Chevre, this week’s parsha is Lech Lecha (לך לך). There is a lot that happens this week. HaShem tells Avram to go to the land he’ll show him. Avram and Sarai go to Egypt because of a famine. Avram and Lot part ways. Avram participates in the war of the kings. Lot is captured and rescued. There is the covenant of the parts. Sarai is barren and Avram fathers Ishmael with Hagar. Avram becomes Avraham and Sarai becomes Sarah and they are promised a son in the next year.

There is a lot going on there and I’ve written about them in the past. However, today I learned something interested based on a side comment made during a shiur (lesson) I was listening to. We were learning about the angels that come with a person Friday night from Shul (Synagogue). I did some research with one of my AI friends (not yet overlords). The Rif (Shabbat 88:7) on the Gemara talks about coming home with 2 Angels a good one and a bad one. When the person gets home if the candles are lit and the table set, the Good Angel blesses them and the other Angel says “Amen”. If not, then the roles are reversed.

The Rambam (Maimonides) in his Guide to the Perplexed (197:8) connects these 2 Angels to the Yetzer HaTov (the good inclination) and the Yetzer HaRah (the evil/bad inclination). Modern media have taken this idea and turned them into the Angel and the Devil sitting on either shoulder of a person.

I liken the idea of the set and ready house for Shabbat to when I come back to one of my AIs working on a project. Did it complete the job it was requested? Did it do it successfully and do what I wanted? Or is it stuck waiting for an answer to a question (like this morning).

May we all be blessed by a warm hom, a set table and AIs that do what we want (and maybe not what we directly ask).

Shabbat Shalom