Project Update #1

[sjw82]

This team is made up of Ben, Sam, and Thyra. We have decided to meet weekly to check-in on goals, make decisions, and troubleshoot. We have created some action steps and decided which to accomplish for next week.

First, we've decided to pursue Midrash aggradah; the more allegorical approach.

Our current work plan is:

• Concretely define our research question
  • Identify which texts are available to us, particularly which are digitized
  • Those who are unfamiliar will skim over to become more familiar with the format
  • The project manager will narrow down some options
• Select verses of the Torah on which to focus
• Decide which Midrash to use
• Identify and pull relevant segments from the Midrash
• Define xml criteria
• Divide and conquer

[djbpitt]

Of possible interest: https://www.sefaria.org/Bereishit_Rabbah.1?lang=bi. Their sources are available in plain text (not yet XML, although there is a placeholder XML directory in their repo) at https://github.com/Sefaria/Sefaria-Export/tree/master/txt/Midrash.

See also https://www.sefaria.org/visualizations, which isn’t specifically about the Midrash, but it illustrates some thoughtful visualizations.

[spkellyo]

It looks like you have already put together a solid plan for your next steps. This project sounds interesting, it is not something I am familiar with at all, so I look forward to looking at the finished product. Good luck!