"What Will We Do When Even The Machines Can Learn Torah?"
Tech Tribe Dispatch #304
💡 Think:
The famed chasid Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman once said during a chasidic farbrengen in the 1960s:
”As time goes on and we get closer to the days of Moshiach, Jews will draw nearer to understanding the true purpose for which their souls descended into this world. In the past, someone might have thought their soul came here just to be a wagon driver. Then came the invention of the horseless-carriage, and suddenly, nobody believed their soul’s mission was to be a coachman.
Same with laundry: Once people thought their life’s purpose was to wash clothes by hand, scrubbing them on a washing wrack in the river, until the washing machine came along and proved otherwise. Even today, there are good folks who think their soul came down just to be a great scholar.
But the day will come, when they’ll invent a machine that can be a great scholar too. Then everyone will realize that learning for its own sake —even deep Chasidic study— if it’s just for intellectual achievement and not done with real spiritual investment - with awe of Heaven and connection to G-d, isn’t the soul’s true purpose in this world.
There’s one thing no machine will ever do: pray at length. To create genuine feelings of love and awe for God, you need contemplation and depth that only come through the work of prayer. That, in the end, is the soul’s real mission down here— Avodat Hatefillah, the service of prayer.
🏃 DO:
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🎬 Watch:
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🎉 Mazel:
Tech Tribe friend Erica Wenger on leaving Brex to go all in on her fund Park Rangers Capital
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📚 Read:
🚇 Finding God, and Nietzsche, in the Hamas Tunnels of Gaza
✨ Instagram Tefillin Wrapping Gets Jewish Man banned from Country Club
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 8:10 PM
For Shabbat candle-lighting time in your area click here.
🙏 Pray:
For our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and all people who want a world of safety and goodness.
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