I. Introduction Every year on Rosh HaShanah, the raw, unarticulated cry of the shofar cuts through silence. For Kabbalah, that cry is not mere ritual
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
… mi‑b’sari echezeh Elokah—From my flesh I behold G‑d (Job 19:26) Introduction – “In His Image” The Torah’s initial description of humanity is both profound and enigmatic:
Structurally identical biblical accounts of creation, destruction, and restoration are viewed as a manifestation of dialectic triad thesis-antithesis-synthesis.
The forty-nine days between Passover and Shavuot are called the days of Sefira or the days of counting Omer—Sefirat HaOmer—when Jews count every day as
This is the fourth installment in the series of essays on the nature of the soul. The first three installments can be found here: What
…[H]e who tries to cure the soul, wishing to improve the moral qualities, must have a knowledge of the soul in its totality and
In the biblical story of the creation of Adam, the Torah states: Then the Eternal G‑d formed man of the dust of the ground, and
Now the earth was unformed and void. Genesis 1:2 We have a big problem in cosmology: the problem of the initial conditions of the universe at
Yom Kippur means “The Day of Atonement.” Some view it as a frightening day full of regrets of the past and anxiety for the future.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11) The word translated here as “life” in the Hebrew original is nefesh, i.e.,
And every meal-offering of thine shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy G‑d to be lacking
And the Eternal G‑d said: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate opposite him.” (Genesis 2:18)
As we discussed in the previous post “Singularity and Paradise,” Paradise offers a beautiful metaphor for modern cosmology wherein Eden is the initial singularity preceding
These are the chronicles of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Eternal G‑d made earth and
As we discussed in the earlier post, The Tree of Knowledge as a Metaphor for Superposition of States and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the Heisenberg uncertainty
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of the tent in the heat of the
Time is a storm in which we are all lost. ” (William Carlos Williams, Introduction to “Selected Essays”) I always had a hard time relating
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
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – II This post is a sequel to my previous post, “Space – Between Future and Past.” For background information,
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – I We do science by studying nature. We study physics in a lab, peering into space or working out
And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of
The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz (a.k.a. the Fridriker Rebbe) told the story about his father, the Rebbe Rashab. Once the brother of Rebbe
If a bird’s nest chances before thee in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother sitting
And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both
And these are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred years and thirty years and seven years (Gen. 25,17) You might say the
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
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
Last week Torah portion, Emor, speaks about the prohibition of working on Shabbat. In fact, the Talmud enumerates precisely 39 categories of labor forbidden on
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
In this Torah portion, Devarim (Deuteronomy 1-3), Moses recalls the travels through the Sinai desert when G‑d told him: Be not at enmity with Moab,
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
On Seder night we drink four cups of wine and eat three matzoth. Why four cups and not three? Why three matzoth and not four?
The holiday of Passover – Pesach – is called zman cheruteinu– time of our freedom. As we have discussed many times on this blog (see
Do you like riddles? Here is a riddle – what do these two figures represent in the context of Exodus? No Idea? How about
Bo: Exodus 10:1 – 14:16 The Erev Shabbat parshat Bo (the Eve of Sabbath of the week when we read the Torah section Bo) 2014
There is a continuous thread about the mastery of time that weaves through the last chapters of the book of Genesis (Bereshit) and continues through
Presented at the International Torah and Science Conference in Miami International University on December 18, 2005 Alexander Poltorak Introduction. This is the third in
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