|
Dear Central Great Lakes,
What is all of this?
Are you paying attention to the A. I. (Artificial Intelligence) Revolution? It’s slowly bobbing
around an ever-increasing circle of applications. If you’re curious and adventurous, these A.I. chatbots, like ChatGPT, are available from your favorite APP store. Watch for the sale.
At this point, A.I. chatbots are hailed either as transformative, a super powerful tool, a revolution, or are viewed as a digital disruption – depending on how they are used.
If A.I. came with the usual 120-page easy-to-use manual, it would include algorithms that can be applied in a variety of ways from summarizing healthcare records and creating marketing strategies to predicting what consumers will value in 5 years. The disrupter applications include those that enable you to input key words and create everything from a college application and recipes that challenge the best of Bobbi Flay to a “personal” blog that offers insights on creating poetry without a muse.
The potential is conceivably limitless – with answers available on demand and way beyond the pay scale of Alexa.
Yet, what is all of this?
Is this A.I. tech really the answer to whatever keeps us up at night? A.I. seems to be a timely antidote for our productivity-obsessed culture of faster, quicker, better. Yes, A.I. is a time saver with instant results. We’ll give it that. Each application, however, is a sort of compromise – it’s missing the human fingerprint.
As remarkable as this technology is, A.I. cannot provide the answer to the ultimate questions that bind all of us, especially during this High Holiday season: What is this life all about? What did we learn from this past year? Where are we going in the year ahead? A.I. is not the lifeline with those answers. But our Jewish tradition is.
We’re gifted with Elul, with its weeks focused on personal reflection, soul-searching, and reviewing the ultimate question of how our actions this past year reflected our life’s purpose. And then our tradition carries us forward from there to the Days of Awe, (Yamim Noraim) when we’re guided along a 10-day pathway of repentance that includes mending what is torn apart in relationships. We make ready to seek G-d’s forgiveness and blessing for the year ahead.
It’s not an easy reflective fix, but it addresses our needs. Most importantly, we can identify some of those pieces that we need to help chart our pathway forward.
So, we begin to put it all together -- the complexities of our lives, the nuances that cross over a limiting just-the-facts prism. We look at the tapestry we’re creating of our life. With a heightened attentiveness, we think about how and what we can add to ennoble and improve the pattern of our lives. We evolve.
When we arrive at Yizkor we find yet another facet that adds depth to our tapestry. For as we remember the generations that came before us, we’re reminded that we’re part of what Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove calls "a generational tapestry." The intricate threads of our personal lives are intrinsically woven with threads of the generations that preceded us. We poignantly remember that our life is part of a beautiful continuum of the generations that preceded us.
Rabbi Aaron Panlen, Ph.D., z” l, pointed out in his writings that, more than the
customs we hold dear, the values of those we hold in our hearts are worthy of being protected and perpetuated. Our task is to preserve the highest values of those whom we remember at Yizkor – of those with whom our lives are forever entwined.
Against the dynamic of a tapestry richly woven with the inspiration of the generations that preceded us, we find a special message as Conservative Jewish Women. We find an affirmation of our role as stewards of our dynamic Jewish tradition.
This is our pathway forward. This is how we live a life of purpose and holiness. This is how we make a difference today and for generations that come after us. Together, within our affiliates, we have opportunities to support our loved ones, to be a presence in our synagogues, to reach out with caring hearts to those in need, and to support our community locally and globally with the work of our hands. This is who we are. This is what we do together!
In this year of 5784,
May we never lose hope. Together may we find strength to strive for better,
The courage to be a force for good, the energy to give all that we can offer,
And in all things, be a blessing.
(Inspired by Rabbi Naomi Levy)
G’mar Chatimah Tovah!
Shabbat Shalom,
Pam
Pam Schlosberg
CGLR President
cglrpresident21@wlcj.org
847.433.7546 (h); 847.691.8991 (c)
| 
