V'dibarta Bam

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1:09 AM

Q: Should we stop using the ashera tree as our logo?

Not sure how this got past the mods, but I think it would be appropriate if we changed our logo and stopped using the image of an Ashera tree to represent this site. This question is Purim Torah and is not intended to be taken completely seriously. See the Purim Torah policy.

1 hour later…

Seth J

2:14 AM

I feel like this must be a dupe, but I can't find it. — Seth J 9 mins ago

YEZ

2:47 AM

@SethJ meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/q/1483/4794

Seth J

3:10 AM

@yez sorry, I wasn't commenting here on the previous post. I was linking here to a comment I had just left on a question asking about hair covering, because I was hoping someone in chat may be able to help dig up a question for me.

Can I just tell you guys that sometimes I love this site?

Monica Cellio

@SethJ of course! Did something in particular prompt that comment tonight?

Seth J

3:37 AM

@Monica MPTIJ.

Monica Cellio

@SethJ yup, I had forgotten about the meta side of that until it showed up, too. :-)

13 hours later…

HodofHod

4:20 PM

@GeminiMan I was the second reviewer on that last piece of spam you rejected, and I still didn't see the disclaimer.

4 hours later…

Stack Exchange

7:54 PM

Blog - Stack Exchange: Your communities list is now customizable

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J. C. Salomon

Where can I suggest a [purim-torah] question for re-opening?

YEZ

8:40 PM

@J.C.Salomon Probably on that question. Flag it with a comment why you think it should be reopened.

YEZ

9:25 PM

can anyone give a one word translation of דרוש?

YEZ

9:43 PM

with a kamatz. As in Darush - what did they darshan

Garan

Erev Tov! Does anyone know if the translation of Moreh Nevuchim found here is a translation of the Hebrew translation, or a direct translation of the original Arabic?

HodofHod

10:06 PM

@JonEricson Well, I think it's safe to say the spammers are back with a vengeance. judaism.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/history

> PREFACE TO VOLUME ONE OF THE FIRST EDITION

In compliance with a desire repeatedly expressed by the Committee of the Hebrew Literature Society, I have undertaken to translate Maimonides’ Dalalāt al-Ḥairin, better known by the Hebrew title Moreh Nebuchim, and I offer the first instalment of my labours in the present volume. This contains—(1) A short Life of Maimonides, in which special attention is given to his alleged apostasy. (2) An analysis of the whole of the Moreh Nebuchim. (3) A **translation of the First Part of this work from the Arabic,** with explanatory and critical notes.

From en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Guide_for_the_Perplexed_(1904)

Jon Ericson

Garan

@HodofHod Thank you!

Jon Ericson

A lot of it is getting blocked, but your answer keeps getting hit with new IPs. :-(

HodofHod

@JonEricson Wow. Again, not complaining (I'm always afraid I come across that way), just curious. You guys don't need my updates though, you've got your fancy stats over there :)

@Garan Any particular reason you wanted to know? /idle curiosity

Gemini Man

@YEZ expound

Monica Cellio

10:15 PM

@JonEricson wow. (What happened around Feb 23-25 -- did they take a break or did the script get tweaked somehow?)

Garan

@HodofHod To a large extent, I feel information is invariably lost/unnecessarily added in translation and I don't want to read a translation of a translation.

Jon Ericson

@HodofHod Well, I'm frustrated for you and the reviewers on this site. I'm mostly frustrated with whoever designed the braindead bot.

@MonicaCellio Not really sure. We tightened some parameters around the 27th, but something else is going on.

HodofHod

@Garan Ah. Well, the Hebrew translator consulted closely with Maimonides, so I think in the case of this particular book, the danger is slightly lessened.

He also wrote something interesting in regards to translating:

> "Whoever wishes to translate, and purposes to render each word literally, and at the same time to adhere slavishly to the order of the words and sentences in the original, will meet with much difficulty; his rendering will be faulty and untrustworthy. This is not the right method. The translator should first try to grasp the sense of the subject thoroughly, and then state the theme with perfect clearness in the other language.

> This, however, can not be done without changing the order of the words, putting many words for one word, or vice versâ, and adding or taking away words, so that the subject be perfectly intelligible in the language into which he translates."

- R' Shmuel ibn Tibbon

It's truly fascinating that we have some of the correspondence between Maimonides and the translator of his work. Very insightful.

@JonEricson I guess I'm wondering, are they beating captcha, or are they not getting challenged? (I get that you might not want to say)

Garan

@HodofHod Still, the English translations are usually translations of the Hebrew, not the Arabic (except in the linked page). I've also noticed severe issues with translations of the Hebrew translation of Arabic, most notably in translating the Kusari.

HodofHod

@Garan In general, it's a good thing to go for the original, I agree. I've always greatly admired R' Aryeh Kaplan for learning Ladino in order to translate Me'am Loez from the original.

Jon Ericson

10:26 PM

@HodofHod Well, that's the other half of my frustration. There's no consensus on the team about whether adding a CAPTCHA is worthwhile.

Garan

@HodofHod I'd love to read the original, but I'm still working on learning Arabic and I don't think I'll be able to read a 1,000 year old dialect of Arabic anytime soon.

HodofHod

@Garan Heh. :D Yep. I was referring more to translations, but reading the original directly is even better than that. Definitely one of the reasons I forced myself to pick up Yiddish.

@JonEricson Well, if captchas work (i.e., they're not beating them/using humans), I guess I figure there are certain times when an edit is almost certainly spam, and no real person is going to be constantly getting it. Like substantial edits from unregistered users with urlsand gibberish. I mean, they're not even bothering with full sentences, let alone like Markov Chains.

(I think we discussed this previously). Anyway, they know what they're doing better than I do, and they're already catching a lot of it, so...

Ok, I'll stop bugging you. :D

YEZ

@GeminiMan I think that might work. מאי דרוש = what did they expound

best I had was interpret