Bar Ilan Software Support - Tips on Formulating Search Requests
In the Bar Ilan Responsa formulating a good query is a skill in its own right; as the saying goes, שאלת חכם חצי תשובה. Accordingly, the following section provides some tips about formulating queries if , although familiarity with these points ultimately cannot substitute for careful planning and past experience in formulating search requests.
• Specify grammatical prefixes in your search requests; otherwise, you’re likely to miss relevant forms. For example, if you’re looking for references to Moses, search for #משה, so you won’t miss forms such as ומשה, למשה, etc.
• Specify both plene and defective spellings (כתיב מלא וחסר), particularly when searching in the Bible database, where defective spelling is very common. Thus, specify alternatives such as (מלווה/מלוה), (תחייה/תחיה), (יהושוע/יהושע), (אליהם/אלהם), (ירושלים/ירושלם), or !מלווה, !תחייה, !יהושוע, !אליהם, !ירושלים in your search requests.
• With the Bar Ilan Responsa Program use synonyms in your queries. For example, if you’re searching for material on non-Jews, you should specify such words as גוי, נכרי (נוכרי), עכו"ם (עובד כוכבים), אינו יהודי (א"י), and perhaps even כותי in your query. (In this particular case, of course, you won’t be able to specify all of these forms in a single query, since some of these ex pressions consist of two words; see above, p. 39.)
• Specify abbreviations in your search requests. For example, if you’re searching for information about R. Yochanan b. Zakkai, search for both #יוחנן בן זכאי and #ריב"ז. Also, remember that words are frequently abbreviated with apostrophes; thus, if you’re looking for references to Tractate Ketubbot, you should probably search for:
(כתובות/כתובו'/כתוב'/כת')#
• In the Bar Ilan Responsa often it’s sufficient (and faster) to specify only part of the ex pression you want to find. For example, instead of searching for רבי עקיבא, it would probably suffice to search for עקיבא.
• If you are searching for information on a particular topic, rather than trying to locate the source of a quote, it’s often worth beginning your search in the 20th century responsa database. Not only are such responsa often written in modern Hebrew (and thus more likely to be formulated in familiar terminology), but they frequently refer to other, earlier sources.
• Some responsa contain words in Yiddish (e.g., עלעקטרי in the responsa of R. Moshe Feinstein). In such cases,the Responsa Program displays the Hebrew equivalent of the Yiddish term in slashes, along with the original Yiddish text. This way, even users unfamiliar with Yiddish can locate material on these subjects, by specifying the appropriate Hebrew terms in their queries.
• Parenthetical source references have been included in certain databases (e.g., references to biblical verses in the Talmud). Thus, you can locate Talmudic references to verses in Numbers, Ch. 30, by searching for (במ'/במדבר) (ל/ל') in the Talmud Bavli database.
• In the Bar Ilan Responsa CD Parenthesized words and words between slashes (see above) are treated as integral parts of the text being searched. Therefore, it’s sometimes advisable to specify a small distance between search components, even if you expect them to appear immediately after one another, in case a parenthetical reference appears between them.
For example, searching for אומר עשה in the Mishnah will not locate Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8 (כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר עשה לך שרף), since a reference to במדבר כ"א appears between the words אומר and עשה. Thus, you would only be able to locate this Mishnah by typing אומר [3:1] עשה.
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