Torah and AI: Ask a Hard Question, Get the Sources and the Rabbi Who Taught It
Masmid is the Torah AI inside LeHallel, free with a LeHallel account. You ask a hard question in your own words. It answers from the sefarim LeHallel holds and shows each source as a page you can open. Then it looks inside LeHallel's shiurim for the rabbi who taught that exact point, names his class and the minute, and asks if you want to hear it. For your own case, it sends you to your rav.
Can AI answer Torah questions?
People type "torah ai", "jewish ai" and "ask a rabbi online" because they want two things at once: an answer now, in plain words, and an answer they can trust. A general chatbot can give the first. It can also give a confident sentence with no source behind it, a quote from a book no one in your community learns from, or a ruling for your kitchen that no rav would give without hearing the whole story.
A Torah AI worth using has to do four things a general chatbot does not:
- Answer from the texts themselves, the Gemara, the Mishnah, the Shulchan Aruch and the meforshim, and say exactly where.
- Show the place, so you can open the page and read it yourself, in Hebrew and in English where it exists.
- Bring a teacher: a rabbi who explains that very point in a shiur you can hear.
- Know where it stops: a text teaches, your rav paskens for your home.
Masmid is built around those four. It lives on every search on LeHallel: the "Ask Masmid" bar under the search box on a phone, and the Ask Masmid button beside the search on a computer. It answers only from what LeHallel holds: LeHallel's library of approved videos and shiurim, and its sefarim, "6,010 sefarim · 194,270 sections" on the Sefarim page. If a sefer or a shiur is not on LeHallel, Masmid says so plainly and does not reach for one somewhere else. When a request is broad ("something on emunah"), it asks one short question back, the way a friend at the shul would, before it hands you anything.
A hard question, live: is ribbis based on the value or the amount?
To see what a Torah AI can and cannot do, ask it something that takes a real answer. On 28 October 2026 we typed this into Masmid on a phone and filmed it: "Is ribbis based on value or the amount?" While it works, Masmid shows what it is doing, line by line ("Reading Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 162:1…", "Listening inside shiurim…"), so you see that the answer is being read, not made up.
Its answer opened in one line: "It depends on what you lent. With money, it goes by the amount. With anything else, the halacha watches the value." Then, in four steps:
- Money goes by the amount. The Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 162:1, excludes "מטבע כסף היוצא בהוצאה", the coin people are actually spending: "Lend 100, get back 100, even if prices changed in between."
- Goods go by the value. It is forbidden to lend "se'ah b'se'ah", a measure to be paid back with the same measure. The reason is "שמא יתייקרו": if the price goes up, the borrower gives back more value than he got. The Gemara in Bava Metzia 75a gives the example of "lend me a kor of wheat and I'll return it at harvest time."
- The fix: set a money value at the time of the loan. If no value was set and the price rose, the borrower pays what it was worth on the day of the loan; if it dropped, he returns the same amount of the item.
- The leniencies in the text: a borrower who already has some of that item at home (the Gemara, 75a); the Rema's custom to treat gold coins today like silver coins; and his custom to allow a loaf of bread for a loaf of bread, "since people aren't particular about something so small."
Every source in that answer is a card under it, and each card opens the place itself in LeHallel's sefarim: Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 162, and Bava Metzia 75a. And the answer ends where a Torah answer should: "For your own case, especially other currencies, ask your rav."
Then the rabbi who taught it
A text is half of learning. The other half is a teacher. So after the sources, Masmid listens inside LeHallel's shiurim for a rabbi who teaches that exact point, and asks you if you want to hear it. In the film it found Rabbi Akiva Teichtal's class "Bava Metzia 44b Amud Yomi Shiur", at 21:45, where he asks: "if I lend $100 when it's worth 350 shekels and pay it back when it's worth 370, can I give back the same $100?" That is the ribbis question in today's money. Masmid offered it as a choice under the answer ("Yes - Rabbi Teichtal at 21:45"); we pressed it, and his class opened right there, at 21:45, not at the beginning.
Ask the same question another evening and Masmid may bring a different teacher who explains the same point: earlier that night it found Rabbi Guy Matalon's class "Weekly Torah Portion: Behar - Part 2", at 22:44, where he asks why you give back the same number of apples you borrowed. And when no class teaches the exact point, Masmid says so plainly and offers the closest whole class instead. It never offers a video that does not teach what you asked.
That is the difference a library makes. LeHallel can do this because the words of its shiurim can be searched from inside, the same way the Inside any shiur search finds the minute a rabbi says something. Masmid uses that to bring you from the page to the person who teaches it.
A second hard one: how many times is Avraham named in Bereishis?
Some questions are not about meaning but about the text itself, and a guess is worse than no answer. We asked: "How many times does the name Avraham appear in Sefer Bereishis?" Masmid read every perek and counted. Its answer: 133 times, counting the forms with a prefix (אברהם 109 times, לאברהם 15, ואברהם 8, מאברהם once). The name only begins in chapter 17, where Hashem changes it (17:5); it appears most in chapter 22, the Akeidah, 20 times, then chapter 21 with 18. Before that he is called Avram, another 59 times in chapters 11 to 17, so he is named 192 times in all.
It then did what it does after every source: it found a teacher. Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan talks about the name change in his class "Parashat Shelach - Emet Outreach", at 8:52, and Masmid asked if we wanted that video. You can check the count yourself: the card under the answer opens Bereishis 17 in LeHallel's sefarim, and the same chapters are on Sefaria.
Torah from YouTube, curated: every rabbi and singer, in one place
Most of the Torah people learn online today was first put on YouTube: the shiurim of the rabbis they follow, and the music of the singers they love. The problem with YouTube itself is everything around those videos: the feed, the comments, and what plays next. LeHallel takes the videos and leaves the rest. On 28 October 2026 its phone home counted 409,572 videos, and in LeHallel's own words, "every one approved before it is here".
Each rabbi and singer has his own page. Rabbi Yoram Abergel's, for example, showed "11,582 videos · 2013-2026 · 494 searchable inside", with Play all, Shuffle, Follow and Share, and his shiurim arranged by theme, by year and by length, so a person with ten minutes finds a ten-minute shiur. LeHallel is built as rooms instead of a feed, with no comment sections. Around the videos are things YouTube does not have: search inside the words of the shiurim, a radio for every mood, the sefarim beside every shiur, and Masmid on every search.
One thing to know: every LeHallel video plays through YouTube's official player, so, as LeHallel's FAQ says, "YouTube may show its own ad on some of those videos," and a filter that blocks YouTube's videos also stops LeHallel's from playing.
Filtered WhatsApp: the Torah groups, every post checked
A great deal of daily chizuk now travels in WhatsApp groups: a dvar Torah in the morning, a short clip, the daily Mishna reminder. LeHallel's Filtered WhatsApp keeps those groups in one place, "61 groups · every post we have saved, all the way back" on 28 October 2026, sorted into Daily boosts, Parsha & Shabbos, Emuna & Bitachon, Halacha, Daf & Mishna, Stories and Hebrew, with "Right now in the groups" at the top. Every post is checked before you see it, and you do not need WhatsApp on your phone to read them.
Aneni: your own number for learning together
Learning is better with someone. Aneni is LeHallel's calling room: "Video and voice calls inside LeHallel". One press on "Turn on Aneni" and you get your own Aneni number. You give it to a friend who has Aneni, or find someone under "People on Aneni", and call by video or voice; "their LeHallel rings wherever they are on it", in the next house or across the ocean. Inside the call you can open a sefer page that both of you see, and it turns for both. LeHallel's home offers Aneni free with a LeHallel account. Calls work between people who have Aneni.
Keep a conversation, and share it with a friend
A good answer is worth keeping, and worth passing on. Every conversation with Masmid is kept under My conversations, in LeHallel's menu under Masmid, so you can come back to it on any device you are signed in on. Under the newest answer sits one line, "Blown away? Share this with a friend", with WhatsApp, Text, Email and Copy link. What goes out is that very conversation: your friend opens a page with your question and Masmid's answer, its sources, and "Ask Masmid yourself - free" under it. Only a conversation you share is ever readable by someone else.
How to ask a Torah AI a good question
Six habits that get you a better answer
- Ask the real question. "Is ribbis based on value or the amount?" gets a better answer than "ribbis".
- Name the place if you know it. "Bava Metzia 75a" or "Mesillas Yesharim, perek 1" takes Masmid straight to the text.
- Say who it is for. A beginner, a child, a chavrusa: Masmid shapes the answer and the shiur to the person.
- Say how long you have. "Something short" brings a shorter shiur than "a full class".
- Open the sources. Every card opens the page. Read the line yourself before you repeat it.
- Bring your own case to your rav. A text teaches what the halacha is; your rav decides what it means for you.
Questions people ask
Is there an AI for Torah questions?
Yes. Masmid on LeHallel answers Torah questions from the sefarim LeHallel holds, shows each source as a page you can open, and finds a rabbi who teaches the point in a shiur. It is free with a LeHallel account.
Can Masmid pasken for me?
No. It explains what the texts say and where, and it ends with your rav for your own case. A shiur teaches; your rav paskens for your home.
Does Masmid make things up?
It answers from texts it reads while you watch, and every source is a card that opens the page. If LeHallel does not hold a sefer or a shiur, Masmid says so instead of answering from somewhere else.
Which sources does it use?
Only what LeHallel holds: its sefarim (6,010 on the Sefarim page on 28 October 2026) and its library of approved shiurim. It does not bring sources from outside Torah-true hands.
Is it like a filtered YouTube for Torah?
LeHallel carries the shiurim and music people know from YouTube, every video approved before it is here, in rooms instead of a feed and with no comment sections. The videos play through YouTube's official player.
Can I ask in Hebrew?
Yes. Ask in English or in Hebrew; Masmid answers in the language you wrote in, and it reads the Hebrew of the sefarim itself.
Can I share Masmid's answer with a friend?
Yes. Under the newest answer, "Blown away? Share this with a friend" sends that conversation by WhatsApp, text or email, or copies its link.
How do I call a chavrusa on LeHallel?
Turn on Aneni and you get your own Aneni number; call a friend who has Aneni by video or voice, and open a sefer page together inside the call.
Sources
- LeHallel, Masmid, asked on 28 October 2026 at iPhone size, signed in as LeHallel's own team account: "Is ribbis based on value or the amount?" (11:03 PM), "Yes - Rabbi Teichtal at 21:45" and "How many times does the name Avraham appear in Sefer Bereishis?" (the pictures above and the film).
- LeHallel, the phone home and Rabbi Yoram Abergel's page (read 28 October 2026): "409,572 videos"; "11,582 videos · 2013-2026 · 494 searchable inside".
- LeHallel, Filtered WhatsApp (read 28 October 2026): "61 groups · every post we have saved, all the way back".
- LeHallel, Aneni (read 28 October 2026): "Video and voice calls inside LeHallel"; "One press - you get your own Aneni number"; "Their LeHallel rings wherever they are on it".
- LeHallel, Sefarim (read 28 October 2026): "6,010 sefarim · 194,270 sections".
- LeHallel, FAQ (read 28 October 2026): "No card is taken anywhere on this site"; every video plays through YouTube's official player; "YouTube may show its own ad on some of those videos."
- Sefaria, Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 162 (read 28 October 2026).
- Sefaria, Mishnah Bava Metzia 5:9 and Bava Metzia 75a (read 28 October 2026).
- Sefaria, Genesis 17 (read 28 October 2026).