The Tech Tribe Dispatch

‚ÄúThis is the day, the beginning of your handiwork, a remembrance of the first day.‚ÄĚ ‚ÄĒRosh Hashanah Liturgy We stand at the precipice of time. The end of the year allows us to look back toward our past accomplishments, and into the vast unknown of the year to come. Every year, before Rosh Hashanah, we read the same Torah portion, ‚ÄúYou are all standing this day‚Ķ1‚ÄĚ‚ÄĒnot just any day, but this day, the day of Rosh Hashanah. ‚ÄúThis day‚ÄĚ is thus the day G-d‚Äôs work began.

“You shall write upon the stones all the words of this Torah, very clearly.” —Deuteronomy 27:8 It feels like we never talk to each other anymore. In-person conversations became disembodied phone calls that turned into flat text messages or simply social media posts blasted out into the æther. I have this image in my mind of communication in the near future. I tell my AI agent to compose a letter to someone.

Weā€™re in the month of Elul ā€” the preparatory month before the High Holidays. What if we had the capacity to edit our mistakes ā€” to correct the typos, fumbles, and missteps of our lives? An edit button that could correct what we did wrongā€¦ Most of us think of repentance as something along those lines. Judaism has something different. Rather than leaving our mistakes as a permanent stain we carry forever, Judaism offers teshuvah. Teshuvah is better than an edit button.

✨This month’s #ChaiSociety Dispatch is being written from upstate New York (we’ll let the experts argue where exactly “upstate” begins) . But even as I take a few days off enjoy the air (and watch the kids catch some frogs) Tech Tribe continues to build! Enjoy an exclusive premier of our latest talk for Jewglers - on AI and isolation. And a look at our gro…

You shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land… and it will be for every killer to flee there. — Deuteronomy 19:2-3 I’ve long thought about the permanent record of the Internet, and how there’s no clear path, or teshuvah, to right our digital footprint. I’ve had an active and continued Internet presence for a long time —I started my late blog Letters of Thought twenty years ago— and my footprints on various message boards and listservs go back to the ‘90s.

ā€œYou are children of the L-rd, your G-d.ā€ ā€” Deuteronomy 14:1 One of the things I learned online is the power of positive engagement. Social media, unfortunately, thrives on creating a negative feedback loop. Tapping into the anger and outrage of the masses creates the engagement the social media companies look for, causing posts that stoke maximum negativity to get extra reach. Find someone to dunk on or to focus the ire of the masses, and youā€™re rewarded with viral success.

Said Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel: There were no greater festivals for Israel than the 15th of Av and Yom Kippurā€¦ ā€”Talmud, Taanit 26b Everyones deleting their social apps. Or pausing them for a needed mental-health break. And thereā€™s good reason: The proliferation of an always on constantly updating feed leaves us exhausted and unfocused.

“You have been shown, in order to know that the Lord He is God; there is none else besides Him.” — Deuteronomy 4:35 How can a finite world contain the infinity of the Al-mighty? Here’s an exercise: Take a pencil in your hand. Feel its heft and weight, note the glint of the light on its lacquered surface, the darkness of its graphite. Now draw a circle on a piece of paper. Next draw a straight line across the diameter of the circle.

The First Temple, why was it destroyed? Because of idolatry, murder and adultery. The Second Temple, when they were engaged in Torah, mitzvahs, and generosity, why was it destroyed? Because there were Jews who hated other Jews unreasonably. Which teaches us that unwarranted hatred is equal to idolatry, murder, and adultery combined. ā€” Talmud Yoma 9b. The Sages trace our downfall to a fight in ancient Jerusalem1 ā€”a spark of baseless hatred that set the Temple ablaze.

✨This month’s #ChaiSociety Dispatch has a sneak peak at our fall programming, an exclusive premier of our recent panel for NY Tech Week on AI and antisemitism and a look at our upcoming events and recent media hits. We want to hear from you! What do you think Tech Tribe should be focusing on these days? What have you particularly enjoyed in recent months?