Lately, when I open my Facebook account everything is in English. I’m sure there’s a setting I need to adjust to change it back to the original Hebrew, but for now I can’t seem to figure it out. So I’ve been reading my Israeli friends’ posts in Facebook’s automatic English translation, and it’s become an ongoing source of entertainment.
One read, “Mazal tov to me!” Hmm…I wondered. Did you get a new job? Did you have a baby? Why post mazal tov to yourself without telling us what the mazal tov is?
But when I clicked on the button to see the original text, I realized he wrote, “Mazal tov, Eli!” In Hebrew “eli” can be read as the name Eli, or as “elai” meaning, “to me.” Clearly, the Facebook algorithm doesn’t know the difference!
In another post, a fellow rabbi wrote, “Mazal tov to the young couple that I corrupted last night.” Oh my gosh, what did this rabbi do?! Perhaps I shouldn’t find out…
Turns out the original read, “Mazal tov to the young couple that I married off last night.” I still don’t know how Facebook interpreted that as corrupted, unless they know something about marriage that I don’t!
Next came a post from a woman going on and on about her husband, Chaim, but when I clicked on the original text I discovered she was talking about animals. In Hebrew, “baalei chayim” means animals, but Facebook read it as “my husband, Chaim,” which is not technically incorrect.
Then I saw a post advertising a Sunday carnival with, “Let’s make a mess!” Huh?
I laughed when I saw the Hebrew, “Yalla balagan!” They clearly haven’t gotten the hang of Israeli slang.
For someone like me, who reads and understands both Hebrew and English perfectly, these translations are annoying. They’re never accurate, and seeing the original would serve me better.
I understand why it’s needed—after all, if the post was in a different language I didn’t understand at all, I would appreciate the translation, even if not entirely accurate.
So yes, technology is incredible, and the instant translation is something we couldn’t have dreamed of not that long ago, but at the end of the day, an algorithm can never replace a human.
And that’s important for us to keep in mind as well. We wake up in the morning and follow our routine. We exercise, pray, go to work, come home, go to sleep … hopefully we managed to put on tefillin somewhere in there, do some mitzvot, say some blessings.
But when we do the same thing day after day, we run the risk of switching to autopilot. We stop thinking about why we’re doing what we’re doing. We forget that it’s all about connecting and developing our relationship with G-d; not just checking items off our to-do list.
Judaism has to stay fresh and exciting. Every day we must challenge ourselves to dig deeper, aspire higher, and become better people.
We cannot allow ourselves to be on auto-translate (or auto-pilot)!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Uriel Vigler