Wavefunction

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem

As we have discussed in the post, It’s the time, stupid, Pharaoh never got the message that it’s all about mastery of time. To make sure Jews did get this message, G‑d gave them the very first commandment—the commandment of keeping time, of marking new months: This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.(Ex. 12: 2) It is important to note that Jews were not only commanded to keep time, they were commanded to “make” time. Indeed, in Biblical times, the new month was not calculated according to a calendar, as it is done today, it was proclaimed by a Bet Din (an ecclesiastic court) based on the testimony of two live witnesses, who observed [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2018-01-19T06:54:12-05:00January 2nd, 2014|Bo, Collapse of the wavefunction, Exodus (Shemot), Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Omer, Parshah, Passover (Pesach), Pentateuch (Chumash), Quantum Theory, Rosh HaShanah, Shabbat, Shavuot, Shemot, Spirituality, Superposition, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction, Witnesses|0 Comments

Witnesses – See and be Seen

By the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall the one liable to death be put to death; he shall not be put to death by the mouth of one witness. (Devarim-Deuteronomy 17:6) I wrote about witnesses in my earlier post imaginatively called Witnesses. As Deuteronomy, restates many mitzvoth (commandments) introduced earlier, which is why it is also called Mishneh Torah – the repetition of Torah – the portion Shoftim-Judges restates the law of witnesses first introduced in in the book of Bamidbar-Numbers, portion Massei. So we shall revisit this fascinating subject. The Judgment of the Sanhedrin: "He is Guilty!" (1892 painting by Nikolai Ge) I. An accused criminal and a Schrödinger cat Most criminals are convicted in the US bases on circumstantial evidence. Rare is the case when a jury gets to hear [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2023-03-23T18:15:55-04:00August 11th, 2013|Collapse of the wavefunction, Entanglement, Massei, Quantum Theory, Shoftim, Superposition, Uncategorized, Uncertainty Principle, Wavefunction, Witnesses|1 Comment

Witnesses

Massei -- Bamidbar-Numbers 35 Whoever kills a person, based on the testimony of witnesses, he shall slay the murderer. A single witness may not testify against a person so that he should die. Bamidbar-Numbers 35:30 In this verse, the Torah states that a murderer can only be convicted based on testimony of live witnesses. Contrary to common law jurisprudence in the US and the UK, and civil law jurisprudence of most other western countries, circumstantial evidence cannot be used alone to convict according to the Torah law. (It may, however, be used to interrogate witnesses in order to ascertain their truthfulness or to acquit the accused.) The only basis for a Torah conviction is eye-witness testimony. This seems strange, though. Why, for example, may fingerprints or DNA evidence, which is, surely, incontrovertible, not be used to [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2013-08-11T13:55:16-04:00July 7th, 2013|Collapse of the wavefunction, Massei, Parshah, Superposition, Uncategorized, Wavefunction, Witnesses|2 Comments

A curious Case of Retrocausality—Dead Inherit the Living

Pinchas You shall apportion the Land among these as an inheritance, in accordance with the number of names. To the large [tribe] you shall give a larger inheritance and to a smaller tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance, each person shall be given an inheritance according to his number. Only through a lot shall the Land be apportioned; they shall inherit it according to the names of their fathers' tribes. Bamidbar-Numbers 26:53-55 Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel in Princeton Einstein once said that he only went to his office at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton to have an opportunity to chat on the way home with his friend, Viennese mathematician, Kurt Gödel. Once, the story goes, Gödel came to Einstein's birthday party with a present – a new cosmological solution [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2013-08-11T13:57:24-04:00July 5th, 2013|Entanglement, Parshah, Pinchas, Retrocausality, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|2 Comments

Paradox of the Red Heifer

Paradox of the Red Heifer

Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for you a perfectly red unblemished cow, upon which no yoke was laid… The cow shall then be burned in his presence… The one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water and cleanse his body in water, and he shall be unclean until evening… Anyone touching the corpse of a human soul shall become unclean for seven days. On the third and seventh days, he shall cleanse himself with it, so that he can become clean. But if he does not sprinkle himself with it on the third and seventh days, he shall not become clean… They shall take for that unclean person from the ashes of the burnt purification offering, and it shall be placed in a vessel [filled] with [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2023-06-29T21:43:11-04:00June 24th, 2013|Chukat, Entanglement, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Numbers, Parshah, Passover (Pesach), Pentateuch (Chumash), Space, Spirituality, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|1 Comment

Holy Smoke

And the entire Mount Sinai smoked because the Lord had descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of the kiln… Exodus 19:18 In the last post, Thou Shall Not Collapse G‑d's Wavefunction, we discussed the notion that G‑d only appears to man in a cloud of smoke, for which reason, the Kohen Gadol – High Priest – had to fill Kodesh Hakadoshim – the Holy of Holies – with the smoke of ketoret (incense), before entering it. On Shavuot, we read the Torah portion from Shemot (Exodus), Ch. XIX, in which this concept is made very explicit – "The entire Mount Sinai smoked because the Lord had descended upon it…" There is great symbolism in this smoke, which preceded the Revelation, when G‑d gave Jewish People Ten Commandments. As we discussed [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2013-08-11T14:00:21-04:00May 17th, 2013|Uncategorized, Uncertainty Principle, Wavefunction, Wavefunction of G‑d|0 Comments

Thou Shall Not Collapse G‑d’s Wavefunction

Acharei Mot 1. And the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron's two sons, when they drew near before the Lord, and they died. 2. And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to your brother Aaron, that he should not come at all times into the Holy within the dividing curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, so that he should not die, for I appear over the ark cover in a cloud. (Leviticus 16:1-2) This parshah describes the service of the Kohen Gadol – the High Priest – performed on Yom Kippur. Why does it start by referencing the death of the two sons of Aaron (the first Kohen Gadol), Nadav and Avihu? What relevance does this have to the topic at hand? As we read earlier, [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2013-08-11T14:21:46-04:00April 22nd, 2013|Collapse of the wavefunction, Uncategorized, Uncertainty Principle, Wavefunction|1 Comment

Two Beginnings

B’reshit bara Elokim et hashamaim v’et haaretz… In the beginning, G‑d created heaven and earth… Alternative translation: With two beginnings G‑d created heaven and earth… Genesis 1:1 *This is an abridged and updated version of my paper “Towards Reconciliation of Biblical and Cosmological Ages of the Universe” Presented at the Third Miami International Conference on Torah & Science in Dec. of 1999 and published in B’Or HaTorah, 13 (2002) p. 19. Contemporary science places the age of the universe in the thirteen to fourteen billion years range, or 13.787 ± 0.02, [1] to be precise. This age is derived from both theoretical models as well as experimental data. (For an overview of theoretical and experimental approaches to dating the universe and our planet Earth see my original paper TOWARDS RECONCILIATION OF BIBLICAL AND [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2019-10-25T00:22:55-04:00October 12th, 2012|Age of the Universe, Bereishit, Bereshit, Collapse of the wavefunction, Cosmology, Creation, Entanglement, Genesis, G‑d, Kabbalah, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Quantum Theory, Superposition, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|4 Comments

On the Age of the Universe in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

On the Age of the Universe in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics[*] Alexander Poltorak Abstract The present paper addresses the apparent discrepancy between the cosmological age of the universe, estimated at twelve to fourteen billion years, and the “biblical” age, believed in the Jewish tradition to be less than six thousand years. This paper is a sequel to my previous paper, "On the Age of the Universe," presented at the Third Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, which aimed to resolve this contradiction from the point of view of the collapse of the wave function in the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (QM). Continuing this discussion, I shall now approach the problem from the slightly different point of view of the many-worlds interpretation of QM. This paper [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2018-09-21T11:05:55-04:00September 15th, 2012|Age of the Universe, Collapse of the wavefunction, Superposition, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|5 Comments

On the Nature of Time and the Age of the Universe

Presented at the International Torah and Science Conference in Miami International University on December 18, 2005 Alexander Poltorak Introduction. This is the third in a series of articles, in which I attempt to sketch various approaches to reconciling a cosmological age of the universe currently estimated at 13.75 billion years with the Jewish tradition setting this age at less than six thousand years (5770 as of the day of this writing, to be exact). The first article [1] tackled this problem from the point of view of Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics suggesting that there were two distinct forms of existence—physical and proto-physical—and that the first conscious observers, Adam and Eve, collapsed the universal wavefunction, bringing the world from amorphous proto-physical existence into tangible physical existence. This approach leads to two distinct [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2020-10-15T23:00:27-04:00August 15th, 2012|Age of the Universe, Cosmology, Spirituality, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction, Witnesses|5 Comments

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