There has been a great deal of discussion lately about using the Internet and artificial intelligence (AI) to research areas of Torah, especially Halacha. There has even been a conversation around using AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, to find answers to practical questions of Halacha.
Proponents of using the web to find answers to questions of Halacha explain that the Internet is just a collection of information and tools like ChatGPT, Grok etc., that simply use AI to curate information in intelligent forms. These are great resources for gathering past answers given for the same simple questions of Halacha one is researching.
I oppose this position for several reasons.
• Recently, with the Seder starting after the end of Shabbat, I asked AI on which day bedikat hametz (the ceremony of searching one’s home for leaven) fell this year. Instead of finding the answer from the many online Jewish calendars, AI decided to deduce the answer from works on Halacha. It stated that the search for hametz is always conducted on the night before the festival begins: “This year, Passover begins on Saturday night, so the search for hametz takes place on Friday night.” This is pretty amazing deductive reasoning for a computer knowing nothing about Passover, except that it is wrong. Even when using AI, the Internet can get basic questions wrong. This year, the search for hametz did not take place on Friday night, but on Thursday night. It is forbidden, for several reasons, to search for hametz on Friday night, in other words, on Shabbat eve.
• Halacha isn’t a binary system with only two possible answers and a clear set of easily identifiable factors that can be used to determine the Halacha. There are many intangibles, including a person’s mindset, financial position, and family situation, that can greatly change how the Halacha is decided. The Internet, even with AI, cannot take these factors into account because, often, the person asking the question doesn’t know that those are important factors to be included in the query.
• Laypeople, and even Torah scholars who have never done shimush (a form of apprenticeship with another scholar), aren’t aware that there are factors that go into Halacha that will never show up in any halachic work. Those that have done shimush and/or regularly deal with taharat mishpacha (laws of family purity) questions know about the “signs” that go into detecting the true question, not the one being asked. No matter how intelligent AI becomes, it will never be able to pick up on facial expressions, hidden tears, or embarrassing silences that key a practicing rabbi into the real question that is being asked and the actual issue that needs to be addressed.
The Gemara describes as “an ignoramus” someone who, despite being an expert in Torah, the Prophets, Mishna, and Talmud has not done shimush. How can someone who knows so much be an ignoramus? Because the only way to truly understand Halacha is by watching an expert Torah scholar answer hundreds of real-life questions and learn why the scholar decided the answers the way he or she did. Book smarts do not give a scholar the necessary knowledge they need to answer halachic questions.
Our Sages have also warned Torah students not to answer questions they aren’t properly prepared for. It uses very harsh language in its warning. While the Internet doesn’t have to worry about our Sages’ warning, it could be said to apply to those who set up software and systems that answer halachic questions when they shouldn’t be doing so, being unprepared.
MANY REFUSE to acknowledge these aspects of Halacha. They assume that laypeople, students, or those who regularly study Torah have sufficient knowledge to answer halachic questions. They assume that familiarity with the Mishna Berurah is enough to do so. When I received my rabbinic ordination, my rosh kollel, the late Rav Uri Cohen, told our “class,” the following: “Congratulations, you now have a piece of paper that says you know enough to tell someone what it says in the Mishna Berurah.”
He warned us that until we had shimush, years of practice, and sufficient scholarship, we did not have a license to answer questions on our own. His words have stuck with me throughout my rabbinic career.
I will never forget one of my first days as a rabbi in Los Angeles. I was an assistant rabbi to Rabbi Steven Weil, a known Torah scholar and then considered the most dynamic of Los Angeles’s rabbis. Rabbi Weil called me in to his office to discuss a question of Halacha that one of the congregation’s members had asked him. This question wasn’t particularly challenging but wasn’t simple either. After discussing the subject for half an hour, we had agreed on an answer for the congregant. Rabbi Weil then stopped the discussion and suggested we call a different rabbi (a posek – legal scholar) to find out how to answer the congregant’s question. I was struck by Rabbi Weil’s humility and refusal to answer the question himself. It was a moment I have never forgotten and was instructive to me as a rabbi answering other congregants’ questions.
I haven’t been practicing answering halachic questions since I left the Rabbinate professionally 11 years ago. I haven’t become less knowledgeable since then, but I recognize the difference between the ability of someone who is asked questions every day, as in the case of a practicing professional community rabbi, and a Torah educator, such as I am today, to answer halachic questions.
I hesitate before answering many questions, even from my own family members, and even when I’m confident I know the answer. Even when I’m 100% sure of the answer, I will advise turning to a different rabbi or I will consult a colleague who answers questions regularly. I recognize the roles that experience and regular practice play in deciding Halacha.
It is important for the Jewish people to recognize the limitations of the Internet and AI when it comes to deciding Halacha. All resources should be used when studying Torah. The Internet and ChatGPT are wonderful curators of information and act like an unlimited Talmudic encyclopedia and Gemara all in one.
While the Internet and AI can’t aid in the original thought and analysis that is the essence of Torah study, they can act as helpful resources to begin one’s study of a subject. They should not, however, be used to answer practical questions in Halacha.
The writer is a Zionist educator at institutions around the world. He recently published his book Zionism Today.