the things you learn...

Somebody asked a question on Writers about batch-converting document reference numbers (like ISBNs but for papers, not just books) to full citations, which sounded like a "simple matter of programming web services", so I did a little poking around. I have a (single) peer-reviewed publication, so I looked up its reference number (DOI) to test with.

That's how I found out that I have two publications. Er, what? Apparently that paper ended up in a book several years later, and apparently the process of doing that calls for neither permission from nor notification to authors. Or at least second-string authors; maybe the lead author was involved. (I wouldn't know; I haven't interacted with him in ages.) It's a paper in computational linguistics; I was just the (main) programmer, not the linguist or the PhD.

daf bit: Gittin 38

According to the torah Jews can become slaves to other Jews, but not permanently -- Jewish slaves go free after some time. Heathen slaves, however, are permanent slaves.¹ Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shmuel that whoever emancipates his heathen slave violates a positive commandment, as it is written: they shall be your bondsmen forever (Lev 25:46). An objection is raised: once R' Eliezer came into the synagogue and they were one short for a minyan, and he immediately emancipated his slave to make up the ten. (So apparently an emancipated slave could immediately convert?) An objection is raised to the objection: where a religious duty has to be performed we set aside the rule, but otherwise it's still a rule.

Rabbah said: for these three offenses men become impoverished: for emancipating their heathen slaves, for inspecting their property on Shabbat, and for taking their Shabbat meal at the time when the discourse is given in the Beit Midrash (study hall). The g'mara relates a case where two families in Jerusalem did this last and became extinct. (38b)

I bet a lot of people don't know about the heavenly penalty for skipping out on the rabbi's talk! :-)

¹ We are not talking about slavery like in the US's terrible history; slaves are still human beings made in the image of God and must be treated well under Jewish law.

(Today's daf is 39.)

challenges of round doors

There is, apparently, a construction company out there that will build you a house styled on a Hobbit hole. Naturally, an important question arises for Jewish owners of such homes: do you put a mezuzah on a round door, and if so where? The mezuzah is the scroll (containing certain torah passages) in a case that is affixed to your doorpost -- so what exactly is a doorpost?