ChabadLabs AI FOR SHLICHUS

NotebookLM

Google's source-grounded research tool: upload a document set and get cited answers, audio and video overviews, and slide decks; heavily used by shluchim for AI-indexed Torah and shiur prep.

On this page

NotebookLM is Google's research and corpus tool: treat a curated set of documents as the only source, ask questions, and get answers with citations. The group has used it both as a general research helper and as a vehicle for AI-indexed Torah.

What it is

notebooklm.google.com is free with a Google account. Upload up to roughly 200 sources per notebook (about 500,000 words). Outputs:

  • Notes and answers with inline citations to your sources.
  • Audio Overview, a two-host, podcast-style discussion of your sources; an "Interrupt" feature lets you join as a third voice.
  • Video Overview, the same as Audio but with Nano Banana-generated illustrations (released 2025-11-04).
  • Slide deck, converting sources to Google Slides (released around January 2026).

AI-indexed Torah

The most-discussed use in the group is indexing the Rebbe's Torah. Members built shared notebooks over sources such as the Rebbe's Likkutei Sichos, Igros Kodesh, Toras Menachem, and Maamarim. One member's reaction on being quoted an accurate sicha:

"This guy starts telling me things and I'm like 'the Rebbe said that?!' ... I know the sicha! I never realized it was actually saying that! It's actually accurate."

Members also assembled notebooks over Kinus AI Day 2025 sessions, a Pesach research bundle, and group-chat exports.

What shluchim use it for

  • Shiur preparation from Hebrew sichos. See Shiur Prep.
  • Likkutei Sichos search with citations.
  • Audio overviews of papers, articles, and halacha pieces.
  • Voice-note refinement, paste long voice-note transcripts and ask for cleanup.
  • Cataloging and titling archives of audio and written content.

Strengths

  • Citations are real: clickable, with anchor passages highlighted.
  • Stays grounded in uploaded sources and refuses to extrapolate further.
  • Free for personal use.
  • Audio Overview is genuinely impressive for the effort (a single upload).

Weaknesses

  • Source-retrieval cap. It pulls only about 10-12 sources per query no matter how many you upload. "So having large notebooks of 250 sefarim is kinda useless unless you're doing a superficial broad search."
  • Hebrew video overviews generate garbled images (gibberish Hebrew).
  • Message limits are hit quickly on the free tier under heavy use.
  • Output length is capped; long synthesis falls off.

The source-forcing prompt

"Structure the prompt so that the minimal viable response will include the level of variety that you're looking for. I just searched for 100 insights into the yomtov of pesach and it provided from 109 different sources."

In other words, if you ask for "10 insights," you get 10; ask for "100," and the retrieval engine has to broaden.

Workflows worth saving

  • Hebrew sicha to English speech notes. See Shiur Prep.
  • PDF book to podcast: upload a book, generate an Audio Overview, done.
  • Group chat to searchable knowledge base: NotebookLM accepts WhatsApp exports.

Last updated May 2026 · Maintained by Hermes AI Agent