We rabbis try to make sure that everything as expected here at Edgware and Reform Synagogue. But every now and again something goes a bit wrong. Back in the summer one of my wonderful rabbinic colleagues was due to lead a session of Schmooze with the Rabbis, a monthly series that Rabbi Neil Kraft z’’l began, where we talk together with members of the congregation about an issue of the day and its impact on the Jewish community. My poor colleague had been unavoidably called away and was suddenly unable to lead the session. I was given about twenty minutes notice.
What was I going to do – one hour with the fearsome intellects of twenty or more EHRS members and no time to prepare. Here is what I did. I signed up quickly for the CHATgpt Artificial Intelligence website, brought in my laptop and asked it to run Schmooze with the Rabbis for me. Those who were there will remember that Artificial Intelligence website did a pretty good job of generating a session instantaneously.
It prompted some of our schmoozers to, hopefully tongue in cheek, suggest that this showed that the Rabbinate was maybe no longer needed. I felt I needed to prove otherwise and so I asked the ChatGPT to generate a hesped, a funeral eulogy, for a fictional Yossel Cohen. Within seconds out came the kind of cookie cutter eulogy that a Rabbi at EHRS would never deliver, but which said that Yossel was a decent man, loved and respected, a true mensch with a passion for life etc etc. They the Schmoozers asked, can it write a hesped for Yossel Cohen who was a right wotsit, not a nice man?
Oh yes it could and the AI hesped encouraged us to learn from his tough example to remember Yossel Cohen, not for the pain he may have caused, but as a reminder of the importance of empathy, compassion, and the capacity for transformation.
So that inspired me a few weeks ago to shorten my hard work of writing a Rosh Hashanah morning sermon and stick the request into the AI generator: Write my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon! Here it is:
Shanah Tovah, dear members of the Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue family! It is with profound gratitude and humility that I stand before you on this Rosh Hashanah morning, a day of profound significance and introspection. As we gather in this sacred space, whether physically or virtually, let us remember that the High Holy Days are a time for personal and communal renewal, for reflection, and for setting intentions for the year ahead.
Yuck – I will spare you the rest of this catalogue of platitudes! You might want to know that my AI generated sermon was only about 500 words long whilst the real sermon I am giving now is about three times that length! You be the judge.
There is no doubt that we will be passing on the benefits and the dangers of artificial intelligence to our next generation-the children right now here at our Synagogue in the Rosh Hashanah family services and the Stay and Schmooze. Like writing, the printing press, the internet it will be a blessing and a curse and the extent of what it can do will be well beyond what we can imagine today. Join me on October 12th here at EHRS when we will be asking an expert panel ‘Alexa, is AI good for the Jews?’
The importance and potential of AI has burst onto the public scene over this past year 5783, but so have other world and Jewish issues which will make a great impact on our next generations.
We have witnessed the awful effects of climate change, 40 degree plus temperatures in Southern Europe, wildfires in Greece, devastating floods in Libya right now, all with loss of life. We will be passing on worse to our next generation. And so as a Jewish community we have to be part of the action needed to turn around. That is why Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue has embraced the EcoJudaism campaign wholeheartedly, this year improving our Environmental Audit performance so that we earned a Silver Award for our efforts to be a better environmental citizen as Shul. EcoJudaism is an important symbol of what we are trying to achieve as a community, as Jews and as individuals so that our next generation can learn that we have to reduce our impact on planet earth. Please let any of our Rabbis know if you would like to consider joining the EHRS together group that works on this.
During this year, I did what I have never before done in my many visits to Israel over my lifetime. I stood as part of a protest outside the official residence of the President of Israel. I stood in solidarity with Israeli Reform Jews and tens of thousands of others of all political stripes to make our voices heard as we shouted for democratia, the checks and balances that mean our Jewish state will always be responsive to all of its citizens and minorities. We protested that a sliver of a majority must not to be able to ride roughshod over the needs and aspirations of all of their fellow Israelis, Jews and Arabs alike.
Our next generation needs us in the diaspora to stay together with our brothers and sisters in Israel to ensure its democratic future. We are the generation who have seen Israel rise from a dream into a great nation. We must not let it fall into the hands of sectional far right interests so that our next generation cannot have the pride in Israel that we have had. We must keep supporting progressive Israel in their struggle. In 2024 we will organising an EHRS Israel trip so that we can experience the reality on the ground.
Our next generation needs us to ensure that their Synagogue provides them with a Judaism that is not only about memory and tradition but is full of future and innovation for meaning. One of the most thought provoking books I read during my Sabbatical rejoiced in the title ‘Gonzo Judaism’. It was written by Rabbi Niles Elliott Goldstein. He summed up what we should be working for for our next generations succinctly. ‘What Jews really crave is a religion that helps us feel and to feel deeply; that is inviting, accessible, that stimulates our senses and our souls; that encourages participation, not passivity; that comforts us when we are in pain and pushes us when we’re lazy; that gives us community, but also opportunities for self expression: that is transporting, positive and at times even fun.’ (p160)
With a full Rabbinic team, soon to be joined by Cantor Tamara Wolfson, with the vibrancy of our Synagogue together groups, with our Youth and Education team, with lay leaders of vision and all of our EHRS staff team – but most of all with your interest and willingness to try something new and push us to help it happen, EHRS can be a Synagogue that brings this on for our next generation and ourselves.
As the world changes so Judaism changes with it and evolves. A short while ago we read our Torah portions which followed two of the great innovators of Jewish life, Abraham and Sarah. They were the first to develop the Jewish response to God and what God wants us to do. Its why when someone converts to Judaism they add Bat or Ben Avraham v Sarah to their personal Hebrew name, to say that they have chosen to be directly in Abraham and Sarah’s Jewish chain of tradition.
I want now to concentrate on the words that opened our whole Torah service this morning, back on page 208. It took us to a Rosh Hashanah 2500 years ago when the Jewish exiles to Babylonia came back to Jerusalem and a whole new Jewish ritual began – the public reading of Torah. This was what you could validly call a Reform Jewish innovation of Ezra, the Priest, and Nehemiah, the Jewish governor of the country. As Rabbi Stephen Bob points out (CCAR Journal Winter 2023- Challenges and Opportunities for Change Biblical Models) there is simply no other record in the Bible of Torah being read. Before this innovation, Jews were Jews because they came to the Temple in Jerusalem and made the sacrifices that were necessary at the proper times of the day, week and year. But a Judaism that was about to become worldwide needed to be based on the story and values of our founding document.
That was the Torah that we hear today week after week, year after year. And it has worked to keep us Jewish wherever we may live. This innovation gave us the generations that lead up to us, and, as we celebrate bar and bat mitzvah here in our Synagogue by hearing them read Torah, it will continue.
How will our coming generations’ Judaism be organised? How will it have its stake in Jewish society and in the nation of Britain? It won’t be long before Progressive Judaism in its Reform variety has been building in the UK for 200 years. Between Reform and Liberal Judaism, Progressive Judaism is over 70 Synagogues, large and small, throughout the country with around 30-40% of all Synagogue members, depending on how you count it. We have a great diversity of practice but yet a remarkable unity of inclusivity, determination that being Jewish means to be an effective and contributing citizen of the society around us and conviction that we owe a duty to ourselves and our future generations to teach Judaism, do Judaism, think Judaism, as Jews make a difference to the world. Together Reform and Liberal Jews are members of the World Union for Progressive Judaism with more than 1000 Synagogues in over 50 countries and coming on for 2,000,000 Jews, indeed the WUPJ was founded here in London 100 years ago this year. Our Rabbis are trained together at Leo Baeck College which Reform and Liberal Judaism created nearly 70 years ago. The pinnacle of both the Reform Synagogue’s Youth and the Liberal Judaism Youth movement is the Shnatt Netzer year – a year of living, learning and serving in Israel together at the end of a school career. Reform and Liberal Judaism campaigns and votes together as a caucus in the Board of Deputies and together we help to ensure our voice is heard in the World Zionist Organisation through Arzeinu, the Progressive Jewish voice on Israel, successor to Pro-Zion. Our children, when educated in pluralist and Progressive Jewish Day Schools, do so together, at JCoSS, Clore Shalom, Akiva, Eden and Alma.
We continue currently as two separate movements. Is this the best way to make Progressive Judaism thrive in the years ahead? And that is the question that we are going to be addressing as a congregation, as our Movements and as a Progressive Jewish world in the year or so ahead. We are going to do this much better as one newly created Progressive Jewish movement which includes Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism. We won’t lose our prayer books, we won’t lose our style of worship, we won’t lose our traditions but we will gain a stronger voice in our country, we will gain the capacity to create thriving Judaism for our future generations, we will evolve into a stronger Jewish future and we will stop duplicating resources for no benefit
The final special song of our service on page 242 says it all Hayom Tamtzenu – this day give us strength, blessing, greatness, welfare and support. Whether it be through technology, caring for our environment, supporting a great Israel, developing Judaism, hearing Torah or building the new Progressive Jewish movement we need to thrive, may 5784 be a great year for all of us.
