@DoubleAA What is the logic behind closing this and two of the linked questions, and leaving the other two open?

@ba the others could be construed as based in trying to understand specific passages of torah study. But by all means please vtc. I have to be more careful with my mod vote.

@DoubleAA The ones you closed could also be construed that way, unless a sentence like "who wrote ____ and is mentioned by ____" is the only difference

@DoubleAA "author of the Ketzos Hachoshen, Avnei Miluim, and Shev Shmaytsa" is different than "author of theory of relativity"

@ba how? [15char]

@DoubleAA Because this site is about Judaism and not physics

So what?

The question isn't about Judaism.

It's about someone who may have been good at Judaism.

To be clear I'm enforcing what I believe the standard has been on this issue as described somewhere on meta and as has been practiced before on dozens of questions.

Maybe we should change the standard.

I'm not taking a position here about that

Can I ask if the lubavicher rebbe preferred chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Is that on topic?

@DoubleAA I think that asking for a biography of a person is more on-topic than their favorite ice cream. For better or for worse, the lives of famous Jews is part of the practice of Judaism for many people

I don't think there is a clear policy on biographies. Half of the "biography" tag is closed and half open. I don't see anything on meta clearly stating one way or the other

@ba It's not about the tag per se. There can certainly be on topic questions that would have that tag.

Don't have time to look through meta now

I maintain my descriptive position of standing site policy.

I personally think biographies of important rabbanim are relevant to Judaism. These books often include significant portions describing their works, positions on important Jewish issues, tshuvot, etc. I personally can also testify that reading some of these biographies made me a better Jew. I see no reason to close what was open for years, and voted to reopen. Maybe we see if others join to reopen. Happy to ask on meta if enough feel it is important

@mbloch there are dozens of closed questions for this reason. Finding two old ones that slipped through the cracks isn't a reason to change site policy.

Asking for positions of rabbis on Jewish issues is surely on topic

I'm a bit surprised that so many people seem unaware of the current policy

I didn't think these closures were particularly noteworthy

@DoubleAA I second.

...,fwiw.

Other than the FAQ itself, I think the most on-target existing Meta post is probably

@mbloch I recommend that anyone who's interested in adjusting site policy with respect to history write a Meta question asking what the policy ought to be and, ideally, an answer that does its best to present a coherent, clearly-stated policy, including updated FAQ language, if applicable.