Human Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence – Vayakhel
וַיְמַלֵּא אֹתוֹ רוּחַ אֱ-לֹקִים בְּחָכְמָה בִּתְבוּנָה וּבְדַעַת וּבְכָל מְלָאכָה. (שמות לה, לא)
Vayakhel is, for the most part, a repeat of Truma/Tetzaveh. The primary difference is that the former is "pre-project" and the latter (this week's parsha) is "post project", a summary of what was actually done.
Already in parshat Ki Tisa we read about HKB"H appointing Betzalel and Oholiav to supervise the construction of the Mishkan, and the above passuk is basically a repetition of the passuk in Ki Tisa (Shmot 31, 3), the only difference being the tense.
In this shiur we will be exploring human intelligence. What is human intelligence? Which components make up human intelligence? Can human intelligence be replicated by other living creatures or by machines? And numerous other facets.
In parshat Breishit we read how HKB"H created man - וַיִּבְרָא אֱ-לֹקִים אֶת הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱ-לֹקִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ (בראשית א, כז). What does בְּצֶלֶם אֱ-לֹקִים mean? It is not a simple one liner. Being created in G-d's image is a combination of many abilities that humans possess, which reflect an infinitesimal fraction of HKB"H's abilities – speech, conscience, intelligence, joy, compassion, etc.
This "cocktail" of abilities, בְּצֶלֶם אֱ-לֹקִים, is unique to humans, no other living creature possesses (all of) them. For example, animals can communicate with one another using some form of "vocabulary". Chazal say that Shlomo HaMelech understood the "languages" of all the different animals. The difference between the animal and the human is that it is possible for the human to learn and understand the animal's language, but the animal will never be able to understand the human's language.
Animals can respond to human commands, tones of voice and even moods, but this is a result of Pavlovian conditioning and not understanding. An animal will never be able to compose a kapitel Tehillim, or understand a shiur (like this) read aloud.
In this shiur we are going to concentrate on one facet of the cocktail, intelligence.
According to our above passuk, there are three components of intelligence – חָכְמָה, תְבוּנָה/בִּינָה, דַעַת. In a previous shiur (Truma 2025) we touched briefly on these concepts. חָכְמָה is the ability to grasp individual concepts. בִּינָה is the ability to connect concepts and deduce one concept from another. דַּעַת is the ability to see the entire, overall picture. These three building blocks are consecutive, one builds on and is a continuation of the other. The first stage is the acquisition of חָכְמָה. Following and building on this, one acquires בִּינָה. Finally, following and building on the prior two, one acquires דַּעַת.
According to the Gemara (Nida 30b) when we are a fetus in our mother's womb, before we are born, we already acquire the highest form of intelligence – דַּעַת, as the Gemara says - וְנֵר דָּלוּק לוֹ עַל רֹאשׁוֹ וְצוֹפֶה וּמַבִּיט מִסּוֹף הָעוֹלָם וְעַד סוֹפוֹ.
The Gemara continues to say that while still in the womb, an angel teaches us the entire Torah, (taking us through the above three stages of חָכְמָה, בִּינָה, דַעַת), but before we exit the womb and are born, the angel "slaps" us on the mouth and makes us forget everything we learned. The purpose of our lives is to reacquire that which we studied in the womb, on our own this time, without being "spoon fed".
Let's go through the three components one by one.
The first stage is חָכְמָה, the ability to grasp individual concepts. This is referring to the accumulation of knowledge – the gory details. When we study an additional sugya in the Gemara, an additional halacha in Shulchan Aruch, and understand them, we add to our level of חָכְמָה. The more details we study, understand and remember, the more knowledge we acquire. A person who has an incredibly vast amount of knowledge/ חָכְמָה is called a סִינַי.
In order to reach this level, it is insufficient for us to study each concept once - we have to repeatedly learn it, over and over again. The Mishna in Avot (3, 17) says אִם אֵין קֶמַח אֵין תּוֹרָה. One of the prerequisites to acquire Torah is repetition, as stated in a previous shiur (Truma 2025), the word קֶמַח is rashei teivot for קְדֻשָּׁה, מְסִירוּת נֶפֶשׁ, חֲזָרָה. How many times does someone have to repeat that which they have learned? It is an individual thing.
The Gemara (Eruvin 54b) says that the minimum number of repetitions is four. We learn this from the way Moshe first taught the Torah to Aharon. Aharon then sat next to Moshe while Moshe taught Aharon's sons. Aharon's sons sat alongside Moshe and Aharon, while Moshe next taught the זְקֵנִים. The זְקֵנִים then sat alongside Moshe, Aharon and Aharon's sons while Moshe taught the Torah to the rest of Am Yisrael.
From this we see that Aharon learned the Torah with four repetitions, his sons three, the זְקֵנִים two and Am Yisrael one. When Moshe died, Aharon again taught the Torah to his sons, the זְקֵנִים and Am Yisrael. When Aharon died, his sons again taught the Torah to the זְקֵנִים and Am Yisrael. When Aharon's sons died, the זְקֵנִים again taught the Torah to Am Yisrael. In the end we see that Aharon, Aharon's sons, the זְקֵנִים, and Am Yisrael all had 4 repetitions.
Chazal say that this is the minimum – less than four repetitions, one will never remember what they have learned.
According to another Gemara (Ktubot 22b), Shmuel (as in Rav and Shmuel) repeated what he learned from Rav forty times. Similarly (Megila 7b), Rav Ashi repeated what he learned forty times. This is based on the number of days Moshe was up on Har Sinai (forty days and nights) until he learned the Torah.
Pirkei d'Rebi Eliezer (chap. 1-2) tells us that R' Eliezer ben Horkenos studied what R' Yohanan ben Zakai taught him one hundred times, until he remembered it. The Gemara (Chagiga 9b) says that there is a vast difference between someone who repeats what they have studied 101 times and someone who only repeats it 100 times.
The sefer Toldot Adam (chap. 9) tells of R' Zalman of Vilna (brother of R' Chaim of Volozhin and a student of the Vilna Gaon) who repeated what he studied 300 times and then a month later he repeated it another 30-40 times. When asked "Why so many times?" he replied that it was like someone who has a pocketful of diamonds, and repeatedly puts his hand in his pocket and feels and counts them to make sure they are all still there.
As we said above, this is an individual thing. The minimum is four, but some people need more repetition. From this we see, that to acquire חָכְמָה, requires not only חֲזָרָה, but also מְסִירוּת נֶפֶשׁ. Gedolei HaDor like R' Chaim Kanievsky zt"l or R' Ovadia Yosef zt"l had such vast knowledge, that when asked, could instantaneously pull up the exact answers from the exact sources, as if they had photographic memory. This was not the case. They achieved that level of חָכְמָה through untold חֲזָרָה and מְסִירוּת נֶפֶשׁ.
Some people are genetically born with photographic memory. My youngest daughter has that gift, she can remember pictures or tunes she saw or heard years ago and reproduce them, correct to the last detail and tone, pitch perfect. The Mefarshim say that someone who has this gift and can remember everything they have read once, forever - is of a lower level and receives less reward than someone who toils, עָמֵל, in studying Torah.
The next stage is בִּינָה, the ability to connect concepts and deduce one concept from another. This level of intelligence is superior to חָכְמָה because, it is not simply a "regurgitation" of details. It is the ability to see connections between details.
For example, the concept of גְּזֵרָה שָׁוָה. In the episode with Avraham and the angels (Breishit 18, 6) Avraham tells Sarah to make עֻגוֹת for the guests. When Am Yisrael leave Egypt (Shmot 12, 38) this term is used again עֻגֹת מַצּוֹת. Someone who has intelligence of the level of בִּינָה is able to connect the dots (remembering that there is another case with the same/similar connotation) and take it one step further, to infer one from the other.
This is what Chazal do in the Midrash (Breishit Raba 48, 12) and learn that the bread Sarah baked was matza that was kosher for Pesach. This is the concept of a chiddush.
This level of intelligence requires both logic and intuition, because logic alone is insufficient. You may have two similar concepts in different places, which have no connection whatsoever, and assuming any linkage between them is false and could even be catastrophic.
This is what Chazal term הַמְּגַלֶּה פָּנִים בַּתּוֹרָה שֶׁלֹּא כַּהֲלָכָה ... אֵין לוֹ חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא (אבות ג, יא). In order to merit the correct intuition, we must constantly daven to HKB"H and beseech Him to prevent us from drawing the wrong conclusions. If someone is studying Torah, giving or writing a shiur, before doing so we need to say a tefilla (Brachot 28b), asking HKB"H to guide us and point us in the right direction –
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱ-לֹקַי שֶׁלֹּא יֶאֱרַע דְּבַר תַּקָּלָה עַל יָדִי וְלֹא אֶכָּשֵׁל בְּדָבָר הֲלָכָה וְיִשְׂמְחוּ בִּי חֲבֵרַי וְלֹא אוֹמַר עַל טָמֵא טָהוֹר וְלֹא עַל טָהוֹר טָמֵא וְלֹא יִכָּשְׁלוּ חֲבֵרַי בִּדְבַר הֲלָכָה וְאֶשְׂמַח בָּהֶם.
Only in this way can we eliminate arrogance and merit siyata di'Shmaya.
The Zohar (הקדמה סד) says that every concept of חָכְמָה in the Torah is not simply a line in a book, it is a segment in Heaven, an entire galaxy that has existed from pre-history. When someone studies a Torah concept, he/she is connecting directly with this concept in Heaven.
When someone uses בִּינָה to deduce a new concept, a chiddush in the Torah, this chiddush rises to Heaven and creates a new galaxy in Heaven and then returns back down and re-creates the earth in a completely new form that now includes this chiddush.
In other words, by acquiring the levels of חָכְמָה and then בִּינָה, and being mechadesh chiddushim in the Torah, a person is not only "adding a nice vord for the shabbat table", he/she is reshaping our entire world! This is such a fundamental and essential part of our existence here in this world, that it is one of the questions we are asked when return our souls to HKB"H after 120 (Shabbat 31a) - פִּלְפַּלְתָּ בְּחָכְמָה? הֵבַנְתָּ דָּבָר מִתּוֹךְ דָּבָר?.
If we have not, then we have missed our calling in this world. We have not reacquired the level of intelligence that we lost when we were born. Each and every one of us is capable of making a chiddush in the Torah, provided we remain within the bounds of the methodologies stipulated by Chazal.
A person who has acquired an incredibly high level of בִּינָה is called an עוֹקֵר הָרִים. This kind of person can examine a sugya, unfold it and connect it to other sugyot and discover the secrets of the Torah - not by שְׁמוּעָה, by reading about them from other Mefarshim, but rather by the powers of their own intellect. All the famous Mefarshim, including, but not limited to, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, R' Bachyei, Abarbanel, Kli Yakar, Or HaChayim, … basically all the Mefarshim you see in the Mikraot Gedolot, and then some, were of this stature.
What is better, a סִינַי who has a vast knowledge of details instantly on tap, or an עוֹקֵר הָרִים who has the ability to deduce the details on their own? This is a machloket in the Gemara (Horayot 14a). The (counterintuitive) answer is – if you want to appoint someone a Rosh Yeshiva, it is better to appoint someone who is a סִינַי.
One would think that a person who has the ability to deduce the details on their own, rather than just remembering them from learning them from others, would be of a higher level. We will be examining this seeming paradox shortly.
The third and highest level of intelligence is דַּעַת, the ability to see the entire, overall picture. After a person has acquired חָכְמָה and then בִּינָה, they then proceed to the third, highest level. Someone who has the level of דַּעַת is able to see beyond the details, the knowledge that has been learned, beyond the derivations that have been deduced, and is able to see the larger picture.
Using a mashal, it is like someone standing in a forest when all they see around them are trees. If you take that person and raise them in altitude (zoom out), so that now they cannot only see the trees, but the entire forest. You continue to zoom out further where now they can not only see the forest, but the mountains surrounding the forest. Zoom out further so that you can see the entire country, the entire continent, the entire planet, the entire galaxy … This is the level of דַּעַת, seeing how everything fits together, from the tiniest detail to the largest galaxy.
A person who has attained this level is, for example, like Hillel HaZaken. Someone who already knows every detail in the level of חָכְמָה, who has deduced his own chiddushim, using the level of בִּינָה, but is able to see how all of that fits together in relation to the person standing in front of him. Someone who can communicate with that person in the most appropriate way that will ultimately uplift that person.
This is someone with the level of דַּעַת. Not surprisingly, it is for this reason that we pasken halacha like Hillel. It is not enough to be a סִינַי or an עוֹקֵר הָרִים or even both, unless you can disseminate that intelligence in a practical, meaningful way that is suited directly to the individual in front of you, it is meaningless.
There is a lot of "buzz" these days about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and it eventually "taking over the world". The question is "Is it possible for a machine (a computer) to achieve the levels of חָכְמָה, בִּינָה, דַעַת?"
The answer is that - undoubtedly a computer can simulate חָכְמָה. Knowledge is an accumulation of facts and details. This is exactly the strength of a computer. There is theoretically no limit to the number of details and facts that a computer can store. If indexed correctly, it is possible to retrieve these relevant facts and details instantaneously (this is what Google does, for example). The critical issue here is the method of indexing. You want to retrieve the most appropriate result for you, not the most commercial result for Google.
If the indexing system shows results in order of those that make most money for Google first and only then followed by those that make less money, it means that the results are biased according to an agenda. Similarly, the ranking of results is dependent on an algorithm that determines which result will be displayed. The power of this algorithm will depend on the level of בִּינָה it is programmed with.
Can a computer simulate the level of בִּינָה? As we said above, בִּינָה is the ability to connect the dots and deduce one thing from another. This is a combination of logic and intuition. A computer can undoubtedly connect the dots using logic – that is what a computer is, a logic machine. However, to be able to connect the right dots and use the correct logic, requires intuition.
For example, if you ask the computer to list the number of times the word Moshe, "משה" is listed in the Torah, the result it will give you will always be wrong. Why? Because the computer is incapable of distinguishing between the word "משה" in the passuk in our parsha ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל וכו' (שמות לה, א) and the word "משה" in the passuk כל בעל משה ידו אשר ישה ברעהו וכו' (דברים טו, ב). To the computer, both are the word "משה", but one is Moshe and the other is not.
The computer does not and cannot have intuition on its own. Intuition must be programmed into the algorithm by a human. If the human (programmer), using his human intuition, tells the algorithm to also check vowels with the word מֹשֶׁה, it will improve the algorithm and then the number of times will be right, and will not include incidences like מַשֵּׁה, above.
A computer cannot acquire intuition on its own, it cannot learn intuition on its own. Its level of intuition is only as good as the intuition of the human that programmed it. An AI can never become "self aware", all it can do is loop around in its own limited logic, it can never create something that does not already exist in its algorithm.
This is why an AI can never create music, nor can it create a new painting. All it can do is copy the music and painting in the styles that exist in its algorithm.
This is critical in understanding the power and the danger of AI. The answers it provides can only be as good as the human that programmed it. If we rely on answers that the computer "deduced on its own" using only logic and the intuition of its programmer, those answers in the best-case scenario will be right and in the worst-case catastrophic (if the programmer has bad intuition).
If we come to rely on those answers more and more and relinquish our own human powers of judgement to such a machine, more and more, we run the risk of blowing up the planet. This is a real threat - if we allow AI systems to fully control critical systems, like power supply, medical systems, weapons systems, etc. with no human "kill switch".
A machine consisting of silicon and circuits can never have בִּינָה of its own. At best, it can only simulate the level of בִּינָה of its programmer.
Obviously, a computer AI can never have דַּעַת. A computer can never give the correct answer specifically for you. It can only give the answer that is most statistically correct for you, by "learning" your preferences and behavioral patterns. A computer AI can at best see "who you are", it can never see "who you are capable of being". There can never be a computer simulation of Hillel HaZaken.
This week I celebrated my 60th birthday b"H. In preparing a dvar Torah I noticed a very interesting thing. The Mishna (Avot 5, 21) lists a series of ages and what a person should accomplish at each age –
בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא, בֶּן עֶשֶׂר לַמִּשְׁנָה, בֶּן שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַמִּצְווֹת, בֶּן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַתַּלְמוּד, בֶּן שְׁמוֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַחֻפָּה, בֶּן עֶשְׂרִים לִרְדֹּף, בֶּן שְׁלֹשִׁים לַכֹּחַ, בֶּן אַרְבָּעִים לַבִּינָה, בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה, בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִּקְנָה, בֶּן שִׁבְעִים לַשֵּׂיבָה, בֶּן שְׁמוֹנִים לַגְּבוּרָה, בֶּן תִּשְׁעִים לָשׁוּחַ. בֶּן מֵאָה כְּאִלּוּ מֵת וְעָבַר וּבָטֵל מִן הָעוֹלָם.
At age 60, a person should achieve זִּקְנָה. What is זִּקְנָה? There are two schools of thought.
The first group (like the Abarbanel, for example) relate it to life expectancy. In the time of the Tanach/Mishna when a person passed the age of sixty, they were pushing the limits of life expectancy. Today, due to medical advancements, life expectancy has been extended way beyond seventy. In the time of the Mishna, when you reached sixty, it was time to ready yourself to meet your Creator. The Abarbanel learns this using gematria from a passuk in Iyov (5, 26) תָּבוֹא בְכֶלַח אֱלֵי קָבֶר. The gematria of בְכֶלַח is שִׁשִּׁים.
The second group (Tosfot Yomtov, Ritva, etc. - which I personally prefer) says that the meaning of זִּקְנָה is חָכְמָה. They learn this from another passuk in Iyov (12, 12) בִּישִׁישִׁים חָכְמָה. They deduce this as follows – "בִּישִׁישִׁים" נוֹטָרִיקוֹן " בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים".
When I saw this perush an immediate question popped up in my mind. The order of the stages of intellect are חָכְמָה, בִּינָה, דַעַת. First comes חָכְמָה, then בִּינָה and finally דַעַת. However, if this perush is correct, then the Mishna in Avot (above) says that a person achieves בִּינָה at age forty. If that is the case, when a person gets to sixty, they should achieve the next level דַעַת – not חָכְמָה.
According to the perush that says זִּקְנָה is חָכְמָה, it looks like the person is retrogressing, not progressing! Someone already achieves חָכְמָה by age 15, after the ages of מִּקְרָא, מִּשְׁנָה, תַּלְמוּד. By forty they get בִּינָה and by sixty they get חָכְמָה … again? They are going backwards not forwards!
So, the answer is that obviously when a person reaches sixty, they achieve the level of דַעַת. If so, why do the Mefarshim above say חָכְמָה? I believe it comes to teach a very important lesson. When a person reaches the level of דַעַת they are able to see the entire picture, how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
At this point a person may mistakenly think that now they have risen to this level, that it is OK to take the foot off the pedal of the חָכְמָה a little. To devote more of their time to concentrating on the bigger picture and less on the details.
The Mefarshim come to teach us – no! There can be no bigger picture without the details. Oy v'avoy if you neglect the details. You must devote your time equally to studying the details, the חָכְמָה. If you have already been zocheh to see the big picture, go back and study the details again, in light of the big picture.
Go back to the stage of חָכְמָה, relearn the same מִּקְרָא, מִּשְׁנָה, תַּלְמוּד you studied when you were five, ten and fifteen, but not how you learned them at those ages. Relearn them from scratch with the knowledge and wisdom you have subsequently acquired, relearn them in view of the bigger picture … and this will enhance your understanding of the bigger picture, in a self-reinforcing loop.
This, I believe, is what the Mefarshim mean when they say בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִּקְנָה/ חָכְמָה.
Betzalel managed to acquire the level of intellect most only acquire when they are sixty … at age thirteen! How is that possible?
The answer is to be found in the tefilla we say three times a day in the Amidah - חָנֵּנוּ מֵאִתְּךָ חָכְמָה בִּינָה וָדָּעַת. Yes HKB"H requires of us mesirut nefesh to study Torah, but in the end, we merit Torah only because of חָנֵּנוּ, because HKB"H gives it to us free – as a gift.
Moshe was on Har Sinai for forty days and forty nights trying to study the Torah and each day he forgot what he learned the previous day. At the end of the forty days Moshe said "HKB"H I have learned nothing!" Then HKB"H gave Moshe the entire Torah as a gift (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa, 17).
HKB"H doesn't want our intelligence, He wants our effort, our mesirut nefesh. We might mistakenly think that we acquire Torah because we are smart, because we have a high IQ, or because we have put in the hours – 4 times, 40 times, 100 times, 101 times, 300 times …
That is not how we eventually acquire Torah – HKB"H gives it to us as a gift – each according to their own effort. You have no claim to the Torah you have acquired, it is all given to you by HKB"H. This is why the Mishna says אַל תַּעֲשֵׂם עֲטָרָה לְהִתְגַּדֵּל בָּהֶם (אבות ד, ה), don't "shvitz" with your Torah knowledge, you are not as smart as you think.
We should all be zocheh to study Torah with mesirut nefesh, לְהַגְדִּיל תּוֹרָה וּלְהַאֲדִירָהּ and reacquire the intelligence we had before we were born. That is the purpose of our lives.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
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