Aug 9, 2015
Niddah stains go hi tech. get the app now!
very cool that this new app, niddah stain checker for Android, has come into existence... I was recently joking with someone about creating and using an app for women to check the purity/impurity of their own niddah questions..
I cannot see the rabbis liking this. Besides for taking this realm away from them, potentially, there are too many points that are just too arbitrarily dealt with. For example, one of the main issues of rabbis checking stains, is determining the color or shade of the stain. Rabbis go by the tradition they learned with as to determining what color a particular stain might be, and this app leaves it to an untrained eye for determination. Granted, asking what color something is is not quite rocket science, but much emphasis is placed on studying the colors and practicing and assisting rabbis in order to determine color properly, and this circumvents that entirely.
I cannot see the rabbis liking this. Besides for taking this realm away from them, potentially, there are too many points that are just too arbitrarily dealt with. For example, one of the main issues of rabbis checking stains, is determining the color or shade of the stain. Rabbis go by the tradition they learned with as to determining what color a particular stain might be, and this app leaves it to an untrained eye for determination. Granted, asking what color something is is not quite rocket science, but much emphasis is placed on studying the colors and practicing and assisting rabbis in order to determine color properly, and this circumvents that entirely.
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I question the validity of deciding a matter of halacha with a device, instead of expert input. This is why, for instance, a sefer torah, etc. can be checked for haserot v'yeterot by computer; but not for tzurat ha-ot. We say that requires a human eye and judgement.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very interesting question, at what point could we rely on a technology in place of a human perception and judgement?
see this: http://yoatzot.org/blog/?id=3272
ReplyDeleteAnon, thanks. I think the yoetzet's response is a good initial answer. Whereas she appropriately addresses the question in a pragmatic manner (btw, her side comment about using sunlight is important. Rav Mordechai Eliyahu taught me to look at ketamim in indirect sunlight when I was a young man.), there is also a question of halachic principle which is harder to pin down; as I alluded to in my initial comment above. The Tzitz Eliezer dismissed the idea of using charts to identify stains and colors. I'm not sure this is much better.
Deletethis is "worse" in the sense that it does not tell the women at all how to look at and evaluate the stain. It just asks what color it is, presuming the color has already been determined.
Deleteefhser if the app had a database if millions or at least hundreds of thousands of samples that ran the whole color range with a dividing point (or points) against which mar'os were compared it could set up a definitely kosher/ask a rov differentiation and make the amounbt of shailos asked lower.
ReplyDeleteCool! Will there be a version for the Kohanim to judge tzaraat?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you assume it's a rabbi who checks? It's issur v'heter - anyone who's been properly trained can rule on this.
ReplyDelete