The Forward
HI-TECH SOFER: A group of artists in Germany programmed a robot to write the entire Bible on a scroll.

Robots and computers have been eliminating human jobs at what some might consider an alarming rate, but the sacred work of Torah scribes seems like something only humans could do.

The Holy Robot?!?!

The Forward
HI-TECH SOFER: A group of artists in Germany programmed a robot to write the entire Bible on a scroll.

Robots and computers have been eliminating human jobs at what some might consider an alarming rate, but the sacred work of Torah scribes seems like something only humans could do.

A group in Germany, however, has created an industrial robot that has been programmed to write the entire Bible, including the New Testament, on a scroll, using calligraphic lines similar to a font common in the 15th century.

“Bios [Bible]” is an installation project by Robotlab, a group of artists that examines the relationship between humans and machines and envisions the roles that robots will play in the future. This recent work explores the ways in which technology and science intersect with faith and religion.

“The title ‘bios’ [and] the writing on rolls of paper are inspired by the Torah,” Robotlab artist Jan Zappe wrote in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “The project picks up the central theme of spiritual texts to focus on the culture of printing and writing.”

23 Comments

  • Joke

    Interesting! Is it programmed to write Lishmoh also?

    And you can see that it writes hebrew right to left. Pretty Talented!

    What a pity on the money spent to make this!

  • BrookAve

    I trust that robot can be programmed to make a sandwich at Toast Baguette, because the humans there don’t know what they are doing.

  • hmmm

    i doubt it. and its not talking abt the torah that they wrote, they wrote a bible. and its writing from left to right, which i guess is english.

  • SoferStam

    I hope his will not get into the wrong hands and completely ruin the industry. There already is a huge problem with printed mezuzas circulating and unknowing buyers.
    On a side note to Webby, there is no such thing as the new testament as it is not part of any bible that we received on Har Sinai, the same as the Torah if it is not wrtten the same way Moshe wrote it, it is not original and is treif

  • MVH

    We already have a machine that can "write" sifrei torah. It’s called a printing press, and it was invented 600 years ago. Why do these people think their machine’s product is any better?

  • sofer

    firstly its writing laft to write and it looks like it isnt hebrew, second it has to be written leshmo we say "hareini kosev lesheim kedushas sefer torah" which even if the robor says it would just be programmed to say but not think it

  • sofer stam

    search the web for better pics and you will see theyare writing a german version of the ‘bible’ in english. it has nothing to do withq sefer torah except that it is on ‘klaf’

  • oh no.............

    new testament???????????how dare they! I hope something is done about this!( maybe copyright laws! jk) They’re definitely not going to be kosher! !!!!!!!!

  • robot doesn-t know hebrew!!!!!!

    The letter pey is not even in the correct place! Guess they have to teach the robot which way hebrew is written first!

  • just a regular jew

    no its not kosher u am aratzim
    whats going to be with the world
    start learning torah to hasten the coming of moshiach

  • bewildered

    The Holy Robot?!?!

    ?????????????????????????????
    How can u have such a title bichlal
    this is a totally treif sefer torah

  • dosnt look right

    alright this just doesnt seem right at all , its very weird and i dont believe its kosher like that….one message to the sofers: CONTINUE YOUR JOBS!!! DONT GIVE IT TO THE ROBOTS!!!

  • not kosher

    #1 if u look closely it’s written in english.
    #2 it wouldn’t be kosher because they can only make a font (like they said they picked one similar to the 15th century style) which is not the same as writing the ksav

  • Nothing new

    This doesn’t seem new to me. There have been engraving machines since the mid 80s and this is just an extension of that. I think these people just want publicity.

  • r u o.t.?

    one guy says its right to left,
    the next guy says its left to right,
    have a closer look.

  • woah

    dude, thats not a pey and that’s not hebrew. That is a font of old english which i beleive the article said came from around the 15th century. In any case that aint Hebrew, that is a D!

  • Ridiculous! Whatis the point

    Mitzad writing the torah this is totally ridiculous there is no difference between this and a laser printer!

  • zicherman

    I hope the stores on kingston ave dont start selling them as kosher sefer torahs.