lot

Abraham and Lot—A Story of Decoherence

Abraham and Lot—A Story of Decoherence

So Abram went, as the Eternal had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him… And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son… (Genesis 12:4-5) And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South. (Genesis 13:1) And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot: ‘Let there be no strife, I pray thee, [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2020-11-09T20:53:35-05:00October 30th, 2020|Lech-Lecha, Uncategorized|0 Comments

The Land We Married

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 Alexander Poltorak|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

Purim—the Day when We Celebrate Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

The Zohar compares Yom Kippur to Purim stating that Yom HaKipurim may be interpreted as “a day like Purim” (k-purim in Hebrew means “like purim”). On Purim we feast; on Yom Kippur we fast—what the two can have in common? Indeed, Purim and Yom Kippur have something very important in common. Both days share a common root—pur—meaning a “lot” (or pl. purim—“lots”). On Yom Kippur, two lots were placed in a wooden box—one say “to G‑d”, and the other “to Azazel.” (See my post, “Tale of Entangled Goats”). The High Priest relied on a lottery to choose which goat would be used for a sacrifice to G‑d and which to atone for the sins of Jewish People. On Purim, Haman threw two lots to determine the month and the day of a pogrom, [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2018-03-02T17:09:58-05:00March 2nd, 2018|Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Physics, Purim, Quantum Theory, Symmetry, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Shavuot — Three States of Consciousness

Shavuot — Three States of Consciousness

Shavuot (a.k.a. the Feast of Weeks, or “Pentecost”) is the only Jewish holiday with no fixed day on the calendar—it is always the fiftieth day from the beginning of the counting of the Omer (which itself starts on the second day of Passover). What is so special about the number 50, and what is its connection to Shavuot? Shavuot is not only the culmination of the counting of the Omer—Sefirat HaOmer—but also the culmination of the process of the maturation of our consciousness. On Shavuot, it is customary to read the Book of Ruth (Megilat Rut). The story begins with Lot and his daughters running away from Sodom and hiding in a mountain cave. Seeing the destruction of Sodom, the daughters of Lot suspected that God, in his fury, destroyed the whole of [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2022-06-07T01:08:22-04:00May 30th, 2017|Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Mashiach (Messiah), Omer, Physics, Shavuot, Uncategorized|3 Comments

Purim: Celebrating Randomness

Purim: Celebrating Randomness

The story of Purim, which we read in the Book of Esther, is a story about a righteous Jewish leader who held fast to his principles refusing to bow down to a rabid anti-Semite. It’s a story about a courageous Jewish queen, Esther, who saved her people risking her life. And yet, this holiday is not called by the name of Mordechai or Esther, it is called Purim, because, as the Book of Esther informs us: For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had devised to destroy the Jews, and he cast the pur—that is the lot—to terrify them and destroy them… Therefore, they called these days Purim after the name pur. (Book of Esther, 9:24,26) This is odd because the casting of the lot (pur) [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2019-03-26T15:41:32-04:00March 12th, 2017|G‑d, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Kabbalah, Names of G‑d, Purim, Quantum Theory, Randomness, Science, Uncategorized|0 Comments

From Purim to Passover

The Shulchan Aruch – the Code of Jewish Law – states that 30 days before Pesach (Passover) one needs to start learning the laws of Pesach. The simple meaning of this directive is clear – the laws are many and complicated and there is a lot to learn – so one needs to start early. There may be a deeper meaning in this, however. Let us recall that Pesach and Purim are exactly 30 days apart. To start learning about Pesach 30 days before, means to start learning about Pesach on Purim. Or, perhaps, the message is that from Purim we can learn about Pesach. The word Purim means “lot.” The story of Purim is about throwing lots. Evil Haman threw one lot to choose a month for the pogrom against Jews of [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2017-04-10T15:36:48-04:00April 19th, 2014|Freedom, Passover (Pesach), Purim, Randomness, Uncategorized, Yom Kippur|0 Comments

Saved by Randomness

In his book, “Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets,” Nissim Taleb argues that the human brain abhors randomness. Our brain is hard-wired to see patterns everywhere. We need to make sense of our surroundings and events around us. Sometimes, an ability to discern a pattern is very useful but, other times, we simply fool ourselves into seeing a pattern where there is none. We just can't deal with randomness. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why quantum physics—random at its core—is so hard to understand. It is difficult for us to accept that at the core of our reality, there is nothing but randomness. Even Einstein, himself one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, could not accept it. He famously said to Neils Bohr, “G‑d does [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2017-03-10T14:21:46-05:00September 16th, 2013|G‑d, Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Randomness, Uncategorized, Yom Kippur|0 Comments

Abraham and Lot—A Story of Decoherence

The Land We Married

Shavuot — Three States of Consciousness

Purim: Celebrating Randomness

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