Five-Hundred-Year-Journey
Alexander Poltorak Abstract This essay addresses the anigmatic statement of the Jewish Sages, stating that G-d created this world with the letter Heh and the
August 11, 2025 / 17 Av 5785
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Mathematics
Urim and Thummim as a Metaphor for Science
By Alexander Poltorak Introduction In the first installment of this essay, “Collapsing the Wave Function of Urim and Thummim,”[1] we discussed the inherent duality of
May 11, 2025 / 13 Iyyar 5785
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Tzaraath, Black Holes, and Holographic Principle
By Alexander Poltorak Abstract This essay explores the profound connections between the biblical laws of tzaraath (Leviticus 13-14) and modern concepts of entropy and the
May 2, 2025 / 4 Iyyar 5785
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Shemini,Phase Space,Hamiltonian Mechanics: Kabbalah and Physics of Seven and Eight
By Alexander Poltorak Abstract The Torah portion of Shemini records the climactic eighth day of the Tabernacle’s dedication, the moment when divine fire finally descends.
April 28, 2025 / 30 Nisan 5785
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Did G‑d Create Mathematics?
By Alexander Poltorak “G‑d is a mathematician”Carl Friedrich Gauss I. Can We Prove that G-d created Axioms of mathematics? 1. Introduction A reader challenged me with a
March 17, 2025 / 17 Adar 5785
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Sarah in a State of Superposition
And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife: “Behold now, I know
November 10, 2024 / 9 Heshvan 5785
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Gazing at the Shekhinah
In his commentary on this week’s Torah Portion, Yitro, Rabbi Chayim Vital, writing in the name of his teacher, the Ari-zal, states that Abel was
February 4, 2024 / 25 Shevat 5784
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Principle of Least Action III — History
The spectacle of the universe becomes so much the grander, so much more beautiful, the worthier of its Author, when one knows that a small
September 10, 2023 / 24 Elul 5783
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Entrainment by the Red Heifer
And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the purification from sin, and running water shall be put thereto
July 3, 2023 / 14 Tammuz 5783
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The Tree of Knowledge as a Quantum-Mechanical Metaphor
To Mendel Almost three years ago, in December of 2019, I posted an essay, “The Tree of Knowledge as a Metaphor for Superposition of States
October 20, 2022 / 25 Tishri 5783
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Zettaflood
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all
October 4, 2021 / 28 Tishri 5782
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Fill the Earth
And G‑d created man in His own image, in the image of G‑d created He him; male and female created He them. And G‑d blessed
October 4, 2021 / 28 Tishri 5782
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Egyptian Exile as a Metaphor for Compactification in String Theory
And they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick… Exodus 1:14 On a literal level, the Egyptian exile (Galut Mitzrayim)
January 11, 2021 / 27 Tevet 5781
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Noah’s Ark—Three Layers of Reality
A light shalt thou make to the ark…with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. (Genesis 6:16) We mentioned in the previous posts
October 28, 2020 / 10 Heshvan 5781
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Tzimtzum III—Renormalization—Sweeping Infinites Under the Rug
Sweeping Infinities Under the Rug—or Renormalization Having dealt with internal contradictions in the previous section (see Physics of Tzimtzum I — The Quantum Leap and
October 14, 2020 / 26 Tishri 5781
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Physics of Tzimtzum I — The Quantum Leap
Introduction “In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning G‑d created the heavens and the earth,” the Torah
August 17, 2020 / 27 Av 5780
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Counting Weeks and Days
There is a Biblical Commandment to count the days between the Passover and Shavuot, the “Feast of Weeks” (a.k.a. Pentecost). We start counting on the
April 28, 2020 / 4 Iyyar 5780
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Wigner’s Friend Receives a Death Threat
It is related that on the day that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi died, the Sages decreed a fast, and begged for divine mercy so that he
March 19, 2020 / 23 Adar 5780
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The Primacy of the Prime Numbers
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: “We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with
December 13, 2019 / 15 Kislev 5780
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Fitting Pieces of the Puzzle Together
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – IV This is the fourth and the final installment in the series of posts related to Ezekiel’s prophesy, Ma’aseh
June 21, 2019 / 18 Sivan 5779
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Relational Space
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – II This post is a sequel to my previous post, “Space – Between Future and Past.” For background information,
June 17, 2019 / 14 Sivan 5779
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Space – Between the Future and the Past
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – I We do science by studying nature. We study physics in a lab, peering into space or working out
June 13, 2019 / 10 Sivan 5779
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Ten Sephirot and Special Relativity
The Special Theory of Relativity, published by Albert Einstein in 1905, was a game changer. It ushered the era of new physics dubbed by some
June 2, 2019 / 28 Iyyar 5779
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The Puzzle of Pi
March 14 is celebrated by nerds around the world as the Pi Day. When written in digits, 3/14 represents first three digits of the number
March 14, 2019 / 7 Adar II 5779
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Vectors, Spins, and Gender
Vectors, Spins, and Gender Speak to the children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person whose heart inspires him
February 10, 2019 / 5 Adar I 5779
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Fractal Tu B’Shevat
When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by
January 21, 2019 / 15 Shevat 5779
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Jacob Meets Esau and His 400 Men
And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: “We came to thy brother Esau, and moreover he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with
November 22, 2018 / 14 Kislev 5779
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The Meaning of Life as Taught by Bayesian Angels
November 19, 2018 And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels
November 19, 2018 / 11 Kislev 5779
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Tisha B’Av on Shabbat – A Relativistic Perspective
Yesterday was the 9th day of the month of Av or, in Hebrew, Tisha B’Av. Usually, Tisha B’Av is marked by mourning and fasting. Yesterday,
July 22, 2018 / 10 Av 5778
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Three-and-a-half Hakafot — Topology of Simchat Torah
Why is this night different from all other nights, asks a child on the Seder night. On this Simchat Torah I asked a different question—why
October 15, 2017 / 25 Tishri 5778
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Quantum Cheshire Cat and Resurrection
In memory of my father, Abraham Shamshin ben Reuven, ע”ה For those of us who can’t get enough of Schrödinger cat, comes a new
September 28, 2017 / 8 Tishri 5778
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Symmetry and Love — Jewish Chromodynamics
Ye are standing this day all of you before the Lord your G‑d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the
September 13, 2017 / 22 Elul 5777
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Fractal Patterns in the Torah
In the Torah portion Emor (Leviticus 21:1–24:23), we are instructed to abstain from work every seventh day on Shabbat. Next week’s Torah portion, Behar, continues
May 31, 2016 / 23 Iyyar 5776
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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
December 14, 2014 / 22 Kislev 5775
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Leprous Cats and Angry Birds
In the Torah portion Tazriah (Leviticus 13), the Schrödinger cat[1] gets leprosy. Well, it’s not really leprosy, it’s a mysterious supernatural disease called tzara’as, nowadays translated
April 30, 2012 / 8 Iyyar 5772
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