If you listen carefully to the conversation around artificial intelligence, you’ll hear something striking: the greatest uncertainty is no longer how powerful AI will become, but what human beings will do once power, production, and even healing are no longer our central struggle.
That question is not modern at all. It is prophetic. We are watching an AI revolution that many economists describe in almost messianic terms. Leading projections suggest that AI and automation will soon handle the majority of manufacturing, logistics, administration, diagnostics, and even elements of creative work. Scarcity—at least technologically—appears less inevitable. Medical AI is moving toward early diagnosis, predictive treatment, and personalized care. Economists are openly discussing a post-labor or radically reduced-labor economy. And then comes the same question, voiced with both hope and anxiety: The Rambam (Maimonidies) already answered that—explicitly. In the Laws of Kings, in his description of the era of Moshiach, the Rambam writes words that sound uncannily like a description of a post-AI civilization: “In that era there will be no famine and no war, no jealousy and no competition, for goodness will flow in abundance and all delights will be as freely available as dust.” Pause on that. This is not mystical poetry. It is a sociological description of a world in which scarcity—material and psychological—has been removed. A world where human energy is no longer consumed by survival, dominance, or accumulation. And then the Rambam asks the same question the economists are now asking: So what happens next? His answer is breathtaking in its simplicity: “The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know G-d— Not “to believe,” not “to obey,” but loda’as—to know. Da’as in Torah does not mean information. It means intimate, internalized awareness. The kind of knowing that reshapes who you are. The same word used for the deepest human relationship—“V’ha’adam yada es Chava”—is used here to describe humanity’s relationship with Hashem. This is where Parshas Yisro becomes essential. At Sinai, something unprecedented occurred. The Torah describes the revelation with the words “Atah hor’eisa loda’as”—You were shown, in order to know. Sinai was not just the giving of commandments; it was the beginning of a global process of da’as Elokus—of G-d becoming known, not merely believed in. Until Sinai, spirituality was largely intuitive or elite. After Sinai, knowledge of G-d entered history as a public, shared, structured reality. The Ten Commandments didn’t just tell us what to do; they realigned what humanity is for. And now look again at the AI revolution. AI excels at pattern recognition, optimization, prediction, and execution. It is increasingly removing friction from the world: friction in production, friction in medicine, friction in logistics, friction in access to information. In Rambam’s language, it is a technology that—intentionally or not—pushes civilization toward a state of “shefa metzuyah”, flowing abundance. But technology alone cannot define purpose. That vacuum is exactly what the Rambam describes being filled in the era of Moshiach—not with boredom or escapism, but with da’as. In other words, the prophets and the Rambam were not describing a supernatural escape from reality. They were describing a mature civilization—one in which external problems no longer dominate, allowing humanity to finally turn inward and upward. This is why the timing of Siyum HaRambam - Conclusion of the Annual cycle of Rambam study this week, alongside Parshas Yisro feels anything but coincidental. The Rebbe instituted daily Rambam study to unify the Jewish people around a single body of Torah knowledge, day by day, law by law—training us for a world in which da’as, not survival, becomes the primary occupation. A world where knowing Hashem is not the hobby of mystics, but the central calling of humanity. AI may automate labor. But only Torah can answer the question: What is abundance for? Parshas Yisro gives the beginning of the answer at Sinai. Rambam’s Laws of Kings gives the end of the story. And our moment in history—standing between them—is not accidental. The technology is arriving. Our task is to make sure that the age of intelligence becomes the age of da’as—until the world itself fulfills its purpose, and “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea,” with the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our days. Good Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom,
If there is abundance, if there is no struggle to survive, what will people do all day?
No jealousy.
No competition.
No war.
Abundance without struggle.
לֵדַעַת אֶת ה׳ בִּלְבַד.”
It may reduce competition.
It may create abundance.
The blueprint was given millennia ago.
Rabbi Ruvi New