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Blog/November 2025/Nov 14th

From RonWareWiki

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Nov 14th Comments or questions? Click here!


The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, so it’s been said. We purchased a bunch of bulbs to spruce up our outdoors. Of course, the dirt is so hard and compacted that bulbs can’t be planted. Therefore I’ve used a pickaxe three days this week, to break up the ground. This qualifies as both “cardio” and “strength” exercise, and I highly recommend it if you’re unfortunately weak of mind.

I’ve mentioned before that “AI” is severely limited. This week I asked “Grok”, in Hebrew, to enumerate those places where the “shulḥan ʿarukh” doesn’t agree with Rambam’s “Mishne Torah”. It gave me its answer in a few seconds! Unfortunately, its answer was pure BS. It said as an example, that Rambam doesn’t rule that we say “sheheḥeyanu” over new fruits, and it referenced the Laws of Blessings 1:20. Only problem is: there’s no reference at all to that blessing there. So I informed Dr. Grok.

He apologized (yes, I’m anthropomorphising) and “corrected” himself, bringing the halakha in Blessings 11:9, which doesn’t talk about fruits at all. So I referred him to Blessings 10:2, which does and, as well, informs us that “one who sees a fruit renewed from year to year blesses…”.

So “Grok” is a crock (and other AIs are just as limited). In my case, I asked it a question on a topic I’m very familiar with, so I could easily detect the BS. But just imagine how many such instances there are, where less informed people ask the AIs about something and uncritically accept the answer they get!

This doesn’t bode well at all.

Various and sundry:

We met up this week with my third-cousins, who were amazed I’d tracked down sixth-cousins! Anyway, we had a good time as always; and did not veer into politics, so nobody was seriously injured.

Next week I’ll resume prepping the ground for the bulbs. Please pray for me…

We’re finally exiting the hottest November I can recall (+6C above average!) and may have rain over shabbat. However, instead of worrying about the “global warming”, we may need to start worrying about the imminent ice-age!

We’ve got friends from the Exile staying with us for shabbat! We’ll try to feed them:
homemade ḥalla, chicken soup, meatballs, rice, baked chicken, salmon, various salatim, and brownies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!


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