)

[X.A] [This unit expands upon the discussion of the terms used to refer to the period of time preceding sunrise.] Said R. Hinnena [vars: Hasna, Haninah], "From the [time in the morning sometimes called the] `hind of the dawn' [a poetic expression comparing the pattern of the first rays of light to the antlers of a deer,] until the [sky in the] east is lit [entirely] one [has enough time to] walk four miles. [`Mile' refers to 2000 paces, about 1470 meters, that is somewhat less than the modern English mile of about 1609 meters.] From [the time] the east is lit until sunrise [one has enough time to walk another] four miles."

[B] And whence [do we know] that from [the time] the east is lit until sunrise [one has enough time to walk] four miles? As it is written, "When morning dawned [the angels urged Lot saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city]" [Gen.19:15]. And it is written, "The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar" [Gen. 19:23]. [Between the first light and the rise of the sun Lot walked from Sodom to Zoar.]

[C] But is the distance from Sodom to Zoar four miles? It is more!

[D] Said R. Zeira, "The angel shortened the way for them." [Though it was more, he made it as if it were four miles.]

[E] And whence [do we know] that from the first rays of dawn [`hind of dawn'] to [the time] the eastern sky is lit [completely, one can walk] four miles? [Scripture says,] "wkmw [lit: and like] When morning dawned" [Gen. 19:15]. And kmw is a comparative term. [It implies that the two intervals, from when the eastern sky is lit until dawn, and from when the first rays of light appear until the eastern sky is lit, are of equal duration.]

[F] Said R. Yose b. R. Bun, "[Concerning] this term `the [time of the appearance of the] hind of dawn,' he who says it refers to [time of the appearance of] a [morning] star, [presumably Venus,] is in error. For at times [this star] appears earlier, and at times, later."

[G] What is then [the definition of this term]? It refers to [the appearance of] two rays of light which originate in the eastern sky and illuminate [the heaven]. [The word qrn means both `ray' and `antler'.]

[H] And once R. Hiyya the great and R. Simeon ben Halafta were walking in the valley of Arbel at daybreak. And they saw the first rays of dawn [`hind of dawn'] as the daylight broke forth [into the sky].

[I] Said R. Hiyya the great to R. Simeon ben Halafta b. Rabbi, "[Like the break of day] so is the redemption of Israel. It begins little by little and, as it proceeds, it grows greater and greater."

[J] What is his basis [for this comparison of daybreak and redemption]? [Scripture says,] "When I sit in darkness the Lord will be a light to me" [Micah 7:8, i.e. he will redeem me].

[K] [By way of illustration of this last teaching:] So it was at the outset [the redemption of Israel in the time of Esther, for example, proceeded slowly as it says,] "And Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate" [Esther 2:21].

[L] And thereafter [it grew greater as the passage indicates], "So Haman took the robes and the horse [and he arrayed Mordecai]" [Esther 6:11].

[M] And thereafter, "Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes" [Esther 8:15].

[N] And thereafter, "The Jews had [the] light [of redemption] and gladness and joy and honor" [Esther 8:16]. [The redemption proceeds slowly at first and then quickly shines forth like light, a term used in the last verse.]

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Link to the Reformatted Soncino Talmud in English Online at Halakhah.com

The Reformatted Soncino Babylonian Talmud English translation is online.

Download this newly reformatted edition of the Talmud in English free at http://www.halakhah.com/indexrst.html

This new edition was reformatted by Reuven Brauner of Raanana Israel in 5771. It is in PDF file format in two-column pages.

The standard description of the publication is: TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY AND INDICES UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF RABBI DR. I. EPSTEIN B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit. FOREWORD BY THE VERY REV. THE LATE CHIEF RABBI DR. J. H. HERTZ. INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. THE SONCINO PRESS, LONDON.

This edition Contains the Sedarim (orders, or major divisions) and tractates (books) of the Babylonian Talmud, as translated and organized for publication by the Soncino Press in 1935 - 1948.

The site has the entire Soncino Talmud edition in the newly reformatted easy to read PDF format.

The earlier edition in one-column format in PDF and HTML is also available on the site.

Please add a link to the site http://www.halakhah.com on your web site or blog.

"God's Favorite Prayers"

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