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bradrn | 3 months ago
Isn’t it? Every page of the Talmud includes marginal notes (Masoret HaShas, Ein Mishpat, Torah Or) giving cross-references to relevant parts of the Torah, Talmud and other legal codes. In a web-based version I think it would be natural to represent those with hypertext.
ezrabrand|3 months ago
True, and the website "Al Hatorah" indeed does that, for the marginal notes that you list. See, for example: https://shas.alhatorah.org/Gemara/Berakhot/2a
But my point is that those marginal notes are an artifact of the 16th century print edition. It's not anything inherent in the Talmud text.
The famous 16th-century Mikraot Gedolot edition of the Bible also features extensive marginal notes (the Mesorah) which function much like a dense network of cross-references.
In fact, the Mesorah is a medieval work (drawing on ancient sources) and is arguably was one of the most elaborate systems of cross-referencing found anywhere, at the time it was promulgated.
This differs from the Talmud’s cross-referencing, which doesn't predate the printed edition (as I note in the Seforim Blog article; the page citations are reliant on the universal page numbers that started from the first print edition).
bradrn|3 months ago
OK, fair enough, if ‘the Talmud text’ is taken to be only the Mishna and the Gemara. (Though when I think of the Talmud it’s the printed edition that comes to mind, with all its accompanying commentary.)
EDIT: I had a look at your blog and saw you actually addressed this exact point already: https://www.ezrabrand.com/i/162112983/myth-the-talmud-is-div...