Is Someone Doing Your Thinking For You? | Rabbi Bernath's Sermon for Kol Nidrei 2026

In this Kol Nidrei sermon, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath asks a deeply uncomfortable question: Who is doing your thinking for you?

We live in an age overflowing with information but increasingly short on reflection. Algorithms, social media, political tribes, influencers, institutions, AI—and even our own wounds—can quietly hand us conclusions that we eventually mistake for our own beliefs. 

Beginning with Abraham smashing the idols of his father’s shop, Rabbi Bernath traces a distinctly Jewish tradition of questioning inherited assumptions, wrestling with ideas, and refusing to live on borrowed convictions. Judaism does not fear questions; it demands that we take responsibility for what we believe. 

But the sermon turns inward. Some of the most powerful voices controlling us are not coming from our phones. They come from old pain: “I’m not lovable.” “Nobody stays.” “I’ll never trust again.” “This is just who I am.” Sometimes we have repeated an old wound for so long that we mistake it for truth. 

Yom Kippur offers twenty-five hours of sacred silence—a chance to shut down the noise and hear our own soul again. Teshuvah, Rabbi Bernath explains, is not merely repentance. It is return: returning to the self beneath the algorithms, fear, shame, inherited assumptions, and expectations of others. 

And when G-d asks the ancient question Ayeka, Where are you?, perhaps the answer we hope to give is Hineni. I am here. Awake. Thinking. Choosing. Returning. 

Key Points

Information is not the same as thinking. Having unlimited access to facts and opinions can actually make it easier to outsource our judgment. Abraham models intellectual courage. The Jewish story begins with someone willing to ask whether what everyone around him believes is actually true. Algorithms often give us confirmation, not wisdom. Modern technology can surround us with increasingly sophisticated versions of what we already want to believe. AI can give you an answer, but it cannot take responsibility for your answer. Discernment, conscience, and accountability cannot be outsourced. True critical thinking requires humility. Judaism preserves disagreements because the process of questioning, listening, and wrestling matters. Some of our deepest “beliefs” about ourselves may actually be old wounds. Fear, shame, rejection, and trauma can become conclusions we mistake for permanent truths. Yom Kippur interrupts unconscious living. The confession of bivli daat challenges us to stop reacting, repeating, and condemning without awareness. The goal is not endless doubt. It is “strong convictions with a humble ego”: to believe deeply while remaining capable of listening, learning, admitting error, and changing. Teshuvah means coming home to yourself. Not the self created by your failures, pain, group, or algorithm—but the soul beneath the noise. The ultimate Yom Kippur question is Ayeka: Where are you? Can you stand before G-d awake, present, responsible, and able to say: Hineni. I am here. 

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