Rabbi Bloom was getting quite a reputation for his sermons. His
synagogue was always packed because his congregation didn't want to miss
a single one of his words. One Sabbath, one member had to go to another
synagogue to attend a nephew's bar mitzvah. Because he didn't want to
miss the sermon, he asked one of his non-Jewish friends to go in his
place and tape the Rabbi's sermon. In that way, he could listen to it
when he got back. When other members of the congregation saw what was
going on, they too decided to ask their non-Jewish friends to go in
their places to record the sermon. They could then do other things, such
as play golf or go to football. Within a short time, there were 100
gentiles sitting in the synagogue recording the Rabbi's sermon. The
Rabbi got wise to this. So the following Sabbath, he, too, asked a
non-Jewish friend to attend on his behalf. His friend brought a tape
recorder and played the Rabbi's pre-recorded sermon to the 100 non-Jews
in the congregation who then recorded the sermon on their own machines.
This was believed to be the first incidence in history of "artificial
insermonation."