tzitzit

Ẓiẓit, Koraḥ, and Wave-Particle Duality

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 Alexander Poltorak|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

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 is the day different from the night? Indeed, on the night of Simchat Torah, we dance seven hakafot-circuits. However, during the morning service of the next day, we only dance three-and-a-half hakafot. What is the meaning of this number—three and a half? There are a few instances the Torah, Talmud, and Rabbinic instances where this number is mentioned (e.g., during the Gaonic period, c. 590–1000 CE, in some communities in the Land of Israel, the Torah reading cycle was completed in three and a half years; Maimonides rules that only half of the tzitzit string should be dyed blue leaving three and a half strings white), but none of them [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2017-10-16T02:32:29-04:00October 15th, 2017|Holidays (Yomim Tovim), Kabbalah, Mashiach (Messiah), Mathematics, Sefirot, Shabbat, Simchat Torah, Sukkot, Sukkot, Time, Topology, Uncategorized|0 Comments

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 Alexander Poltorak|2019-06-23T14:16:46-04:00June 15th, 2015|Bamitbar, Biology, Numbers, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Quantum Theory, Shlach, String Theory, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Ẓiẓit, Koraḥ, and Wave-Particle Duality

Three-and-a-half Hakafot — Topology of Simchat Torah

String Theory

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