When Words Create Worlds: Rosh Hashanah, AI, and the Soul’s Shofar
Rosh Hashanah Special | Tech Tribe Dispatch #318b
💡 Think:
Words create worlds.
Generative AI, powered by large language models, has leapt ahead by parsing vast seas of data, uncovering patterns that allow machines to echo human speech and conjure images with uncanny resemblance to our own designs. These models don’t just parrot syntax—they’re trained to grasp the subtle dance between words, generating responses and creations with a coherence that sometimes feels eerily human.
In chasidic thought, speech isn’t simply communication—it’s the very engine of creation itself.
The phrases of Creation, “Let there be light… Let there be a firmament…” —aren’t milestones on a timeline, but the pulse that sustains reality.
The Alter Rebbe, the founder of the Chabad movement, writes in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the second section of his magnum opus the Tanya1, that:
”'It is written: “Forever, O G‑d, Your word stands firm in the heavens.’
…these very words and letters through which the heavens were created stand firmly forever within the firmament of heaven and are forever clothed within all the heavens to give them life.
For if the creative letters were to depart even for an instant,
For if the creative letters were to depart even for an instant, G‑d forbid, and return to their source, that source being the degree of G‑dliness from whence they emanate,
all the heavens would become naught and absolute nothingness, and it would be as though they had never existed at all,exactly as before the utterance, ‘Let there be a firmament.’”
This creative power of speech is woven into our human identity.
In Jewish philosophy, a person is called a medaber—a speaker—not a maskil, a thinker. True sentience is expressed through speech. Human speech isn’t just sound; it’s the revelation of what’s hidden inside, the act of giving shape and substance to thought. A parrot, whether feathered or algorithmic, may mimic sounds, but it cannot be a medaber. Speech, in its truest sense, is the unveiling of soul.2
(Therein lies the difference between human speech, and generative AI.If speech were just about making noises, then parrots—organic or digital—would qualify. But to speak is to reveal what’s within, not just repeat what’s without.3)
There are moments, however, that transcend speech. This past year feels like one that has often given expression to those ties.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, taught that the undulating wail of the shofar’s blasts replicate the primal scream of the soul. In place of the complexity of ideas that are expressed through words, the shofar represents the unvarnished call of the soul to shake off the negativity of the past year and reach new heights. It is the cry for our past and our desire to connect even deeper in the future.
The cry, unlike the spoken world, connects to our Creator on a level that transcends ideas and logic. It renews G-d’s relationship with a world created by Divine speech by reaching a level beyond speech. We reach out from our essence and attach ourselves to the essence of the Creator…
As we stride into a future where the boundaries between human and machine creativity blur, it’s the revealed essence of our soul that remains the beacon—the human light at the core of reality.
May our calls to heaven truly pierce the darkness and, this year, bring the Divine love and embrace we need.
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📚 Read:
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Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch, Torat Shalom p. 245
Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch, Discourse from 5672 p. 905