Talk:Open Source Judaism

Is Open Source Judaism a "movement"?
About half the article, if not more, consists of quotes and translations of various rabbinic texts, which certainly were not part of a "movement" for "open-source" Judaism -- they predated copyright law and the internet by over 1000 years. And the stuff on top is various loosely-related facts about how various people have put Hebrew texts online for free use. How is this a "movement" in any way?

It would be as if I collected information on synagogue choirs from various synagogues across America, and made a page called "Choir Judaism", and presented the facts as if there were some kind of movement. Margavriel (talk) 21:53, 3 March 2014 (UTC)


 * If I'm hearing you correctly, you're questioning whether Open Source Judaism is a "movement." The term predated my edits to the article, but I can see how its use might lead to confusion given the use of the term "movement" in the history of American Jewish denominations. I don't think "movement" here is used in the same way as, for example, the Conservative "movement" is used to describe an organization mobilized around a distinct religious philosophy. I don't think the rest of the article is intended to argue for the existence of such a movement. I do think the article describes the activities of a number of people and projects that are inspired by a collaboration strategy and culture for sharing with significant precedents in Jewish communal culture and philosophy. More directly, the term movement was invoked by the original editor of the page to describe a movement of Jews motivated and inspired by the writings of Douglas Rushkoff. I'm certain my work could be improved but I've tried to describe Rushkoff's ideas in contrast with those of other Jewish projects that rely upon open source and open content licenses in the section called "Popularization." The source texts below the article are popular sources for presenting the ideas upon which open source in Judaism have been presented. Aharonium (talk) 23:10, 3 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Mindful of your criticism, Margavriel, I've edited the summary description. Concerning the quotes and translation of various rabbinic texts which elucidate the principles and values of Open Source Judaism, I'm going to leave them as they are for now. I do think they deserve a better introduction which helpfully describes them as elucidating the principles and values of efforts in Open Source Judaism, perhaps with citation links to the sourcesheets of project developers from which they were drawn. Aharonium (talk) 18:48, 20 March 2014 (UTC)


 * I've moved the quotes and translations of various rabbinic texts into a separate source sheet available for reference. Aharonium (talk) 20:40, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Major Edits
I'm making a number of edits and additions to improve the page. I am fairly close to this project, so I welcome others to review this work with a critical eye as to whether my edits have been self-serving. I think one of the more interesting questions I encountered while working on this page is the question of where Open Source Judaism is today and whether Open Source Judaism should be distinguished from open source projects within Judaism. I would say this nuance is subtle and important but perhaps its also fair to say that the expression of Open Source Judaism is simply different now than it was in 2005. Rushkoff's initial effort notwithstanding, the major work being done by Jewish open source projects like Sefaria, Hebrew Wikisource, and the Open Siddur are largely being done by volunteers unfamiliar with Rushkoff's understanding of Open Source Judaism and his desire to employ an Open Source Judaism as a movement for the reform of Judaism. Aharonium (talk) 06:24, 7 December 2013 (UTC)


 * I think I'm largely done for now. The larger article should describe the breadth of the movement and should meet notability and 3rd party source guidelines. Aharonium (talk) 19:16, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Stub Tag Removal
I removed the stub tag since the article is no longer very short, links to many other pages, and cites a fair number of references. I look forward to the page being improved by others. Aharonium (talk) 03:04, 9 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Good job! Regarding your "Open Siddur" article, I think you should have it read by someone not involved, and then post it. Dovi (talk) 09:12, 11 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Looks like someone did just that. The "Open Siddur Project" went live today. Aharonium (talk) 03:44, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

The article has undergone substantial additions since it received its stub classification in 2007 from Wikiproject Judaism. So, I'm removing the stub classification and inviting the article to be reviewed again.Aharonium (talk) 21:45, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Copyright and Judaism
I think this page might benefit from a section on Rabbinic discourse on printer's permissions, intellectual property, and copyright. The works of Nimmer and Netanel should provide a good basis for a summary and sources. Aharonium (talk) 01:01, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
 * The page has been updated to include this section. Aharonium (talk) 20:38, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Copyleft is a biblical application innovated by Saint iGNUcious, the Atheist of Jewish descent, Richard Stallman
How does it seem to y'all? The GPL's legal argument seems almost talmudic, to me, in the manner of "hacking the law" to get to an ethical or equitable result. This legalistic technique of copyleft, based on the ethic of "share and share alike", is clearly based on the principle of "love your fellow as yourself" (Leviticus 19) and on this the Free Software movement is based. He interprets this as "help your neighbor as yourself", (by sharing the source code with him). Listen to to "free software song", for an example. Stallman has publicly stated his opposition to software patents and copyright by arguing that its "not ethical to forbid someone from helping their neighbor".

Although Stallman's professed faith and religion do not extend beyond declaring himself to be "saint iGNUcious" of the "church of emacs", his ethics and legal reasoning are demonstrably "biblical" in this regard. (By the way, the sages permit scoffing at idolatry, and insofar as Stallman is making gentle mockery of both his own pretentions and also those of the Jesuit warrior-monk Ignatius of Loyala, this is not blasphemy, and could even be construed as a mitzvah). Although not thoroughgoingly "Jewish" by any stretch, his biblical application is closer to Judaism than to Christianity IMHO, which tends to be too contemptuous of "the law" to achieve competence at "hacking" it, even for the supposedly quintessential christian value of the "love of neighbor". Has anyone studied this or written about it?

I think he deserves a mention in this article, since and he is the father of all our servers, and even the MediaWiki software we now use is distributed under the GPL. Regards, Jaredscribe (talk) 02:18, 14 March 2022 (UTC)