AI writes a good sermon. Don't let it write yours.
Here, in this little pocket of religion, is a place to take a stand.
Rabbis are using AI to write sermons.
I don’t think this is really a secret, although it’s not the sort of thing that rabbis really like to talk about (which perhaps tells you something?). It’s easy to reach for AI when the words aren’t flowing or you’re just tapped out. Yes, many rabbis are repulsed by the idea—but many are not.
Well, I think it’s a bad idea, and I think now is the time to take a principled stand against it. The cost of forgoing AI for sermon writing is absolutely worthwhile and the time to create a norm is right now, before we start forgetting what it is to write without AI.
My argument is here. I’d love to know what you think.
I was asked by a friend to help their daughter write her bat mitzvah drash, I gave her some instructions to make some notes about things that struck her as interesting and to send me the verses so I could get prepped for a great conversation. The parents sent me a ChatGPT sermon and immediately asked if we could just run with it as a starter. Reader, I killed myself.
Thank you for writing this.
How about we go back to the tradition where Rabbis give a sermon only twice a year?
As a former congregate, high school, teacher and Jewish educator and as of six months ago, a congregational rabbi I think there is over emphasis on sermons.
It’s a passive form of learning that is becoming obsolete by a social media and educational culture of differentiation and interactivity.
I think rabbis should give sermons only when they have a very clear and immediate call for action. The sermon then becomes the sharing of a narrative that explains and motivates the listeners.
That is rarely the case in my experience.