Talk:Avot of Rabbi Natan

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I saw that the {{context}} tag was removed, but I still don't think this article is comprehensible to most readers. The vocabulary of the article is very difficult. Words like "homilectical", "recension", and "tractate" will be unfamiliar to the vast majority of English speakers. By providing no general background or explanation of terms in the text, the article also forces the reader to use the wikilinks as a glossary rather than an opportunity for further reading. The article really needs to be clarified so that it will be understandable to the average reader. People aren't going to completely understand a topic like this by reading only the one article, but they shouldn't have to read a dozen other articles just to get a basic grasp of what this one is talking about. - AdelaMae ^{(t - c - wpn)} 01:31, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I do see your point. I tried to address it somewhat by adding the "rabbinical eras" template, so people have somewhere to go for context. The truth is that "Avot of Rabbi Natan" is a pretty obscure text that even most Jewish people don't know about. My feeling is that maybe the Rabbinic literature page should be the place for people who are not familiar with Talmudical literature to begin their investigation. I doubt that page is currently up to the standard of a good "portal", but perhaps that is where effort should go. That page would then familiarize people with terms such as "homilectical", "recension", and "tractate." (Although these are not specifically Jewish or even religious terms, they are—as you point out—probably outside many people's native vocabulary; I had to look up "recension" myself. On the other hand, I would not expect an ordinary "Jo Shmo" to be reading the article on Avot of Rabbi Natan, so I don't think a reader would be too bothered to look up a word or two.) —Dfass 03:25, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I think that just providing a gloss for "recension" has gone a long way to improving the readability of the article. Perhaps the lead paragraph could be expanded with some general information that would point people to Rabbinic literature for more background. I would have to do some more reading on the topic before I could take this on (I am "Jo Shmo" when it comes to Rabbinic literature), but I think it would really help the article. - AdelaMae ^{(t - c - wpn)} 05:39, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I tried to expand the first paragraph a little, and I threw in a link to Rabbinic literature. Maybe that will work. Thanks. —Dfass 14:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)