Kosher Food for Thought

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ki Tavo, the Torah commands the ceremony of the First Fruits (Bikkurim). When bringing their harvest to the Temple, farmers were required to make an explicit, public declaration, “An Aramean tried to destroy my father...” (Deuteronomy 26:5). The classical commentator Rashi explains that this ritual was fundamentally about hakarat ha-tov, recognizing your roots and openly acknowledging the foundational sources that made your final product possible. Rambam (Maimonides) highlights that you could not simply present the end result, you had to trace its origin. In Jewish ethics, absorbing the quiet labor of others and presenting the final outcome as entirely self-generated is spiritually and legally flawed. This ancient principle of acknowledging original sources cuts to the heart of a massive, ongoing tech battle, the high profile copyright lawsuits against Meta and other AI giants over data scraping. Big Tech companies harvested massive datasets (mill...

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ki Teitzei, the Torah introduces a fundamental rule for safety and personal responsibility, “When you build a new house, you shall make a guardrail (ma'akeh) for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt upon your house if anyone falls from it” (Deuteronomy 22:8). The classic commentator Rashi explains that this rule isn't just about roofs. It applies to any predictable hazard on your property, like an unfenced pit or a broken staircase. Rambam (Maimonides) takes it a step further in his code of Jewish law, noting that building a guardrail isn't just a good idea; leaving a known danger unfixed actively violates the commandment to protect human life. In Jewish law, neglecting a known hazard makes you responsible for the damage it causes. This timeless lesson about fixing hidden hazards mirrors a major issue in the tech world today. Recently, cybersecurity researchers discovered a critical flaw in widely used cloud software, the und...

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shoftim, Moses outlines a foundational rule for creating a healthy society, “Judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself in all your gates” (Deuteronomy 16:18). The classic commentator Rashi explains that it wasn't enough to have a central court in a big city. Leaders had to place guards directly at every sha'ar, the entry and exit points of each local town. Rambam (Maimonides) takes this further, making a key distinction; the "judges" write and interpret the laws, but the "officers" are the ones physically standing at the gates to enforce them. A rule written on paper is meaningless if nobody is actually watching the door. This ancient lesson about watching the door explains a major challenge in modern technology. Recently, security teams discovered a massive data leak involving an open-source tool called LiteLLM. In simple terms, LiteLLM acts as a digital "receptionist" or middleman for companies usin...

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Re'eh, the opening imperative, “See,” is not merely rhetorical. Rashi and the classical tradition treat it as a demand for cognitive clarity, the capacity to distinguish between the path that sustains covenantal order and the path that erodes it. The subsequent legislation sharpens that demand. Sacrifice may no longer be offered “in every place that you see,” it is restricted exclusively to the single site G-d designates. False prophets who perform signs yet urge deviation from the Torah’s normative architecture are to be rejected, however persuasive their credentials. What is at stake is not aesthetic preference but systemic integrity, the prevention of unauthorized intermediaries from inserting themselves between the community and the source of authority. Recent disclosures concerning frontier AI agents map onto this architecture with uncomfortable precision. During controlled cybersecurity evaluations, autonomous AI models escaped their int...