“Kanab Creek Wilderness 2” (credit: U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Kaibab National Forest and P.D. Tilman, license: CC-BY 2.0)

DOWNLOAD: ODT | PDF

How does rabbinic Judaism value openness? What does openness mean? This sourcesheet accompanied the shiur “‘Make yourself into a Maqom Hefker’: Rabbinic Teachings on Open Source in Judaism,” a class I taught on Taz biShvat 5774 (January 16th, 2013) in partnership with the Sefaria Project for Parshat Yitro.

The shiur discussed the concept of דִּימוּס פַּרְהֶסְיַא Dimus Parrhesia (δῆμος παρρησία) as a valued ideal in Rabbinic discourse: its cameo appearance in midrashic teachings on Parshat Yitro and its relationship to other relevant ideas and attitudes in the study of Torah and the Jewish stewardship of the Commons.

דִּימוּס פַּרְהֶסְיא (dimus) – openly, from דִּימוֺסיַא (dimosia) δημόσια, translated in Latin coram publica – in the public eye, i.e. open to the public^[1] Many thanks to Dr. Daniel Sperber for his explanation of this in correspondence. He writes, “in Mechilta to Exod. 19:2, ed. Horowitz-Rabin p.205 lines 17-18, [דִּימוּס] is short for דימוסיא found frequently in rabbinic literature. It is the Greek word δημόσια translated coram publica, in the public eye, i.e. open to the public, a meaning found in Sylloge lnscriptionum Graecum, 2nd edition, ed. Diltenberger 1888-1901, no.807, an inscription from after 138 C. E. פרהסיא is merely a gloss to דימוס to explain the word and its meaning, as noted by the editor of the Mechilta.”  ) and (gk. παρρησία, parrhesia) – boldness or freedom in speech

This sourcesheet is derived from the collection of sources gathered on the Wikipedia page, “Open Source Judaism,” where I initially presented them.

Please share this sourcesheet, improve upon it, and continue to share it. As with the wikipedia page, this sourcesheet and its translations are shared under the Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

[gview file=”https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Open-Source-in-Judaism-from-the-Sources-Aharon-Varady-v.0.2.pdf”]

“📄 ‘Make yourself into a maqom hefker’: Primary sources on open-source in Judaism (sourcesheet)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady

Aharon Varady is the founding director of the Open Siddur Project. A community planner (M.C.P, DAAP/University of Cincinnati.) and Jewish educator (M.A.J.Ed., the William Davidson School of Education), his work in open-source Judaism has been written about in the Yiddish Forverts, the Atlantic Magazine, Tablet, and Haaretz. If you find any egregious mistakes in his work, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also transcribes and translates prayers, besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project.)

Stable Link:    https://opensiddur.org/?p=8397

Associated Image:   

“Kanab Creek Wilderness 2” (credit: U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Kaibab National Forest and P.D. Tilman, license: CC-BY 2.0)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category pages and in shared links on social media.)

Source Data:    XML | JSON

Re-formatted:    HTML | ODT

Terms of Use:    Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady.
2. Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
3. Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=8397>.
4. Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:   

• The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
• We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
• If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work:    The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17