Parshas Lech Lecha: Would Avraham Avinu Have Used ChatGPT? The Surprising Torah Perspective

Idolatry’s Strange Logic

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Raboisai, imagine walking into a room and finding an intelligent, respectable adult bowing down to a piece of wood. He speaks to it, he offers carbonos to it, he believes that this object exercises power over his living, pulsating, and breathing life. You look at him, being peleal, totally sprawled out on the floor before the idol and think, have you lost your cotton picking mind? You cut down that tree. You watch someone carve that image. How can the work of human hands now become your God? And yet, and yet, for generations, enormous populations, cadres of folks have worshipped images, stones, celestial and heavenly bodies, objects that are man-made. How did this happen? Were they all fools? Was Avodazara simply made up as a poorly timed joke? Did the world one day simply wake up and abandon common sense? No. Let me tell you how the Rambam describes the progressive nature of Avodazara and how the absurdity of idolatry came to be in the world. I want to put together peruse the Rambam's words because it introduces us to the greatest mover and shaker, connector, believer, and builder. The man who thought up monotheism and birthed the nation, the father of humanity, and his name is Avram. Some of us now call him Avraham. But when we think about Avraham, Avram, you need to be introduced to him and meet him at the time period that he's living in. And in order to understand the time period that he's living in and how the Rambam explains it, the first three halachos of the laws of Avodas Akum and the safer Mada, the first of the 14 books of the Rambam, you need to, well, I'll just tell you what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about Avramavinu, the boy who stared up at the same heavens as everybody else, but he dared to think differently. And today I want to explore what made Avraham extraordinary. What the altar of Slabotka teaches us about the dignity of the human mind and in connection to the Rambam's essay about Avraham, and then ask a very contemporary question about what happens to that dignity of the human mind and the brilliance of Avramavinu when we stop using our thinking Abrahamic minds and simply turned and continue to turn to machines for answers. The following 26 minutes are not going to be a talk against technology against ChatGPT, but rather and well frankly, also not against any of the scrolling, inducing, drinking, or other substances, but rather simply this is a talk in favor of the most precious thing in the world, which is the extraordinary sechel, common sense, and thinking capacity that the Rabonushal Olam entrusted into every single human being.

Rambam On How Idolatry Starts

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To do that, we begin at the very beginning. The Rambam tells us in the days of Enosh, how did people begin to err with Avodazara? Well, it started out with an honest mistake. During the days of Enosh, there were people, along with Enosh, who erred. They made a mistake. That they said that since God created the stars and the spheres to guide the world and place them on high and give them honor, so too, it is fitting to honor those that God honors. God gave his soldiers the stars and the moon, they understood to be in significant places, so they believed that this was the will of the Almighty to magnify and to honor those of whom he, Capital H is magnified and honored. Just as a king desires to honor those who stand before him, who are in the king's honor. But once this idea became well entrenched in the hearts of people, they began to build temples to the stars, to offer carbonos to them, to glorify them with words, and to bow down to the creations of God, also known as a vodazara, in order to obtain the creator's favor. It wasn't necessarily ill, it sounds like.

Young Avram Looks Upward

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Now picture it. Close your eyes. Picture the ancient night. Not night with a K, but picture the dark ancient night with an N. And a young Avram looking upwards at the stars. The rest of civilization sees the stars and thinks about their supposed godly power. Avram sees those same stars and asks a different question. How can this all come to be? How can this cosmic order just continue without any governing cause? Who is behind all this? A creation cannot exist without a creator. A creation cannot account for its own existence. And I'm from the yeshiva line of thinking. And that means we stick to the text and when it comes to a point that's very much notable, that we need to get into the text and hear the words of the Rambah about the awakening and the courage to contemplate contemplate of Avramavinu. Kivon Shenigmao, says the holy Ramba. Once he becomes weaned, Aeson Ze, this strong one, this mighty one, his shotate bedaito. He began to think in his mind. Lashotate is a tough word to translate, but literally it means to explore. The boy began to explore in his mind. The Hukatan, and he's young. The Hishil, and he began Lakhshov by Yom of Alilah to think by day and by night. The Hayatome, and he began to question Heyikh, Evshash, Yi Hagal, Haz Nayeg, Tamid. How is it possible for this cosmic big ball that they call the earth to spin and to work constantly without there being the loy sabivo so without there being the one who is turning it and running it? Ki e Fshar, for it is impossible she is Save for the world to spin itself. Avram was thinking and contemplating and exploring in his mind, but he had no teacher. Volomo Diadabar. He had no one to inform him. Elam Mushoka or Mushka, totally entrenched, being oivde kaichavim, stuck in a cesspool, ha tipshim of fools. The Oviv, the emo, his daddy and his mommy. The whole Haam Oivde Kei Khavim, they're all part of this big, terrible joke and error of serving idolatry of Avoidazara. The Hu Oveydi Mahim. He would follow his parents and serve the Avodazar with them. Very interesting. Even though while he was thinking, he did not disregard his parents or throw the whole thing away. It's interesting. The Ramam says that he also did Avodazara at the beginning of his life, it sounds like with them. The Libai Meshoite. But his heart began throbbing. Umaven and thinking derekha MS until he had the aha moment and he got the Derecha MS. He began to piece it all together. And he began to understand the straight and righteous path through his knowledge that it was proper. Now these are incredible words. Clear understanding of the birth of Judaism. And what this brought to mind for me, and what I want the rest of the talk to focus upon, is where the roller coaster finally reached its climax of stupidity above Odezara. And when the young boy began to go zooming down the coaster with his newfound understanding of the world and of monotheism. You know where it all began, where Judaism was reclaimed? It all starts and ends with Kimanshe Nigmal Aeson Zehzchal Oshite Bedaito, the boy who thought, the boy who wondered. The boy at age three who pondered. The Khatan She Hischel Lachshoy Bayoim of Alaila through thought, through pondering, through honest contemplation, did Judaism begin? Not just his greatness of merely asking a clever question, but Avram is relentless in his asking and his questioning. We all have interesting questions from time to time, thoughts to ponder. But the greatness of Avram, where things began, was through these three words of Lakhshov Bayoim Ubalailo. He thought by day and by night. Picture the three-year-old thinking by day and by night. Sustained inquiry, inquiry. He returned to the questions. Who is running this world? He allowed the question to keep him up at night. And he would not settle for poor, poorly worded answers from his neighbors or what somebody else thought to believe. And what's fascinating about Avraham's thinking was that consider, we didn't get to the end of the Rambam, but describe or consider how the Rambam describes and sketches the thinking of Avram. He begins searching as a child when this Aeson, when this mighty one is but three, but he does not recognize his creator. He does not have that aha moment, see the Rambam inside. Law one, two, and three, does not recognize it and come to that Derechal MS until he's 40. So he's thinking and relentlessly thinking for 37 years. You can see the for the bonus episode, and for those big time scholars who want extra credit, see the rivid and see how they piece together the midrushim to see exactly how old he was and the opinion of the different Rishonim. But we understand his knowledge, the Avram's knowledge, in stages, in developing this awareness, no matter what age he was or when. That's not our subject. The point for us is that it's a process, not an instantaneous download, but thought during a lifetime. Thought, testing and revisiting and growing and contemplating and maturing and pondering and revisiting and then thinking. Not merely knowing, becoming. And as Jewish people, it is so fitting for us to dwell upon the birth of the Jewish people and how it all came from Lach of Bayom of Alila.

Thinking As The Birth Of Faith

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For Basman Hazah, a Jew is still asked to fully think. To think, but it's a lost art. This is a Musar podcast, so we care mostly about what it can mean for us. And the lesson is that we need to think. Private insight. What Avram did is think incessantly. And the more that you think, I really love this about what Avram did, is that when something is essentially true, you can't ask enough questions to ever falsify it. That's why I love when people ask questions in Torah, and why I love learning Torah. Because you're never going to disprove it, because the deeper that you go, the more that you'll finally get to something that actually clicks and then proves you wrong. With intellectual honesty, of course, that's needed. You can't believe what you want and then search. You have to let yourself become affected by that which you find, and you need to be able to be astonished or recover or be overwhelmed or be just someone who needs more information. But the thinking, the thought, is what built Yiddishkite. Through Avram Avinu's intellectual integrity and epistemic humility, did he reach the aha moment of MS, of truth? And I believe that's something we need to get back to. To recognizing that the crowning jewel of a Jewish person is the sechel in which God endowed us. That God created thousands of living creatures with souls, or that simply grow and don't have a soul, but they're living. Bacteria is technically alive. But they don't have sechel. They cannot think. They cannot ponder. They cannot imagine. They cannot contemplate. And Judaism is all about thinking and contemplating. My grandfather always told me that it's okay if I don't have enough brain space or something goes wrong with my brain, you can just open me up and put more silly putty into my brain and squish it in there. But he would say that facetiously. Because when you open up the skull, you'll see some silly putty-like pink substance that is your brain. But in truth, you know that Sechel, whatever it is that is the engine in that mind, the way that it connects to your heart and to your body, consciously or subconsciously, that's your crown. That's your ultimate crowning achievement. That's what makes you you. And why it's so sad when someone loses their sechel.

Slabodka And The Dignity Of Mind

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The altar of Svabodka, who taught the whole, literally spawned the whole yeshiva world upon the philosophy of godless Ha'adam, the greatness of man, in a classic quip, explained the Gemara in Sota that said, Ain Adam, Oivera Veira, Elaim K nichnas bo ruachos, that a person never sins unless it enters into him. A spirit of stupidity used to say that the ultimate travesty of the situation is not the sin, but the fact that he let into himself, into his precious sechel, a stupid wind, a loss of intelligence. The tragedy is not merely the sin, but the tragedy is you losing your mind and lending your magnificent mind to something that's totally beneath you that brought you to sin. It's the opposite of Avramavinu. To sin means to lose yourself and to take your sechel into a stupid place. Place to where you can actually convince yourself that God wants me to be angry, God wants me to gossip, God wants me to eat it, to do it. Folks, we shouldn't throw away our crowns of dignity of sechel. And sechel is what we're losing. Sechel is what people are constantly throwing away. Well, we just people don't think. I don't think, you don't think, or we do think, but we need to think more. As parents, as teachers, contemplating and thinking, delving, and you're learning, don't use the cheating safer. Which brings us to 2026.

AI And The Temptation To Stop Thinking

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October 22nd, 2026. We are living with tools of almost unimaginable power. In a few seconds, ChatGPT can summarize a safer, a set of smart. Author a business strategy, draft a letter, produce a Devar Torah, answer a complicated Rambom, bring sources to your argument from across Ganshas. And these tools can be very genuinely helpful. But I'd like to ask the uncomfortable question. Are we becoming more knowledgeable while becoming less capable of thinking for ourselves? Are we still able to keep our crown jewel of Lak Shov Bayoim Uvalila, of manifesting the brilliant Sekel that God gave us that he wants us to use to come close to him? And I ask you if Avramovinu had simply asked Chat GPT who created the world, if he would have asked his question when he was three years old into his phone when he pressed, he probably wouldn't have texted it. Maybe he would have said it straight into the voice dictation on his Gemini or on his Claude, on his anthropic, and said, Hashem, who's powering this place? Well, he wouldn't have said Hashem. But if he would have asked his questions back then, thousands of years ago, if he would have asked Chat GPT who created the world, would he have received an answer that would have turned him into Avram Avenu? Or would he just would have been the next Avram in that generation and never had the hay at it and never would have birthed monotheism? Consider the answer for yourself. If the difference between an answer to a question that you have appearing on a screen of a handheld device, or a person slowly arriving at a conviction through 37 years of honest investigation. A person who's asked a question, even at the Shabbos table after a beautiful Devar Torah that he repeated eloquently from ChatGPT or from his safe air may sound impressive, yet ask him and press him about why and how it is true and what objections he's considered, and he is absolutely dumbfounded and has nothing to say because he did not come to this realization with his own Lakshov Bayomu Valila Uva Shoite Ula Shoite through his own exploration. And there's another dimension to this understanding of the whole discussion about this gift of clarity that we have, of discernment that we have. And whether or not we use the extraordinary gift of Seychel and thinking, or are we living leaving there more to be imagined?

Rav Moshe On Losing Clarity

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There's an essay from Ravmoshe Feinstein. It's not an essay, it's a letter in Igros Moshe. It's in Yoradeia in chapter 3, essay 35. Where Rav Moshe Feinstein, I actually first saw this when I was in ninth grade from Rabbi Tesla. But where Rivmoshe Feinstein is addressing a question about recreational marijuana use. Marijuana is now more legal than ever before. There isn't a clear law that prohibits marijuana use. But Revmosha's perspective among several concerns, including the bodily health and the creation of unhealthy desires, Revmosha, see it inside, emphasizes the harm of the impaired understanding that the drugs cause. The loss of sechel. That a mind that's not functioning clearly can't perceive God and cannot learn his Torah, cannot focus on davening in prayer and cannot perform mitzvahs with proper awareness. It's all about the sechel for Rabisha. He doesn't even need a lav to prohibit it. He can't imagine somebody losing their sechel, this gift. Consider Vayikra about the Kohain who mustn't drink in any prohibited manner when performing the Yavoda and see the Psukim and Peric Yud pus a test through Yud Aleph and see the commentaries because the time is late. That the entire thing is about the essence of thought, of discernment, of a clear mind, of distinction, and of sechel that the holiness of the Avoda demands.

Screens And Escaping The Big Questions

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And let's be honest for a moment. For all the escapisms or the things that reduce our cognitive capacities, think about the technology, the phone. And how long you could stand in line without checking your screen. How long can you wait for a meeting to begin without searching for another notification? Sometimes we need a rest, and there's nothing wrong with recreation, but sometimes the reflex is to flip open the phone and reduce every quiet space into a notification hub and become so consumed with the box that has the phone, the SIM card in it, that it prevents us from asking the honest and deeper questions about how am I living? What am I avoiding? Who runs this world? What do I believe? How can I become better? What was I put into this world to do? A life of constant distraction and stimulation leaves very little room for deliberative reflection. And we don't always look at the screen because we need information. Sometimes we look at the screen because we don't want to be alone with the thoughts. Notice the contrast. Avram looks up into the night. He allows the great questions to enter into his mind and begins to think about them. But many of us are hit with those same questions, but we look down into the glowing screen because we cannot bear the unanswered questions. And the dopamine hit is a necessity. These discussions are there. This discussion we're having now, 33 minutes in, is not to reduce those things, even though maybe that would have some merit. But it's rather to remind you and to remind me about the gift of our minds and our sechel and our capacity for reflection and our hatred of the entering of the Ruachtus into our mind, but through honest contemplation and the obsessive loving of sechel and thinking by day and by night, and by thinking and by thinking and by pondering and by thinking. That's what God wants from you. He wants the honesty of you thinking. How do you learn the Gemara? Ask the question, I don't know what this means, and then translate it, and then think if it makes sense to you, and then honestly think deeper about why it makes sense. Does it really make sense? Does it mesh with that teaching of God? Thinking, honest thinking. That's how monotheism was born, and that's the Abrahamic challenge and gift.

Five Minutes Of No-Device Thinking

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Rabisai. We're all asked not simply just to abandon technology, but to reclaim the habit of honest thought and say hell. Think. How are your kids doing? Think how am I honestly doing? Choose a question to think about. An honest question. And the parshaw. Why did God tell Avram to leave? Think, think, and then let that bring you to something. Well, he must have been leaving something. What was he leaving? Why did God want him to leave? Think about a kasha, a sugya, a posuk, a decision, a moment, a tvila. Just consider it. Think about it for five minutes. No phone. No AI. Think. Write. Ask your Rebbe. Look deeper in the Mefarshim. But think. And the goal is not to become a person who knows everything, but it's the opposite. It's to think. To not be frightened by the questions of truth. To acknowledge what you do not know without panic, but to feel grateful for the magnificent mind that you have, that you have the ability to tolerate this question and then get deeper. That was basically what Avram did. Ram Bam, he introduced to us Avram in this terrible mistaken world about vodazara. But that strong child thought by day and by night and ceaselessly and relentlessly thought and pursued truth. And he eventually changed the course of history and the direction of civilization. And we live in a generation that spends enormous amounts of time looking down at screens, using AI, and collecting answers, but perhaps it is time that we looked up again and wondered a bit and thought a bit, like Avram Avenu. Avram Avenu changed the world because he used the mind and his Seychel that Hashem gave him. And the question to us is whether we are prepared to use our minds and think and use our Seiko.