Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional

sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas. I'm your host, David Bischofkin,

and this month we're continuing our exploration of AI. Thank you so much to our partners at the

American Security Fund for their generous support and guidance on this important subject.

This podcast is part of a larger exploration of those big, juicy, Jewish ideas.

So be sure to check out 1840.org.

You can also find videos, articles, recommended readings, and weekly emails.

There is no question that when technology evolves, it also has an effect on the very

experience of Yiddishkite and Judaism itself. I think the person who noted this in the most

clear and obvious way is Professor Chaim Salavachic in his article, Rupcher and Reconstruction.

He talks about how modernity and acculturation

to the United States of America really affected the way that we relate and cultivate

Jewish law, known as halacha.

And we've had Chaim Salavichik on twice on 1840.

But his essential argument is that halacha goes from something my medic,

which is what it was pre-war and the stettel. It was imitative, my medic, like from the word

meme to imitate. Halachuk was very imitative. That was the Yiddish kind of my bubby, of my Zady.

They didn't know all the details, but they did. They kept a kosher home based on what

their parents did. And that is the way halakhah was perpetuated really through most of European

Jewish history. However, on American soil post-World War II, we saw a move back to text-based

authority to really try to maximize the amount of opinions, how things can done,

leniency, stringencies, and it became much more detailed, and in some ways it became more

...