The Sacred Potential of Human Work
The second of three pillars that enable all the world
to stand,
said Shimon the Righteous, is avodah, meaning sacred work,
term that referred
to service in the Temple in Jerusalem, but now I’m aiming
to expand
the meaning of the word. Secular is the quality that I
have conferred
to it, suggesting that when by humanity it is
generated,
by means of its dependence on human brains it can be
potentially
as sacred as is service in the Temple, work that Shimon righteously
venerated,
provided that the work is not produced by A.I., but by brains of human beings, menschily.
In an encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,“ the Fourteenth Pope Leo implied
a view regarding work, a quality which Shimon the Righteous said enables all the world to stand.
Pope Leo the Fourteenth’s encyclical echoes the praise which I suggest that Shimon implicitly applied
not just to temple service he called “work,” but to all actions which intelligence that‘s not A.I. artificially demand.
In the Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 1:2, Shimon the Righteous (Shimon HaTzaddiq) stated: “The world stands on three pillars: on the Torah, on the service (avodah), and on acts of lovingkindness (gemilut hasadim)”.
Although the word avodah used by Shimon HaTzaddiq literally denotes the service that used to be performed in the Temple before it was destroyed, the word can also be applied, by being translated as “the work,” to intellectual work of human beings that the encyclical of Leo XIV by Pope Leo XIV, “Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity,” aims to protect from A.I.
The encyclical contains the following language:
We must avoid the misconception of equating this type of “intelligence” with that of human beings. These systems merely imitate certain functions of human intelligence. In doing so, they often surpass human intelligence in speed and computational capacity, offering tangible benefits across many fields. Yet this power remains entirely tied to data processing. So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean.
In Yiddish, a mensch (from the German Mensch, meaning “person”) is the ultimate compliment, describing a person of integrity, honor, and deep moral character. A mensch is someone who is kind, empathetic, responsible, and possesses a strong, innate sense of what is right.