Contributing to a strong, vibrant, and diverse Jewish community in and around Philadelphia

Choose Life: Judaism, Free Will and the

New World of AI

Parshat Re’eh

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D.

                  Recently, I was sitting in my doctor’s office when my physician entered in his usual cheerful fashion and announced that this session was going to be electronically transcribed by ChatGPT.  I assumed that meant the computer program would also generate a succinct summary of my exam and a complete report with all my meds, medical history, diagnoses, and prognosis.  Laughingly, I asked him if it was still necessary for young doctors to go to medical school.  Somewhat seriously, he replied, “you still need the human touch.” I could not have agreed more.

Q              The reality is that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is   increasingly making its presence felt in all parts of our lives.  The phenomenal expansion of AI has impacted a wide range of disciplines, from technology to business ethics to philosophy.  We are now facing the prospect of AI thinking for us, generating lists of possibilities of behavior, and then choosing the best course of action for us. In other words, AI is impacting and perhaps limiting what might traditionally be called free will.

                  Judaism has long understood free will as somewhat paradoxical. In Avot 3:15, Rabbi Akiba taught that “all is foreseen and free will is given.”  Theologically speaking, it means that even though there is an all-knowing deity, people still have the capacity to choose, within certain parameters, their own actions. Difficult to understand, Akiba’s paradox has now been made abundantly clear by the increasing functions and limitless potential of AI.

                  The majority of Jewish philosophers have long argued that Judaism is a free will, not a fatalist, tradition.  Even though we talk about our marriage partners as bashert (“destined one”)  or say, “so may it be the will of the Eternal,” both implying a kind of predetermination or limitation of free will, still Judaism insists on free will as a foundational teaching of our tradition. Much of Judaism’s belief in free will is derived from this week’s portion.  At the very beginning of the portion, we read, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.”  Later in the Torah, the command is given, “therefore, choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:20) No less an authority than Maimonides (1138-1204) viewed these verses as the building blocks of Judaism’s affirmation of free will and an emphasis on personal choice.

                  One of the interesting discussions entertained by Maimonides is the relationship between mitzvah (“commandment”) and choice.  Just because a given teaching is deemed a mitzvah does not necessarily mean we are without choice as to whether we fulfill that mitzvah.  Thus, even in the most definitive areas of Jewish life, it is still our choice as to not we comply with tradition.  For the sure, the prophets of Ancient Israel emphasized personal choice and responsibility.

                  In the United States, the idea of personal free will is heavily intertwined with the idea of personal autonomy.  We are a society of rugged individualism.  We are, at least historically and ideologically speaking, free citizens in a free country. We believe we chose to do what we do. This freedom of and from religion has been particularly problematic for American Jews.  Historically, a minority choose to do things Jewish. A larger segment chose not to do so. This pattern has been consistent from colonial times to the present.  How many of us can translate the words “choose life” into “choose Judaism” for ourselves and our families?

                  Finally, at a very deep philosophical and theological level, we can ask if the Eternal has free will.  Is the “Master of the Universe” limited to only do certain things according to a cosmic moral code or is a more radical, inscrutable concept of free will at play here?  In other words, the issue of free will not only defines what is human about us but also what is divine-like about us. The choice is ours and no matter how sophisticated AI becomes, the divine-human metaphysical condition of free will remain.  Perhaps, even more so!

Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D. is Rabbi Emeritus of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel and a Past Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College. A prolific historian of the American Jewish experience, he has taught at Princeton, SUNY Binghamton and Hunter College. Currently, he is a Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia.