Pentateuch (Chumash)

Home/Pentateuch (Chumash)

Torah – Five Books of Moses

The Imperative of Purpose: Bridging Science, Philosophy, and Divine Wisdom

And G-d said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) I.              Introduction Physics stands as the cornerstone of modern science, offering fundamental laws that govern matter and energy throughout the cosmos. Its equations describe the dance of subatomic particles and the orchestration of galactic systems with remarkable precision. However, a profound dichotomy exists in our universe: the distinction between inanimate and living matter. While physics masterfully explains the behavior of lifeless matter, it falls conspicuously silent when confronted with the defining characteristic of life itself—purposefulness. The reductionist assertion that biology can be fully explained through chemistry, and chemistry through physics, while technically true, obscures a fundamental gulf in our understanding. This gap lies not in the mechanical [...]

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 that thou art a fair woman to look upon. And it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, but thee they will keep alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because of thee.” (Genesis 12:11-13) This passage presents a perplexing scenario. Abraham (then Abram) asks his wife Sarah (then Sarai) to present herself as his sister upon entering Egypt. Classical commentators and the Zohar grapple with Abraham's motives, questioning why he would place Sarah in such a [...]

Bereshit: The Binary Universe I

Abstract This essay explores the profound significance of the letter Bet (ב), the first letter of the Torah, and its numerical value of two as a fundamental hint at the binary nature of our universe. Through an analysis of Jewish mystical texts, philosophical works, and modern physics, we demonstrate how this duality manifests across multiple dimensions of existence. The paper examines the Creator-creation relationship, the nature of time, and paradoxes inherent in divine attributes, showing how these apparent dualities emerge from absolute divine unity. This synthesis of the Torah wisdom and contemporary science suggests that the binary structure implied by the letter Bet may be more than metaphorical, potentially representing a fundamental characteristic of reality itself. I.              Introduction The Torah begins with the letter Bet (ב), the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, [...]

And there was Evening and there was Morning: Quantum Mechanics in Genesis

This essay explores a novel parallel between quantum mechanical principles and the biblical creation narrative through etymological analysis of the Hebrew terms “erev” (evening) and “boker” (morning). The study reveals that these terms, which punctuate each day of creation in Genesis, carry meanings that remarkably align with fundamental quantum concepts. "Erev," rooted in the concept of "mixture," parallels quantum superposition, while "boker," stemming from differentiation and discernment, mirrors quantum measurement and wave function collapse.

Why Are the Torah’s Mysteries Revealed in Fundamental Theories of Physics?

Look forth from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou didst swear unto our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 26:15) When I studied Quantum Mechanics at university, I was puzzled by its mysteries. Technically, it is not a complex theory. With elementary knowledge of linear algebra and some wave physics, one can get pretty far in studying Quantum Mechanics. However, the conceptual difficulties astound everyone who dares to grapple with this theory. It is unlike anything you have seen before. Electrons simultaneously spin clockwise and counterclockwise, particles are in two places at once, cats are both dead and alive, and entangled particles remain connected no matter how far apart. Studying quantum mechanics makes you feel like [...]

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 [...]

The Mystery of the Eighth Day

And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Leviticus 12:3 In the Torah portion of Tazria, we are commanded to circumcise a male child on the eighth day. In the previous Torah portion, Shemini, we read that the dedication of the Tabernacle (Mishkan) also took eight days, and only on the eighth day the Shechinah (“divine presence”) rested on it. What is the significance of the eighth day? Chasidic philosophy interprets the eighth day as the day after seven days. In numerous writings (ma’amarim) and talks (siḥot), the Rebbes of Chabad stated that seven days represent nature, whereas the eighth day is a day above nature.[1] The eighth day represents the supernatural. Why, you may ask, do the seven days represent nature? We are told that the number [...]

Breaking Symmetry to Inaugurate the Priests

The Torah portion Tzav describes a ritual performed by Moses in consecrating Aaron as the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) and his sons as priests (kohanim): And the other ram was presented, the ram of consecration, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And when it was slain, Moses took of the blood thereof, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. And Aaron’s sons were brought, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot; and Moses dashed the blood against the altar round about. Leviticus [...]

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 punished for gazing at the Shekhinah—the divine presence.[1] But what relevance does this have to the Torah portion retelling the greatest event in Jewish history (and, indeed, the history of human civilization)—the Sinaitic epiphany—the giving of the Torah? This is the Torah portion, where we read the Ten Commandments. What is the relevance of the sin of Abel to the Ten Commandments? More generally, what is Abel’s connection to this Torah portion? That is easy to understand. The Torah portion Yitro starts with the story of Jethro (Yitro), Moses’s father-in-law, coming to Moses in the Sinai desert with his daughter—the wife of Moses—and her two children. Rabbi Chayim [...]

Time and Space as Emergent Phenomena — Abstract

The current Torah portion Beshalach tells about the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. As I discussed in my essay, “Collapse and Revelation,” the splitting of the sea is a metaphor for the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics. The Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, taught us to leiben min hatzait (“to live with the time,” that is, to leave with the current reading of the Torah). Maybe this is why, this week, when we read in the Torah portion Beshalach about the splitting of the sea, I finally understood where time comes from. This question haunted me for more than forty years. Finally, this week, I got it—time emerges through the interaction of consciousness with the universal wave function, causing the sequence of wave function collapses that we perceive as [...]

On Freedom of Choice, Divine Providence, and the Hard Problem of Philosophy

The story of Joseph and his brothers, described in the Torah portion of Vayeshev, presents many problems. Classical biblical commentators interpret the conflict between Joseph and his brothers in diametrically opposite ways. Some commentators interpret it literally—the brothers were guilty of conspiring to kill Joseph and, ultimately, selling him into slavery, for which they were held accountable.[1] In fact, the brothers admit their guilt: And they said one to another: ‘We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear. . . . Genesis 42:21 Others take the view that these events were predetermined by G‑d. Indeed, in the Covenant Between the Parts, G‑d reveals to Abraham that his descendants will be strangers in a foreign land. Furthermore, [...]

The Exclusion Principle

Like most Jewish families worldwide, last Shabbat, the conversation revolved around the situation in the Middle East and the war in Gaza. The question was, what is the end game? How will this war end after IDF destroys Hamas? The United States, no doubt, will push for the Two-State “solution.” But will such a solution be viable? My wife, Leah, ’שתחי, chimed in, “The two-state solution is not viable because the exclusion principle forbids it.” I immediately understood what she meant. It was a deep insight that captured the very essence of the problem. Leah was also trained as a physicist (in fact, we met at a physics conference). Although she specialized in biophysics, she is familiar with quantum mechanics and spoke to me in the language we both understood. What is the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Light Above and Light Below

Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (STR) is broadly misunderstood by the public. In most popular science books, relativity theory is hailed for introducing relativity to physics. Whereas Newtonian physics embraces absolute space and time—the narrative goes—Einstein proved that space and time are relative. Fair enough. However, the relativity of space and time is the consequence of STR, not its first principle. The cornerstone of STR is the absolute nature of light or, more precisely, the invariance of the speed of light, which is the same (in a vacuum) in all inertial frames of reference.[1] As Tim Maudlin, a leading contemporary philosopher of physics, writes: The fundamental feature of the Special Theory is not what it makes relative but what it makes absolute. The speed of light is an invariant quantity under the transformation [...]

Translating the Torah for Future Generations

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. Ludwig Wittgenstein On Rosh Chodesh (the New Moon of the Hebrew month of) Sh’vat, some three and a half millennia ago, Moses started translating the Torah into seventy languages. This was one of the last things Moses did—the pinnacle of his life of service to G‑d and the Jewish nation. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, took Moses upon him to expound this law, saying… Deuteronomy 1:5 Rashi, the classical Biblical commentator, quotes Midrash Tanchuma on this verse, explaining: “to expound this law: He expounded it to them in seventy languages.”[1] (“This law” refers to the Torah in general.) Later, Moses commands the elders to collect large stones: And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this [...]

The Flood—a Quantum Metaphor

Noah’s flood was a cataclysmic event with no parallels in recorded history. All of humanity (along with flora and fauna)—except for Noah and his family (and the animals he took with him into the Ark)—was wiped off the face of the earth. Some may call this catastrophic event the Great Extinction, others, the Great Destruction, but I would call it the Great Collapse. If we focus not only on what the Torah says but also on what it tells us, we notice that the Deluge is a metaphor for the collapse of the wave function—the key concept in quantum mechanics. We often talked about the wave function collapse on this blog. However, for those who come here for the first time or feel they need a refresher, here is a very short summary [...]

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 and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle." The manuscript of that essay contained an addendum with a short primer on the superposition of states in quantum mechanics and quantum-mechanical treatment of the primordial sin. It expressed the ideas of Maimonides about primordial sin in precise mathematical formulas proving the exact parallel between the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and a quantum eraser. Realizing that only people familiar with the formalism of quantum mechanics would understand that part of the essay and fearing losing my readers, I decided to omit the addendum entirely. However, the addendum is arguably the most interesting part of the essay, because it [...]

Archives

Categories

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Be the first to know when we publish a new post.

Go to Top