Titzaveh: Oracle

In this week's parsha we are introduced to the Urim and Tumim  A few weeks ago, my friend Paul asked me (and a few other people)  what those words mean. Paul went to Yale. The Yale seal contains those words (written in Hebrew) אוּרִים֙ and תֻּמִּ֔ים , each word on its own tablet, surrounded by the Latin: Lux et Veritas, a possible translation of the words. Urim  comes from Ohr, which means light (lux). Tumim, which comes from "complete," is used as "whole hearted" and is thus related to truth (veritas) 

Onkelos, the official translation of the Torah into Aramaic does not translate these words. Rashi, the preserver of tradition, says that the Urim and Tumim were 

 הוּא כְּתָב שֵׁם הַמְפֹרָשׁ

he wrote the shem hamaforash. 

The shem hamophorash translates as :The Name, explicitly". This refers to a (lost) noun, a Name [of Gd?] that  had powers. The legends of  the great Rabbis (like the Baal Shem Tov [master of the good name]) often  say that they used the magic of this word to perform miracles. The Shem Hamephorash is one of the most powerful entities in Jewish folklore

Rashi goes on to relate the the Shem Hamephorash to the roots of Urim and Tumim by quoting the Talmud

שֶׁעַל יָדוֹ הוּא מֵאִיר דְּבָרָיו וּמְתַמֵּם אֶת דְּבָרָיו

 through which it (the breast-plate) made its statements clear (lit., illuminated its words; מאיר from אור, light, this being an allusion to the אורים) and its promises true (מתמם from the root תמם, an allusion to תמים) (Yoma 73b)

The quoted  Talmud  explicates a story in the book of Samuel: 

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר דָּוִ֗ד אֶל־אֶבְיָתָ֤ר הַכֹּהֵן֙ בֶּן־אֲחִימֶ֔לֶךְ הַגִּֽישָׁה־נָּ֥א לִ֖י הָאֵפ֑וֹד

David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, “Bring the ephod up to me.” 

David inquired of GD, “Shall I pursue those raiders? Will I overtake them?” The reply came, “Pursue, for you shall overtake and you shall rescue.”

This story in the book of Samuel establishes the role of the ephod, the container of the Urim and Tumim. It was an oracle. It gave faultless Divine advice. The Talmud discusses restrictions on who could pose the questions and the proper  format for the questions. Violation of these restrictions excuse the episodes  when the advice seems to have been erroneous.  By admitting that the answers (if the  questions are improperly stated)  may seem incorrect, the Talmud is making the oracle unreliable. Rashi  immediately makes the oracle unavailable by pointing out that Urim and Tumim were  unavailable in the second Temple and beyond. 

The oracle is very problematic. It is a source of clear visions of future events. The oracle is a bigger problem than miracles. Miracles are extremely unlikely events that occur at opportune times and generate tales. The oracle selects among the many paths that constitute all possible futures and conveys that choice to the questioner. The miracle, in its retelling, shows the favor of Gd.  The oracle imparts the power of knowledge to those who have access. 

Omniscience, knowing everything, would be a rational basis for an oracle. This is Laplace's demon: an entity that has all current information and the laws of causality at its deposal would be able to accurately predict the future.   Oracle®, the database company, works on the basis of selling access to a vast store of information, trying to be that demon. The training sets of large language models, that work by predicting the next word, use as much stored information as possible. Massive data alone fails as a predictor. Leplace's demon is not a Deus ex machina. Accumulated information, as we presently have it, does not predict the future in a useful way; although it does a great job of predicting the next word ( if you want to write like everybody else). 

The data sets that are used by AI don't work because they are based upon what people say. This is the world of should, it describes the world as it should be according to its human authors. It is interesting to note that many words that have an internal silent "L" share a characteristic.  They are true, but not necessarily factual. The world should be fair, it could be fair, it would be fair if only things were different... but they are not.  These are words of wishing; and wishing is not truth. 

Other standard medieval commentators, like Ramban and Ibn Ezra reinforce the Shem Hamephorash [magic word?] aspect of the  Urim and Tumim .The idea that the utterance of a word can have the power to clarify the future has new meaning in the era of generative AI.  The right prompt will get you much closer to the truth and the wrong prompt can lead to a rabbit hole of misdirection. 

The power of the utterance is an aspect of prayer.  Praying in Hebrew means that the words have an element of the occult. Although the  native, Israeli, Hebrew speaker understands most of the liturgy, the poetry leaves some of it inaccessible. The meanings of words change over time.  Prayer  by default comes with the hope that the master of the universe makes our wishes come true. The words themselves acquire power. 

Saying words can take on an intelligible power. If the words  of prayer bring enlightenment  (urim) through their  music, their sound, their meanings; and that leads to greater self realization and harmony (tumim), then prayer has achieved its purpose. Perhaps it is not the utterance of  a special  word that brings clarity to the vision of the future, it is understanding the truth in that concept. To utter the name of Gd clearly, means to realize that there is one Gd who is supporting everyone and everything in the world and to ask for favoritism is no small thing. If the question is asked with honesties (turim)  the answer is much more enlightening (urim).