Rabbi Slifkin, this sounds like an exciting idea, but the title "Animal Vegetable Biblical" is a horrible one, I am afraid. It sounds more like a description of a Biblical character with a TBI. I would recommend "A Journey to the East: The Semitic People’s Link to Their Piece of the Earth". The cover illustration should show a traditional Oriental Jewish shepherd, riding a horse, herding his sheep. A sort of Israeli Sabra "cowboy" if you will, but with sheep, in the style of the Patriarch Jacob. This will tie everything together.
Well that's an interesting question: their camels are discussed in the Bible multiple times, but only Rivka is mentioned as riding on (and falling off) one. Much has been debated regarding when camels were domesticated and these possibly anachronistic references. One way to resolve the question is that camels were not quite tame yet, so owning them was a real status symbol and people didn't really know how to ride them yet. I'm sure Rabbi Slifkin has discussed the topic somewhere, but if not it's a great idea for a future post
R' Slifkin, when you asked your AI program for an illustration, did you include in your request to add or include something about the title of the book? Maybe that would have given you a different illustration.
In any event, I thought the picture quite nice.
Waiting anxiously for the release of this new book so it can join your encyclopedia on my bookshelf (after I read it, of course).
The picture in your post looks (to me at least) generated by AI. The second picture (that you just created) doesn't. Could be that it is displayed as a book cover.
Also, I don't know if it's because of a typo that you entered (or AI doesn't know how to spell) but Biblical is not spelled correctly in the pix.
I personally like the second pix better. But then, as my wife likes to point out, I have no taste in design.
These AI programs very often misspell words inserted in the prompt due to their reliance on pattern recognition rather than understanding language rules. Note that "history" and "connection" are also misspelled.
Now I really feel stupid. I'm usually so good at proof-reading and yet I missed both of those words. I guess it was because I was feeling proud of myself for finding a misspelling and didn't think to continue looking further. One more thing to think about for Rosh HaShana.
I hope you and your famly are well. The title is just not going to do it! Please consider something else. Also, while it sounds like you want to emphasize our connection with the Holy Land, I am unsure that putting an Israeli flag on the cover is a good idea. Our connection to the Holy Land is intact and eternal regardless of the existence of the State of Israel. Don't worry, I am an ardent Zionist, but one need not be one in order to appreciate this book.
all the best for a ktivah vachatimah tovah, Avi Goldstein
I love the idea but the title sounds funny. Non one other than a scientist uses the word "vegetable" that way. Maybe instead "The Biblical Naturalists Heritage" or "Plants and Animals which span the Ages"
Amazing that you've already completed this and getting it ready for publishing. I honestly don't know how you manage to have time for all your creative output while researching, running a museum and advocating on behalf of political causes.
I am eagerly awaiting the continuation of your encyclopedia, as I have read the first volume many times with my older kids. It will be great now to have something for the younger ones (although they do enjoy the pictures).
That AI picture is so creepy! Aside from the usual extra appendages (and birds with extra wings), the geography is all wrong, and is that a hyrax with horns holding a candlestick?!? Weird. There are actually lots of great artists who will bid to work on your cover art, and you might even find one of your fans here willing to help fund it.
What's most astonishing is that I think if anybody were to read the original message I wrote you which you chose to BLOCK they would find it to be extremely heartfelt and touching, and yet you took the word of some anonymous on the internet as your guiding light instead.
Because it's both a mitzvah and my inclination, a few days later I created a new account to try to reach you.
I left a lengthy letter which nicely subdivided your commentariot. One letz read it and decided to be מתקבד בקלון חברו with what he must have assumed was a very clever joke.
But you have good readers too, one who read what I wrote, commented, followed me, donated, and whom I've since started to get the pleasure of knowing as a personal acquaintance.
He assumed you would be mortified by what you had done and would reach out to try and fix it.
As you know, you did no such thing.
I would have left it alone in the court of the Ribboinoi Shel Olam but I have since received scam messages by people accusing me of being a Jew 4 Jesus.
Such a stupid accusation has never been made before so it is obvious that it is thanks to your doing.
It's impossible to know whether you have a conscience or any ahavas yisrael at all, but for your own sake and the sake of any who may be caught up in the פורעניות of your misdeeds, I really recommend you make this right.
Here is what I wrote a few days ago. I won't be looking for a response here. You have my personal contact information.
_______________
Dear Nosson,
Faceless non-interactive text is an incredibly poor means of communication so, relative to the severity of what I am saying, I will be keeping this short.
If I have any success at reaching you despite this meager medium it will mean the two of speaking via Gmail Meet or Whatsapp as soon as possible.
I'm a fan of transparency for humankind so I would like to make our conversation a podcast on my channel (and yours if you would like) but that's entirely up to you. We can speak beini liveincha with no record or, as I assume you (very admirably) prefer, recorded as a podcast but not as a "gotcha", where - as with anyone I've ever recorded - you can choose to exempt anything you say or do from publication. From a single word to every word.
What we need to speak about (and again we can 100% speak privately if you prefer) is that I believe it would be a sin to harbor my feelings for you rather than to speak face to face so that I can not be oiver Loi Sisnah es achicha as (hopefully) you come to desire to fix what you have done and make me whole.
I went looking for any responses regarding my comment asking for contact information from the man from Gaza you wrote about, and found that my comment was non-existent. (I am Yadidya YDYDY.)
This confused me so while I hadn't been planning to (as I had provided you my direct whatsapp number there so I felt checking for a response to be unnecessary) I checked the other page where I had left a comment and couldn't find it either.
What I found instead was someone referring to me as a Jew for Jesus.
I responded - quite politely! - to this disgusting rechilus but found that it wouldn't post. Further down the comment page I discovered why:
Under the absent comment of "BANNED USER" was our little rachil repeating his great discovery. I assume he first wrote that one, you banned me, and then - fearing that the target of his rechilus waa longer identifiable he penned the original comment that I had seen and attempted to respond to.
I wrote to him privately to give him the option of doing tshuva - to zero affect. He sounds like a kid who grew up on reddit and accepts their values.
But you definitely know better, and what you did was a thousand times worth than what he did.
If this letter is unclear to you, I should explain that there are paragraphs written by Rambam in Hilchos Deos perek Vav that I take so seriously that I have TWICE done what little I could to disseminate them to the world by translating them for my mostly non-jewish audience, milah b'milah.
First here, In front of The Great Pyramids under the title: "Morals of Egyptian Rabbi Moses"
My understanding is that sinah shebaleiv is wrong because every ben bris is by nature empathetic and doesn't want to cause people pain but only does so by accident or due to the pressures and imperfections that we are all prone to as human beings, and that therefore the injured party is required to discuss his claim with the injuring party because we are all supposed to be brothers, in love with each other.
Rambam takes this so very seriously that he even calls Avshalom a Rasha for preferring to hate Amnon rather than to preferring to attempt to fix the relationship with the man who raped and cast away his sister.
When you think about the fact that Rambam calls attention to such an extreme case, calling Avshalom a Rasha for refusing to make peace with the man who raped his sister, you see how essential this is to his view.
I don't expect you to put yourself in my shoes so I'll help. I feel so strongly against you that if the mitzvah of lo sisna did not exist and if I had the power to do so I would curse upon you nearly every klalah imaginable.
Lacking your contact information (and I have made attempts) I had no choice but to get your attention by ridiculously writing to you here. You can delete or not delete this comment as your values dictate but there's no need to keep it up for my sake. You have my whatsapp number and email address, and they are easily available on both my Substack and YouTube if you've misplaced them.
Those are the ways to reach me if you want to. I won't be returning to this comment here so if you want to delete it I assume that would be wise.
May you have a beautiful shabbos, and may God grant the miracle that despite the poorness of this medium, my words reach your heart.
Mazal Tov on the completion of your great work! I am looking forward to having it join your book Sacred Beasts on my bookshelf!
About your request for a cover design, I’d like to share a few thoughts. While the use of AI to create your cover illustration produces a very slick and colorful image, it lacks a soul. Do you realize how many talented illustrators there are out there who would be thrilled with an assignment like this? AI is certainly a magical technology, but it could not exist without pirating myriad works by real artists, both living and dead. In fact, its continued use will eventually eliminate the need for real artists and illustrators. Minus the outlet of challenges to create new works of art, using AI will not make our world a better, more vibrant place. Do consider hiring a genuine creative to design/illustrate your cover; doing so will be a mitzvah for you and your readers, both present and future. If you would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to continue this conversation via email or at my Substack blog Imaginarius.
I implore you to come up with another title; your book presumably deserves better than the kind of not-quite-play-on-words & not-quite-rhyme exemplified by ‘Animal Vegetable Biblical’.
And “the Jewish connection to Israel“ is one of those phrases Jews unthinkingly employ that are far too passive, ceding rhetorical—and literal—ground to the enemy before it even gets started. Surely you can see how “connection“ sounds very weak & limited, juxtaposed to the entrenched—though deeply dishonest—narrative of today’s Palestinian Arabs being the ancient, indigenous people of Israel.
Rabbi Slifkin, this sounds like an exciting idea, but the title "Animal Vegetable Biblical" is a horrible one, I am afraid. It sounds more like a description of a Biblical character with a TBI. I would recommend "A Journey to the East: The Semitic People’s Link to Their Piece of the Earth". The cover illustration should show a traditional Oriental Jewish shepherd, riding a horse, herding his sheep. A sort of Israeli Sabra "cowboy" if you will, but with sheep, in the style of the Patriarch Jacob. This will tie everything together.
RNS, if you are interested, I made some sample illustrations. Feel free to use!
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.uSNNiFHSNFDhDAyMUSrj?pid=ImgGn
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.XI6zdmAurb0Vu437x7MW?pid=ImgGn
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.protV_G70ddIsDfPnmUU?pid=ImgGn
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG4.mlHDb5g9HTLit8F.vj35?pid=ImgGn
I realized you may want some incorporating Israeli flag imagery, so I made a few more. Again, feel free to use or modify!
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.UNtduPvVx7.mg23BEzGM?w=1024&h=1024&rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.WN9.EbEKb.V0SP.dFIQl?pid=ImgGn
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.5koLQngSrBnWMj3wnS_z?pid=ImgGn
I actually like the title, it's clever and catchy!
except that the Patriarchs didn't ride horses
Nor camels. :-)
Well that's an interesting question: their camels are discussed in the Bible multiple times, but only Rivka is mentioned as riding on (and falling off) one. Much has been debated regarding when camels were domesticated and these possibly anachronistic references. One way to resolve the question is that camels were not quite tame yet, so owning them was a real status symbol and people didn't really know how to ride them yet. I'm sure Rabbi Slifkin has discussed the topic somewhere, but if not it's a great idea for a future post
R' Slifkin, when you asked your AI program for an illustration, did you include in your request to add or include something about the title of the book? Maybe that would have given you a different illustration.
In any event, I thought the picture quite nice.
Waiting anxiously for the release of this new book so it can join your encyclopedia on my bookshelf (after I read it, of course).
Goodness. I tried your idea and the result was very different.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/h0x6ahnnwopjcbm0fxeqs/OIG2.jpeg?rlkey=sintnmbtbg9p1awhlrgko76zk&dl=0
The picture in your post looks (to me at least) generated by AI. The second picture (that you just created) doesn't. Could be that it is displayed as a book cover.
Also, I don't know if it's because of a typo that you entered (or AI doesn't know how to spell) but Biblical is not spelled correctly in the pix.
I personally like the second pix better. But then, as my wife likes to point out, I have no taste in design.
These AI programs very often misspell words inserted in the prompt due to their reliance on pattern recognition rather than understanding language rules. Note that "history" and "connection" are also misspelled.
Now I really feel stupid. I'm usually so good at proof-reading and yet I missed both of those words. I guess it was because I was feeling proud of myself for finding a misspelling and didn't think to continue looking further. One more thing to think about for Rosh HaShana.
not bad
What program did you use to generate this?
Bing
The previous books were amazing ass well
Reb Natan,
I hope you and your famly are well. The title is just not going to do it! Please consider something else. Also, while it sounds like you want to emphasize our connection with the Holy Land, I am unsure that putting an Israeli flag on the cover is a good idea. Our connection to the Holy Land is intact and eternal regardless of the existence of the State of Israel. Don't worry, I am an ardent Zionist, but one need not be one in order to appreciate this book.
all the best for a ktivah vachatimah tovah, Avi Goldstein
Still eagerly awaiting the second volume of The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom 🙏. Also, please post more animal related topics.
I love the idea but the title sounds funny. Non one other than a scientist uses the word "vegetable" that way. Maybe instead "The Biblical Naturalists Heritage" or "Plants and Animals which span the Ages"
The Habitat of the Israelites:
Biblical Natural History and the Jewish Connection to the land of Israel.
Amazing that you've already completed this and getting it ready for publishing. I honestly don't know how you manage to have time for all your creative output while researching, running a museum and advocating on behalf of political causes.
I am eagerly awaiting the continuation of your encyclopedia, as I have read the first volume many times with my older kids. It will be great now to have something for the younger ones (although they do enjoy the pictures).
That AI picture is so creepy! Aside from the usual extra appendages (and birds with extra wings), the geography is all wrong, and is that a hyrax with horns holding a candlestick?!? Weird. There are actually lots of great artists who will bid to work on your cover art, and you might even find one of your fans here willing to help fund it.
Well, I don't spend much time running the museum, I have an amazing managing director and staff who do that!
"The Natural Life of a People and Its Land."
How many volumes would the Encyclopedia fill? After those two volumes I see only domestic mammals as remaining.
Rabbi Natan Slifkin,
You engaged in public richilus by publishing two comments on this page - https://www.rationalistjudaism.com/p/dinos-and-rhinos/comments?utm_source=post&comments=true&utm_medium=web - claiming that I am a missionary Jew for Jesus and then BLOCKING me from even being able to respond.
What's most astonishing is that I think if anybody were to read the original message I wrote you which you chose to BLOCK they would find it to be extremely heartfelt and touching, and yet you took the word of some anonymous on the internet as your guiding light instead.
Because it's both a mitzvah and my inclination, a few days later I created a new account to try to reach you.
I left a lengthy letter which nicely subdivided your commentariot. One letz read it and decided to be מתקבד בקלון חברו with what he must have assumed was a very clever joke.
But you have good readers too, one who read what I wrote, commented, followed me, donated, and whom I've since started to get the pleasure of knowing as a personal acquaintance.
He assumed you would be mortified by what you had done and would reach out to try and fix it.
As you know, you did no such thing.
I would have left it alone in the court of the Ribboinoi Shel Olam but I have since received scam messages by people accusing me of being a Jew 4 Jesus.
Such a stupid accusation has never been made before so it is obvious that it is thanks to your doing.
It's impossible to know whether you have a conscience or any ahavas yisrael at all, but for your own sake and the sake of any who may be caught up in the פורעניות of your misdeeds, I really recommend you make this right.
Here is what I wrote a few days ago. I won't be looking for a response here. You have my personal contact information.
_______________
Dear Nosson,
Faceless non-interactive text is an incredibly poor means of communication so, relative to the severity of what I am saying, I will be keeping this short.
If I have any success at reaching you despite this meager medium it will mean the two of speaking via Gmail Meet or Whatsapp as soon as possible.
I'm a fan of transparency for humankind so I would like to make our conversation a podcast on my channel (and yours if you would like) but that's entirely up to you. We can speak beini liveincha with no record or, as I assume you (very admirably) prefer, recorded as a podcast but not as a "gotcha", where - as with anyone I've ever recorded - you can choose to exempt anything you say or do from publication. From a single word to every word.
What we need to speak about (and again we can 100% speak privately if you prefer) is that I believe it would be a sin to harbor my feelings for you rather than to speak face to face so that I can not be oiver Loi Sisnah es achicha as (hopefully) you come to desire to fix what you have done and make me whole.
I went looking for any responses regarding my comment asking for contact information from the man from Gaza you wrote about, and found that my comment was non-existent. (I am Yadidya YDYDY.)
This confused me so while I hadn't been planning to (as I had provided you my direct whatsapp number there so I felt checking for a response to be unnecessary) I checked the other page where I had left a comment and couldn't find it either.
What I found instead was someone referring to me as a Jew for Jesus.
I responded - quite politely! - to this disgusting rechilus but found that it wouldn't post. Further down the comment page I discovered why:
Under the absent comment of "BANNED USER" was our little rachil repeating his great discovery. I assume he first wrote that one, you banned me, and then - fearing that the target of his rechilus waa longer identifiable he penned the original comment that I had seen and attempted to respond to.
I wrote to him privately to give him the option of doing tshuva - to zero affect. He sounds like a kid who grew up on reddit and accepts their values.
But you definitely know better, and what you did was a thousand times worth than what he did.
If this letter is unclear to you, I should explain that there are paragraphs written by Rambam in Hilchos Deos perek Vav that I take so seriously that I have TWICE done what little I could to disseminate them to the world by translating them for my mostly non-jewish audience, milah b'milah.
First here, In front of The Great Pyramids under the title: "Morals of Egyptian Rabbi Moses"
https://youtu.be/h-BOkIuOKCA
And again, last week here, in a more urgent manner, under the title: URGENT: Dear Rabbis and Committed Jews"
https://youtu.be/gp53ggoLsaY
My understanding is that sinah shebaleiv is wrong because every ben bris is by nature empathetic and doesn't want to cause people pain but only does so by accident or due to the pressures and imperfections that we are all prone to as human beings, and that therefore the injured party is required to discuss his claim with the injuring party because we are all supposed to be brothers, in love with each other.
Rambam takes this so very seriously that he even calls Avshalom a Rasha for preferring to hate Amnon rather than to preferring to attempt to fix the relationship with the man who raped and cast away his sister.
When you think about the fact that Rambam calls attention to such an extreme case, calling Avshalom a Rasha for refusing to make peace with the man who raped his sister, you see how essential this is to his view.
I don't expect you to put yourself in my shoes so I'll help. I feel so strongly against you that if the mitzvah of lo sisna did not exist and if I had the power to do so I would curse upon you nearly every klalah imaginable.
Lacking your contact information (and I have made attempts) I had no choice but to get your attention by ridiculously writing to you here. You can delete or not delete this comment as your values dictate but there's no need to keep it up for my sake. You have my whatsapp number and email address, and they are easily available on both my Substack and YouTube if you've misplaced them.
Those are the ways to reach me if you want to. I won't be returning to this comment here so if you want to delete it I assume that would be wise.
May you have a beautiful shabbos, and may God grant the miracle that despite the poorness of this medium, my words reach your heart.
IMHO your tentative title is cringey. One data point. Don't have a better one off hand, sorry.
R’ Slifkin,
Mazal Tov on the completion of your great work! I am looking forward to having it join your book Sacred Beasts on my bookshelf!
About your request for a cover design, I’d like to share a few thoughts. While the use of AI to create your cover illustration produces a very slick and colorful image, it lacks a soul. Do you realize how many talented illustrators there are out there who would be thrilled with an assignment like this? AI is certainly a magical technology, but it could not exist without pirating myriad works by real artists, both living and dead. In fact, its continued use will eventually eliminate the need for real artists and illustrators. Minus the outlet of challenges to create new works of art, using AI will not make our world a better, more vibrant place. Do consider hiring a genuine creative to design/illustrate your cover; doing so will be a mitzvah for you and your readers, both present and future. If you would like to discuss this further, I would be happy to continue this conversation via email or at my Substack blog Imaginarius.
Exciting idea; hatzlacha!!
I implore you to come up with another title; your book presumably deserves better than the kind of not-quite-play-on-words & not-quite-rhyme exemplified by ‘Animal Vegetable Biblical’.
And “the Jewish connection to Israel“ is one of those phrases Jews unthinkingly employ that are far too passive, ceding rhetorical—and literal—ground to the enemy before it even gets started. Surely you can see how “connection“ sounds very weak & limited, juxtaposed to the entrenched—though deeply dishonest—narrative of today’s Palestinian Arabs being the ancient, indigenous people of Israel.
I'm open to suggestions!
Life in the Biblical land
Biblical species
Historic life
The cover looks great but the title sounds like a 3 part word salad.
Biblical Flora and Fauna sounds better to me.
Behatzlacha!
Very cool!