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Schrödinger Menorah: Burning and not Burning

The miracle of Chanukah revolves around a single-day-supply of olive oil burning for eight days during the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem (Bet HaMikdash), after Maccabees liberated Israel from the occupation by the Greco-Syrian Seleucid empire. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson There are countless explanations of the miracle of the oil lasting eight days. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, offers a unique explanation. The Rebbe dismisses any explanation of the miracle that relies on the miraculous nature of the oil itself. The Rebbe maintains that to be kosher for the Menorah, the oil had to be natural olive oil, not some miraculous oil. According to the Rebbe, the miracle was that natural oil was burning and not burning at the same time. The Rebbe draws an analogy with [...]

By |2020-12-13T22:43:25-05:00December 25th, 2016|Chanukah, G‑d, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Physics, Quantum Theory, Science, Superposition, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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One-to-Many and Many-to-One

And he arrived upon the place and lodged there all night, because the sun was set; and he took from the stones of the place, and put them under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. (Genesis 28:11) And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. (Genesis 28:18)   Rashi notes that, before Jacob lies down to sleep, the verse speaks of the plurality of stones: “he took from the stones of that place, and put them under his head.” When Jacob wakes up, the verse suddenly switches from plural to singular, mentioning only one stone: “and took the stone that he had put [...]

By |2020-11-25T23:52:49-05:00December 9th, 2016|Bereshit, Creation, Dreams, Genesis, G‑d, Mashiach (Messiah), Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Science, Uncategorized, Vayetze|3 Comments
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Unified Field Theory… and Practice

Albert Einstein had a lifelong quest—to develop a unified field theory—the theory that would describe as a single field gravity and electromagnetism (just as Maxwell unified electric and magnetic fields in a single electromagnetic field). Alas, Einstein did not succeed in his quest. Today, the goal is even more ambitious—to unify all four known fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces in a single model, the so-called Theory of Everything. If the hypothetical fifth force will be confirmed, it will also need to be included in the Theory of Everything. While theoretical physicists around the world are busy working our various approaches to such Theory of Everything (the leading candidate is the string theory), Jews around the world are practicing this unification during the holiday of Sukkot. During Sukkot, we take [...]

By |2019-10-15T22:59:45-04:00October 16th, 2016|Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Names of G‑d, Physics, Science, Soul, Sukkot, Sukkot, Uncategorized|3 Comments
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The Fifth Force – Epilog

This post is a continuation and the conclusion of the previous post, THE FIFTH FORCE. Aside from the connection with the last week’s Torah portion, Vayelech, there is also connection with and Aseret Yimei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance) and Yom Kippur. When it comes to physics of fundamental forces, there are two unresolved problems: (i) unification of gravity with the other three fundamental forces (electromagnetic, strong and weak); and (ii) discovery of the fifth force. Both problems are related to repentance (teshuvah), which comes to sharp focus on the Ten Days of Repentance (Aseret Yimei Teshuvah) and Yom Kippur. Firstly, the word “teshuva” doesn’t mean “repentance”, it literally means “return” In Kabbalah tradition, the word TeShuVaH, is read as “ToShuV H” – return of the letter “heh”. It is talking about the [...]

By |2018-10-14T16:45:57-04:00October 13th, 2016|Deuteronomy, Kabbalah, Mashiach (Messiah), Names of G‑d, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Sefirot, Soul, Uncategorized, Vayelech, Yom Kippur|5 Comments
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The Fifth Force

Now, therefore, write ye this song for you, and teach thou it the children of Israel.” (Deut. 31:19) The four known fundamental forces are: gravitational force, electromagnetic force, strong (nuclear) force, and the weak force (beta decay). Newton first described the gravitational force in his famous universal law of gravity. Today, we use Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to describe gravitation fields. Electromagnetism was described in the 19 c. by Faraday and Maxwell. Strong and week forces were discovered much later, in the second half of the 20 c. Since Albert Einstein started a search for unified field theory, unsuccessfully trying to unify (describe by a single theory) gravity and electromagnetism, the quest for a unified field theory – the “Theory of Everything” – became the holy grail of theoretical physics. Strong and [...]

By |2019-10-03T17:33:39-04:00October 11th, 2016|Deuteronomy, Devarim, G‑d, Names of G‑d, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Science, Sefirot, Sefirot, Uncategorized, Vayelech|4 Comments
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Joseph teaches Pharaoh a lesson in fundamental forces

This week, we read in the Torah portion Vayigash (Gen. 44:18–47:27) about Joseph revealing himself to his brothers and Jacob coming to Egypt with his family. This storyline culminates by Joseph presenting his brothers and his father to Pharaoh. A curious thing, though—instead of presenting all eleven brothers, Joseph presents only five. This fact does not escape the attention of Rashi, who comments as follows: Joseph chose the weakest of his brothers to avoid conscription of the brothers to the military service in the Pharaoh’s army. This explanation always left me dissatisfied. Even if it explains why Joseph presented fewer than all of his brothers to Pharaoh, it does not explain the number—why five? Why not one, or two, or three? The number five in Hebrew is represented by the letter Heh. I submit to [...]

By |2018-10-14T16:57:40-04:00December 20th, 2015|Bereshit, Creation, Genesis, G‑d, Names of G‑d, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Theory, Uncategorized, Vayigash|1 Comment
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The End of Days II

This post is a continuation of the earlier post, The End of Days I. In this Torah Portion, Shemot, we read about the encounter between Moses and the Almighty at the Burning Bush. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him (Moses) in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed… Moreover, He said: 'I am the G‑d of thy father, the G‑d of Abraham, the G‑d of Isaac, and the G‑d of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon G‑d. And the Lord said: 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their [...]

By |2019-10-17T15:09:26-04:00January 5th, 2015|Mashiach (Messiah), Names of G‑d, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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The End of Days I

In this Torah portion, Vayechi, Jacob, gathers his children to reveal to them “Ketz HaYamim”–“the End of Days.” Rashi explains that Jacob’s intention was to reveal the date of the coming of Mashiach (Messiah). Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days. (Gen. 4:1) However, he proceeds rebuking his sons without revealing to them the Ketz — End of Days. Rashi says that Jacob looked into the future and saw his children being in exile for a long time. Rashi says that the word “ketz” (end)—spelled in Hebrew Kof-Tzadik—has the numerical value of 190. (Kof=100, Tzadik=90. 100+90=190). Jacob gazed 190 years into the future and saw his children still enslaved in Egypt. He became depressed and Shechinah (Divine Presence) left him. [...]

By |2017-01-13T15:54:32-05:00January 2nd, 2015|Genesis, Mashiach (Messiah), Names of G‑d, Pentateuch (Chumash), Sefirot, Uncategorized, Vayechi|1 Comment
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Joseph and His Brothers

I grew up in Russia and was raised on the metric system based on decimal arithmetic. When we immigrated to the U.S., I had to learn a new for me (but, actually, very old) Imperial system of measurements. I still struggle with it (decimal system, apparently, was hardwired in my brain). There are many number-systems or positional notation systems. Ancient Babylonians used the base-60 system; the Hindu-Arabic system uses the familiar decimal base-10 system; the Mayans used the base-20 system. There are base-2 binary, base-12 duodecimal, and base-16 hexadecimal systems, to name a few. Aside from the binary system used by computers, we humans mostly use decimal and, sometimes, duodecimal systems. The all-familiar decimal system is used in the metric system of measurements. In base-10 positional notation, there are 10 decimal digits—0, 1, [...]

By |2020-12-10T20:20:44-05:00December 14th, 2014|Bereshit, Chanukah, Genesis, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Husband and wife, Kabbalah, Mashiach (Messiah), Mathematics, Mathematics, Names of G‑d, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Science, Sefirot, Uncategorized, Vayeshev|1 Comment
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Forty Two Journeys to the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

These are the journeys of the children of Israel… (Numbers 33:1) When G-d brought the Jews out from Egypt, He brought them out with the mystery of the 42-letter name, just as He created heaven and earth… (Zohar Chadash) The forty-two “stations” from Egypt to the Promised Land are replayed in the life of every individual Jew, as his soul journeys from its descent to earth at birth to its return to its Source. (Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov)   Torah portion Massei (Num. 33-35) recalls forty-two journeys of the Children of Israel in the Sinai desert after the Exodus from Egypt. This is not the first time the concept of forty-two journeys appears in the Torah.  Commenting on the Biblical verse, "And G‑d said, 'Behold, I Will Cause to Rain Bread from Heaven for You,’” (Ex. 25:5) [...]

By |2019-07-30T21:26:13-04:00July 27th, 2014|Creation, G‑d, Massei, Mathematics, Names of G‑d, Numbers, Omer, Pentateuch (Chumash), Uncategorized, Yom Kippur|4 Comments
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