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Numbers — the Fourth Book of Torah

The Prophecy of Eldad and Meidad: Connections Between Parshat Behaʿalotekha and the War in Iran

Introduction The Alter Rebbe once remarked in Yiddish, “Leben mit der tzait” (live with the times), meaning that one should live with the current Torah portion. In Parshat Behaʿalotekha, we encounter a fascinating narrative about two prophets, Eldad and Meidad, whose prophecy has been interpreted by rabbinic tradition as relating to the eschatological war of Gog and Magog. This essay explores the textual sources and interpretations that connect this biblical episode to end-times prophecy, with particular attention to traditions linking this conflict to the current war in Iran. The Biblical Account The Torah states: Now two men remained in the camp. The name of the first was Eldad and the name of the second was Meidad. The spirit [of prophecy] rested upon them. They were among those written [as elders, but] they did [...]

By |2025-06-13T18:15:07-04:00June 13th, 2025|Bamitbar, Behaalotecha, Parshah, Uncategorized|3 Comments
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Zealotry and Mercy: Parallels Between Pinchas and the War in Gaza

Zealotry and Mercy: Parallels Between Pinchas and the War in Gaza The biblical story of Phinehas (Heb. Pinḥas or Pinchas) presents a complex moral scenario in which an act of violence is divinely sanctioned as a means to restore order and peace. This narrative brings the ethics of conflict into sharp relief. The story of Pinḥas is found in Numbers 25:1-15. It takes place when the Israelites are encamped in Shittim, and some of them begin to engage in sexual immorality with Moabite women, as well as worshipping their gods. This angers G‑d, who sends a plague upon the Israelites. At the height of this crisis, an Israelite man named Zimri brings a Midianite woman named Cozbi into the camp, in full view of Moses and the whole assembly. Pinḥas, grandson of Aaron [...]

By |2024-07-26T18:53:06-04:00July 26th, 2024|Bamitbar, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Pinchas, Reincarnation, Sefirot, Uncategorized, Zohar|0 Comments
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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 in a vessel. Numbers 19:17 In my essay “Paradox of the Red Heifer,” I proposed a mechanism by which the ashes of the red heifer remove the impurity of death, where I analogized the procedure with resuscitation using a defibrillator.[1] In this essay, I propose an additional mechanism based on the phenomenon of entrainment, which I will explain below. Entrainment In physics and biology, entrainment refers to the synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles.[2] This concept can apply to various systems, from physical phenomena to biological rhythms. Here are a few examples: Physics. In mechanical systems, entrainment refers to the process whereby two interacting oscillating systems assume the [...]

By |2023-07-06T19:54:37-04:00July 3rd, 2023|Biology, Chemistry, Chukat, Ezekiel, Mathematics, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Science, Soul, Spirituality, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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The Standard Model

Introduction What could the Standard Model of particle physics possibly have in common with biblical accounts of the Israelites’ travels in the Sinai Desert, Kabbalistic doctrines related to the unfolding of spiritual worlds, or the arrangement of the letters in the Name of G‑d? To make connections or parallels between such unrelated concepts may sound farfetched. However, this is exactly what we are going to do in this essay. Remember that in structural analysis, we do not concern ourselves with the specifics or the nature of the objects at hand—we are interested only in the interrelationships among the objects, the high-level structure, or the storyline. So, let us not worry that particle physics speaks of subatomic particles, whereas the Torah speaks of the arrangement of Jewish tribes around the Tabernacle in the desert—topics [...]

By |2024-06-07T19:20:24-04:00May 25th, 2023|Bamidbar, Bamitbar, Kabbalah, Names of G‑d, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Theory, Sefirot, Standard Model, Symmetry, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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Quantum Cheshire Cat vs. Venomous Snakes

A Study in Form and Matter And Moses prayed for the people.  And the Eternal said unto Moses: “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live.” And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9)   The Torah portion, Chukat, tells a bizarre story. Jews complain against G‑d and Moses. G‑d gets angry and sends venomous snakes that bite and kill many Jews. The people repent and ask Moses to pray for them. In response to Moses’s prayer, G‑d instructs him to make a [...]

By |2020-07-07T12:50:50-04:00July 6th, 2020|Biology, Chukat, Creation, Kabbalah, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Quantum Theory, Tzurah and Chomer, Uncategorized|5 Comments
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Getting a Blessing Through a Wormhole

And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. (Bamidbar 17:23)   In the Torah portion we read last Shabbat, G‑d instructs Moses to Speak to the children of Israel and take of them rods, one for each fathers’ house… thou shalt write every man’s name upon his rod.” (Bamidbar 17:17) As we read in verse 23, the next morning, Aaron’s rod (i.e., staff) bore ripe almonds. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi asks the question, why almonds?[1] If the staff of Aaron had blossomed with any flowers or fruits, that would have been enough to miraculously demonstrate to the children of [...]

By |2020-06-30T20:27:00-04:00June 30th, 2020|Bamitbar, Korach, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Relativity, Sefirot, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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The Land We Married

And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Command the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye come into the land of Canaan, this shall be the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to the borders thereof.” (Numbers 34:1-2) And ye shall inherit the land by lot according to your families—to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer, thou shalt give the less inheritance; wheresoever the lot falleth to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall ye inherit.” (Numbers 33:54) And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the [...]

By |2019-08-05T15:11:16-04:00August 4th, 2019|Creation, Entanglement, Husband and wife, Massei, Numbers, Pentateuch (Chumash), Quantum Theory, Randomness, Sefirot, Soul, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Daughters of Zelophehad

Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad …. of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar, the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, saying: “Our father died in the desert, …. and he had no sons. Why should our father's name be done away from among his family, because he had no son? Give unto us a possession among the brethren of our father.” (Numbers 27:1-4) In the Torah portion that was read last Shabbat in the Diaspora, Phineas (Pinchas), we read the story of the five daughters of Zelophehad who brought the claim for inheritance in [...]

By |2022-04-21T14:21:49-04:00July 28th, 2019|Bamitbar, Kabbalah, Mashiach (Messiah), Names of G‑d, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Pinchas, Quantum Field Theory, Science, Sefirot, Standard Model, Uncategorized|8 Comments
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Ẓiẓit, Koraḥ, and Wave-Particle Duality

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes [ẓiẓit] on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner. (Num. 15:37,38) They [Koraḥ and his men] assembled against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for the entire congregation are all holy, and the Lord is in their midst. So why do you raise yourselves above the Lord's assembly” (Num. 16:3) The Torah portion Shelach deals primarily with the fiasco of the spies sent by Moses to scout out the land of Canaan. The portion ends, however, seemingly out of turn, with the commandment to [...]

By |2023-06-18T09:58:51-04:00July 2nd, 2019|Bamitbar, Korach, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Theory, Sefirot, Shlach, String Theory, Uncategorized, Uncertainty Principle|3 Comments
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The Pilot Wave

And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel encamped. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they encamped: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they remained encamped. And when the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel [...]

By |2024-06-21T11:38:52-04:00June 11th, 2017|Bamitbar, Behaalotecha, De Broglie–Bohm theory, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Theory, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|3 Comments
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Mishkan – a Metaphor for Quantum Reality, II

Continuing the theme of my last post, Mishkan – a Metaphor for Quantum Reality, the analogy between the Tabernacle (“Mishkan”) and quantum reality goes even deeper. The quantum world is best described today by the Quantum Field Theory. According to this theory, there are no particles, only fields. When we interact with a field, it manifests itself as a quantum of the field, which, to some extent, looks and behaves like a particle. For example, when we interact with an electromagnetic field, it manifests itself as a photon – a quantum of the electromagnetic field. An electron, according to the Quantum Field Theory, is not really a particle but a quantum of the electron field, which is a quantum field that is spread across the entire universe. This quantum is an excitation of [...]

By |2019-06-03T09:46:40-04:00May 29th, 2017|Bamidbar, Bamitbar, G‑d, Isaiah, Mashiach (Messiah), Names of G‑d, Numbers, Parshah, Physics, Quantum Theory, Science, Space, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Mishkan – a Metaphor for Quantum Reality

And when the Tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the Tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up… (Num. 1:51) During the wonders of Israelites in the desert, the Tabernacle (Heb. “Mishkan”), existed as a sanctuary only during their encampments. Whenever they traveled, the Mishkan was taken down and disassembled to be carried by Levites during the journey. When G‑d commanded Moses to set the camp, the Mishkan was reassembled and set up again. Let us fast forward some three-and-a-half thousand years to the beginning of the 20 c. It was a time of great intellectual turmoil. The discovery of the atom’s structure by Rutherford, according to which an atom resembled the solar system with a nucleus at the center and electrons orbiting the nucleus, [...]

By |2019-06-03T09:26:48-04:00May 26th, 2017|Atomic Theory, Bamidbar, Bamitbar, Numbers, Parshah, Physics, Quantum Theory, Uncategorized|4 Comments
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Tree of Life or Nothingness

In the Torah portion Shlach (Numbers 13:1-15:41),  Moses instructs his spies to scout the land of Canaan and to bring back a report. He says to them: … What is the soil like – is it fat or lean? Are there any trees in it or not? You shall be courageous and take from the fruit of the land. (Num. 13:20) The verse seems pretty straight-forward – bring the fruits of the land as a proof that there fruit trees in the land. The trouble is, this is not exactly what the verse says. Translated literally, the verse reads: … What is the soil like – is it fat or lean? Is there a tree in it or nothing? You shall be courageous and take from the fruit of the land. This literal [...]

By |2018-06-08T07:07:49-04:00January 22nd, 2016|Numbers, Pentateuch (Chumash), Shlach, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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Balak and Balaam – an entangled pair

In my last year’s post "Balak – Interference of Souls," I suggested that Balak needed Balaam (Bilam) to cause constructive interference to make the curse more powerful. This year, while reading this Torah portion last Shabbat, I realized that there was another reason for which Balak needed Balaam – the entanglement. As I wrote last year, both Balak and Balaam received evil aspects of the souls of Cain and Abel (Havel) but in different proportions: Balak was primarily a reincarnation (gilgul) of the evil aspect of Cain (although he also received some smaller portion of the evil aspect of the soul of Abel) and Balaam was primarily a reincarnation of the evil aspect of Abel (although he also received some smaller portion of the evil aspect of the soul of Cain). Let us [...]

By |2019-07-16T22:57:19-04:00January 18th, 2016|Balak, Bamitbar, Entanglement, Numbers, Pentateuch (Chumash)|0 Comments
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Pesach Sheni – in a State of Superposition

There were men who were ritually unclean [because of contact with] a dead person, and therefore could not make the Passover sacrifice on that day. So they approached Moses and Aaron on that day. Those men said to him, "We are ritually unclean [because of contact] with a dead person; [but] why should we be excluded so as not to bring the offering of the Lord in its appointed time, with all the children of Israel? Moses said to them, "Wait, and I will hear what the Lord instructs concerning you." The Lord spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to the children of Israel saying, Any person who becomes unclean from [contact with] the dead, or is on a distant journey, whether among you or in future generations, he shall make a Passover sacrifice [...]

By |2024-05-21T20:51:07-04:00January 10th, 2016|Behaalotecha, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Passover (Pesach), Superposition|0 Comments
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Balak – Interference of Souls

Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Moab became terrified of the people, for they were numerous, and Moab became disgusted because of the children of Israel. Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now this assembly will eat up everything around us, as the ox eats up the greens of the field. Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of his people, to call for him, saying, "A people has come out of Egypt, and behold, they have covered the 'eye' of the land, and they are stationed opposite me. So now, please come and curse this people for me, for [...]

By |2020-10-15T23:12:39-04:00July 8th, 2015|Balak, Bamitbar, Entanglement, Ezekiel, Kabbalah, Mashiach (Messiah), Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Sefirot, Soul, Spirituality, Superposition, Tanakh, Uncategorized, Zohar|4 Comments
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String Theory

Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner." (Num. 15:38) At the end of the weekly Torah portion Shelach (Num. 13:1–15:41), Torah commands us to attached tzitzit, "tassels," to the four corners of the garment. Reading about the white and blue strings of the tzitzit brought back childhood memories of how I first invented a naïve form of the string theory. It was 1970, as I recall, and I was about 13 years old at the time. Growing up in Russia, alas, I didn’t have a Bar Mitzvah, so I wasn’t busy studying Torah or preparing for [...]

By |2019-06-23T14:16:46-04:00June 15th, 2015|Bamitbar, Biology, Numbers, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Theory, Shlach, String Theory, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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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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A Girl in a State of Superposition

In my essay "Secrets of the Talking Ass," I discussed the phenomenon of Bein HaShmashot (twilight or dusk), which is neither day, nor night, nor both, nor neither, but rather a distinct state having its own unique status and laws associated with it. What is interesting about Bein HaShmashot from our point of view is that it has uncannily similar to the quantum-mechanical state of superposition. As we discussed in that essay, an electron can be in a state of superposition of having its spin up and down (with angular momentum directed counterclockwise and clockwise) or a photon in a state of superposition of horizontal and vertical polarization, or the Schrödinger cat in a state of superposition of being alive and being dead. Just as Bein HaShmashot the cat is neither dead, nor [...]

By |2023-07-14T12:09:33-04:00July 18th, 2014|Bamitbar, Husband and wife, Mattot, Numbers, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Superposition, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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