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Every day you learn the Daf - now you can add this new utility focused journal to help make it even better!
With more people joining the global Daf Yomi cycle and more broadly growing Jewish learning than ever before in history, Jerry Press is working to create new tools to help engage, organize, and make your learning more meaningful.Plan your learning, take notes on the Daf or just use as your daily planner. Each day of this annual 5783 2022-2023 journal contains the english date, Hebrew date, and corresponding Daf Yomi learning portion (daily page of gemara).Compared to other similar hebrew/english date planners this gives you a page per day, nothing compressed, published with a hardcover to ensure you can toss this in your bag or drop it without anything going too wrong.Hardcover 355 page journal covering each day of the Jewish year 5783 matched up with daily learning information to help you plan, take notes, or just stay on top of your progress.What is Daf Yomi?From Wikipedia:Daf Yomi (Hebrew: דף יומי "page of the day" or "daily folio") is a daily regimen of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries (also known as the Gemara), in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud is covered in sequence. A daf, or blatt in Yiddish, consists of both sides of the page. Under this regimen, the entire Talmud is completed, one day at a time, in a cycle of approximately seven and a half years.From MyJewishLearning:Are you interested in joining the world’s largest book club?Daf yomi (pronounced dahf YOH-mee) is an international program to read the entire Babylonian Talmud — the main text of rabbinic Judaism — in seven and a half years at the rate of one page a day. Tens of thousands of Jews study daf yomi worldwide, and they are all quite literally on the same page — following a schedule fixed in 1923 in Poland by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the founder of daf yomi, who envisioned the whole world as a vast Talmudic classroom connected by a global network of conversational threads.The current Daf Yomi cycle began on January 5, 2020. Sign up here for an accessible daily Daf Yomi email from My Jewish Learning!A page a day doesn’t sound too daunting, until you consider that each Talmudic page is actually a double-sided folio comprised of multigenerational conversations among the rabbis of the first few centuries of the Common Era, dealing with everything from what to do if your camel knocks over a candle and sets a store on fire to the consequences of embarrassing another person while he is naked.The Talmud is divided into 37 volumes, known as tractates, each of which deals with different aspects of Jewish law, from vows to marriage to the logistics of offering sacrifices in the ancient Temple. But the subjects of the tractates are in part only nominal, because the Talmud is a highly discursive text, proceeding by association rather than by any rational scheme. Every page presupposes knowledge of other pages, which is why it is difficult to start learning without prior background. But every page connects to conversations on other pages, and so once you have started learning, it’s almost impossible to stop.From Sefaria:Daf Yomi (Hebrew: דף יומי Daf Yomi, "page of the day") is a daily regimen of learning Talmud. All 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud are covered in sequence, in a cycle of seven and a half years. The first cycle of Daf Yomi began on Rosh Hashanah in 1923 across Europe, America, and Israel with the first page of the first tractate of the Talmud, Berakhot. The 14th Daf Yomi cycle started in January 2020.

Testing online content to final book transcripts

Potential, processes, and resources

January 9, 2023Dave Weinberg
dave@jerrypress.com

A few months ago I had an idea around taking existing content from, well let's call them "influencers" - people with a defined audience and existing content around a specific niche - and turning that content into a book.An example of this kind of person and content would be a daily YouTuber with a thousand + followers, who talks about woodworking tips. They have a defined and engaged audience, content around a specific niche, and are not fully monetizing their efforts.If we could create a book based on their existing content without exerting too many resources, time, or costs then - my theory goes - this final product can be affordable and profitable.Fast forward a few months and I have experimented with various types of "influencer" YouTube content at stage 1 - initial transcript and basic editing.Extracting transcripts directly and editing.
Pushing YouTube URLs into various AI transcription tools.
Discussing editing processes, resources, costs, and more with people across the writing, editing, typesetting, and publishing ecosystem......and now I have begun moving forward with stage two - transcript to final book ready transcript.

ChatGPT OpenAI

Speaker: Rabbi Brahm Weinberg, Kemp Mill Synagoge
Source: YouTube “Rashi a Day” Noach (Monday) 2022

Methodology

“Pretend you are a book editor and you are given an edited youtube transcript. Rewrite the transcript so that it is readable in the form of a chapter of a book, but do not change the meaning. Here is the transcript to rewrite”

HelloScribe AI transcript

[hand edited by Dave Weinberg with Hebrew insertions from Sefaria]

I'm excited to learn a Rashi. We're actually learning two Rashi's today from the second day of this week's Parasha, which, as you can tell from Debbie's background, is Parshas Noach and getting to the question of the flood.In our Aliyah, the flood begins. The first Aliyah has many interesting Psukim and Rashis about the p reparation that Hashem told Noach to make for the flood, the building of the Teva, why it's so big and all of those things. But, in our Aliyah we actually gets to the beginning of the flood.The flood is introduced in the Torah in a very fascinating way,".וַֽיְהִ֥י הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים לָֽיְלָה"The rain came upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. It's a little bit of a strange phrasing.You would expect the Torah to say, "the flood came for forty days and forty nights." Now you might say to yourself, OK, well, how does a flood come? There's many ways that water can come upon the earth. Perhaps, the seas miraculously could overflow onto the earth. Perhaps, lots and lots of rain could come over and over. That's one of the things that the Torah doesn't tell us is exactly how the flood started. Maybe this Pasuk is giving us an indication how the flood came about."וַֽיְהִ֥י הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ ," the rain came upon the land. The rain was so overwhelming that the flood began. But, still it's a strange phrasing, because here it seems to indicate that the rain was upon the land for forty days and forty nights. You could again argue back and forth to say the rain not only started the flood, but it continued to flood the earth for forty days and forty nights. But, it's a little bit of an awkward phrasing.What's even more awkward is when you get to the beginning of the next Aliyah. The contrast is quite stark! After describing the beginnings of the flood, the הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם and the forty days and forty nights, it says".וַֽיְהִ֧י הַמַּבּ֛וּל אַרְבָּעִ֥ים י֖וֹם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּרְבּ֣וּ הַמַּ֗יִם וַיִּשְׂאוּ֙ אֶת־הַתֵּבָ֔ה וַתָּ֖רׇם מֵעַ֥ל הָאָֽרֶץ", that the flood was upon the earth for forty days.Was it the rain on the Earth for forty days or was it that the flood that was on the earth for forty days? "וַיִּרְבּ֣וּ הַמַּ֗יִם", there was tons of water! Maybe the הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם here was just the beginnings of the flood.If the הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם, the rain was only the beginning of the flood, why does it say f forty days and forty nights? How do you square away these Psukim?Rashi notices the discrepancy "וַֽיְהִ֥י הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים לָֽיְלָה". Rashi says, "?וּלְהַלָּן הוּא אוֹמֵר וַיְהִי הַמַּבּוּל". But, later on, at beginning of the next Alyah, it doesn't say וַֽיְהִ֥י הַגֶּ֖שֶׁם it says "וַיְהִי הַמַּבּוּל". So was it rain or was it a flood? Did the waters come all of a sudden and engulf the earth, or did it come as rain?How does Rashi resolve this contradiction between the two Psukim?"אֶלָּא כְּשֶׁהוֹרִידָן הוֹרִידָן בְּרַחֲמִים, שֶׁאִם יַחְזְרוּ יִהְיוּ גִּשְׁמֵי בְרָכָה; כְּשֶׁלֹּא חָזְרוּ הָיוּ לְמַבּוּל"Rashi squares away these two Pesukim by saying that the גֶּ֖שֶׁם really did start the flood, but it didn't start as flood rains - didn't start as heavy torrential, awful destructive rains - it started as גִּשְׁמֵי בְרָכָה. It started as a rains of blessing that God brought upon the earth with רַחֲמִים hoping that the people of the earth would see that everything Noach said was true and coming to fruition. When they saw the rains falling, not only the תֵּבָֽה built, not only Noach getting on the תֵּבָֽה, but the rains are actually falling and that they would wake up and do teshuva, they would wake up and see the error of their ways.Hashem gave them to the last possible second to do teshuva, to change their ways, to avert terrible destruction of the flood. It could have been that this גֶּ֖שֶׁם, this גִּשְׁמֵי בְרָכָה would have been for the entire forty days and forty nights. This could have been beautiful rain, rain that would have brought life to the earth for forty days and forty nights in total compassion. But, the rain that started at גִּשְׁמֵי בְרָכָה ended up transforming itself to the הַמַּבּ֛וּל to rains that were torrential and destructive that brought about forty days and forty nights of מַּ֗יִם.וַיִּרְבּ֣וּ הַמַּ֗יִם torrential rains on the earth, because unfortunately the people did not get the message and did not do teshuva.It's a beautiful Rashi which not only helps us square away these two Pesukim, but also helps us to understand a little bit about how the process of the flood came to be and also to understand Hashem's perspective on the evil that was transpiring in the Earth.Hashem holds out hope for every human being. It's not just a Jewish thing, it's a humanitarian thing. Hashem believes in the Earth, he believes in the population of the Earth. He believes in human beings. He believes in the essential goodness of human beings. He believes in the ability of a human being to change. And He'll give us every possible chance at every possible sign and every possible warning until we get it. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't, but fortunately, many times we do.God always tries to start with רַחֲמִים before he ever gets to the midah of Din. He always starts with compassion before ever getting to the trait of justice.So within the very seemingly destructive and non-compassionate story of the מַּבּ֛וּל, we have little hints here and there throughout the Pesukim of God's compassion coming through, which is important for us to realize and to understand.

ChatGPT (OpenAI) output

[not edited]

Our Aliyah begins with the flood itself. The first Aliyah has many interesting verses and commentary from Rashi about the preparations that God commanded Noah to make for the flood, such as building the Ark, and the reasons for its size.In this Aliyah, the flood is introduced in a very fascinating way: "And it came to pass, that the rain was upon the earth for forty days and forty nights." This is a strange phrasing, as one might expect the Torah to say "the flood came for forty days and forty nights." The Torah does not specify how the flood began, but this verse might suggest that it was caused by the overwhelming amount of rain. However, it is still a bit awkward, as it seems to imply that the rain was present on the earth for the entire forty days and forty nights, rather than just causing the flood.The contrast in the beginning of the next Aliyah is also striking: after describing the start of the flood with the rain and forty days and forty nights, it says "And it came to pass, that the flood was upon the earth for forty days." This raises the question of whether it was the rain or the flood itself that lasted for forty days. Rashi notices this discrepancy and offers two possible explanations for it. He suggests that either the rain was the cause of the flood, and it continued for forty days and forty nights, or the rain was only the beginning of the flood, and the flood itself lasted for forty days.Overall, the language and phrasing used to describe the flood in these verses is puzzling and requires careful interpretation. Rashi's commentary helps to clarify and shed light on the meaning of these verses.Rashi resolves the contradiction between the two verses by explaining that the rain did indeed start the flood, but it did not initially come as heavy, destructive rains. Instead, it began as "rains of blessing" sent by God with the hope that the people of the earth would see that everything Noah had warned them about was coming true and would repent. God gave them the opportunity to repent right up until the last possible moment in the hopes of avoiding the destruction of the flood. These "rains of blessing" could have lasted for the full forty days and forty nights, but ultimately turned into destructive rains that lasted for the same duration due to the lack of repentance by the people.This interpretation not only helps to reconcile the two verses, but also offers insight into the process of the flood and God's perspective on the evil that was present on the earth. It highlights God's belief in the essential goodness of humanity and the potential for change, as well as His tendency to start with compassion before turning to justice. Within the story of the flood, which may seem destructive and lacking in compassion, there are hints of God's compassion present in the verses.

Final notes

My take is that the output that ChatGPT gives is remarkable. Not only does it succinctly bring together the original transcribed text in a way that is far more "readable", but it does so by ingesting English AND Hebrew.More testing to do, but this being my first chance using ChatGPT in this specific way I am impressed.Next step is trying to figure out how to spped up the hand editing to make the initial YouTube transcript better. When I tried using the straight from YouTube output, the results made no sense. ChatGPT created a very nice weekly sermon style output based on "Teshuva" - repentance, which is a theme, but not really the point of the test.