August is officially here! Many of us will soon be heading back into classrooms, and this year, that also means contending with questions, ideas, and challenges surrounding the use of AI in education.

We know many educators are wondering how to craft guidelines for homework, projects, and other assignments that set our students up for success. With open, easy access to large language models like ChatGPT and Claude, this is a tricky knot to untangle.

Jewish institutions are, of course, also thinking about these challenges — both as individual organizations and in conversation with one another. One of my memorable conversations about these thorny questions was with other Jewish leaders at an event hosted by 18Forty. A lot of what we discussed has only gotten more relevant.

For example, AI tools have allowed us to add millions of interlinks between related texts over the past six months and to make those citations more precise.

We also used LLMs to help curate Sefaria’s Topic pages at scale; now, you can find sources on hundreds of themes you want to teach in just a few clicks.

We continue to think about the best ways to use AI to further Torah, and we’d love to hear from you. How are you thinking about using (or not using) AI products when learning with your students this year? Drop us a line to [email protected] to share your thoughts.

To learn more about how we’re using AI at Sefaria, visit Sefaria.org/ai.

Pirkei Avot Learning Guide
Are you teaching Pirkei Avot this year? You might want to explore Sefaria’s experimental Pirkei Avot Learning Guide, an interactive tool that makes this popular text more accessible to learners of all levels. Using it is as easy as opening Pirkei Avot and clicking on any verse to see the orange “Guided Learning” button.

The Learning Guide provides:

Sefaria’s engineering team used an AI model to create this tool, which meant we could ensure the Learning Guide represents a wide array of relevant commentaries from across the Library. Once the LLM offered questions and answers, our learning team reviewed everything before publishing.

The High Holidays
Next week is the first day of the month of Elul, and that means the High Holidays are on the horizon! We picked some resources we think you’ll find helpful.

Return: Daily Inspiration for the Days of Awe: In this collection by Dr. Erica Brown, you’ll find lessons for the ten days that begin with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur, a time known as the Days of Awe. Dr. Brown offers an essay, a passage for textual study, and a practical self-improvement exercise for each of the days. The result? An engaging dialogue with both text and self.

Chovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart): In this 11th-century treatise on repentance, Bachya ibn Pekuda explores the intricacies of inner religious life, focusing on the spiritual, not just the legal, dimensions of the Days of Awe.

Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition: The Hagim: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s family-centered book of resources for Jewish holidays offers educators, parents, and families ways to create an intergenerational holiday experience. The book includes educational features like "the chag in a nutshell," deep dives into the prayers of the day, engaging stories, fun facts, quizzes, and reflection questions.

Sefaria for Google Docs
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Source Sheet Editor
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