Englewood N.J. — Local Rabbi Daniel Goldfeder took a leave of absence following a disastrous Shabbos Drasha in which he presented a message that mistakenly included his prompts to ChatGPT asking it to write his Drasha for him.
The Drasha, titled "Am Yisrael As A Light Unto The Nations" was initially well-received until he read from the printed text in front of him that had prompts like "Write three sources from the Rambam", "What is universalism?", and "Explain that to me like I'm five".
According to Rabbi Goldfeder, he could tell something was wrong when a quiet snicker began spreading in the back of shul. By the end of the Drasha, the entire congregation was laughing in such an uproar that he had to cut short the emotional call to Teshuva which included a story from the Baal Shem Tov, which he had also used ChatGPT to write.
"I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what was wrong until I started paying attention to what I was reading," the disgraced Rabbi said. "The prompt 'Write a closing statement in the style of Henry David Thoreau' was really bad."
His Drasha included a lengthy exchange with artificial intelligence:
Please write an emotional call to Teshuva.
Sure thing! Here's an emotional call to Teshuva designed to manipulate...
Not manipulate. Encourage.
Okay, I see that you want an emotional call to Teshuva designed to encourage people, not manipulate them. Let me see if I can help with that. Please confirm if you want it tied directly to the Gemara in Berachot 17a.
Yes.
At publishing time, insiders said the Shul board was voting to see if they should fire Rabbi Goldfeder or give him a second chance.
