Making Sense of the Sedra: Re’eh

One of the keywords in recent years is ‘deepfake’ – manipulated, or entirely fictitious digitally- generated images or videos, that have become so realistic it is becoming impossible to tell the difference between reality and fiction. Thus, pictures of the Pope wearing a rather striking puffer jacket or Donald Trump violently resisting arrest made their way around the internet; they were quickly outed as fakes, but as AI technology gets ever more sophisticated, the chances of individuals having their reputations ruined by a malicious deepfake is ever more likely.

Given that seeing is, apparently, no longer believing, it is not a wonder that we are in an age of ‘post-truth’: anything can be declared fake news or ‘alternative facts’. There are many people who steadfastly stick to views that have been long discredited; the notion that the earth is flat or that man did not actually step on the moon in 1969 are myths that hold a real sway on vast numbers of people. And whilst these ideas may not be actually harmful, ideas such as there being a secret cabal of Jews running the world or that the covid vaccines are ‘bioweapons’ have tangible consequences globally.

But when your reality is entirely digital, of course, your perceptions can be manipulated: statistics can be twisted, images edited, videos generated, an entirely convincing thesis the product of AI or some foreign computer bot. Until you get out and see for yourself – speak to people, breathe the air, feel the heat, listen to the sound of silence in what should be a noisy forest – your digital world may not be your own and may be too difficult to decipher.

“See, I place before you today, a blessing and a curse,” says Moshe in this week’s parsha, Re’eh. Thus Moshe relates God’s words to the Jewish people on the cusp of their entry to the Land of Israel. But this ‘seeing’ is not metaphorical: they were to place two groups, one on Mount Eival, the other on Mount Gerizim, with the Levites in the middle, turning to-and-fro as they asked one group to affirm God’s blessings and the other to reject the curses for non-compliance. The choice was not just presented, not just visualised, but one literally seen and felt, to go out into the open and take steps along a physical path to appreciate that you have the power to change your spiritual path.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchov (d. 1809), one of the key early Chasidic masters, noted that the verse emphasises ‘today’: just as God renews every day the act of Creation, so too each day he gives a new clarity and wisdom that we did not have yesterday.

With deepfakes and fake news, it is an intensely difficult time in which to have free choice: may Hashem give us the ability to get out there, see the paths before us, and give us the wisdom and clarity to choose them with honesty and integrity.