The Codes and Me

A full discussion of all the claims (in Mr. Witztum’s and Rabbi Mechanic’s replies) about my half-hearted research and related issues will be posted here soon. For now, I’ll note two points.

It is true that I did not contact Mr. Witztum initially but rather contacted Prof. Rips.  I regarded and continue to regard Rips as coequal to Witztum. Prof. Kazhdan and Mr. Gans among others urged me to contact Rips and his background was closer to mine. I assumed if Rips thought it appropriate to add Witztum to our discussions he would have suggested it.  Moreover, at the point where Rabbi Greenblatt, the editor of Jewish Action tried to arrange a call between us (and I agreed), his attempt to draw Mr. Witztum into a dialog with me did not meet with success.

Prof. Rips did offer to come to Los Angeles to meet with me. I discouraged him from making an expensive trip that I predicted would not yield anything more than the extensive discussion we had already had in Jerusalem. This is the reason I gave, not that I was too busy as others have claimed.

I had hoped to have the full discussion done much earlier, but my schedule prevented that.  I hope to have this posted soon.

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