9:37 PM
Gil Student
R. Ari Kahn gives a different perspective than this rabbi's on the subject of the use of computers for Torah research. Explorations, pp. xvii-xviii:
The process of research has been transformed in recent years with the availability of data research via computers. Sources that in previous years had been obscure can today be found with the push of a button. While this technology provides the researcher with easier access, it requires the researcher to consider far more raw source material than would have been imagined by previous generations, with the exception of those great luminaries who, due to their erudition, had instant access to all rabbinic literature. I utilized for this project the digital archives of the Bar Ilan Responsa project, DBS, and the Soncino archives of Davka Corporation. I believe that this work could have been completed without these tools, but it would not have been as well developed and would certainly have taken far longer. Any scholar who takes his learning seriously should certainly avail himself of these incredible tools; in fact, I would suggest that once these tools have become available, the student and scholar are required to make use of them.
