Five-Hundred-Year-Journey
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
August 11, 2025 / 17 Av 5785
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Tanakh
Shemini,Phase Space,Hamiltonian Mechanics: Kabbalah and Physics of Seven and Eight
By Alexander Poltorak Abstract The Torah portion of Shemini records the climactic eighth day of the Tabernacle’s dedication, the moment when divine fire finally descends.
April 28, 2025 / 30 Nisan 5785
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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
November 10, 2024 / 9 Heshvan 5785
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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):
April 1, 2024 / 22 Adar II 5784
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Time as a Combination of the Past and the Future
Philosophers struggled with the notion of time from the dawn of human civilization. Physicists of today declared the problem of time the number one problem
July 30, 2023 / 12 Av 5783
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The Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz as a Manifestation of Breaking of the Vessels of Tohu
Today, on the Seventeenth of Tammuz, Jewish people fast to commemorate several tragic events in Jewish history.[1] These tragic events include the breaking of the
July 6, 2023 / 17 Tammuz 5783
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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
July 3, 2023 / 14 Tammuz 5783
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What Is a Soul? II. Anatomy of the Soul
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
November 5, 2021 / 1 Kislev 5782
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A Wheel Within a Wheel
Now as I beheld the Chayot [living creatures], behold one Ophan [wheel] at the bottom hard by the living creatures, at the four faces thereof. The
May 21, 2021 / 10 Sivan 5781
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The Conflict Between Joseph And His Brothers—A Gender Theory
The confrontation between Joseph and his brothers is one of the most troubling stories of the Bible. Joseph and his brother—twelve sons of Jacob—were the
December 20, 2020 / 5 Tevet 5781
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The Akeida — The Binding of Isaac
And He said: “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer
November 6, 2020 / 19 Heshvan 5781
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Let There Be Light
And G‑d said: “Let there be light.” And there was light. And G‑d saw the light, that it was good; and G‑d separated between the
October 16, 2020 / 28 Tishri 5781
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The Soul is in the Blood
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.,
May 4, 2020 / 10 Iyyar 5780
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Nadab and Abihu — Tragedy in Time
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange
April 19, 2020 / 25 Nisan 5780
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Salt: The Covenant of the Opposites
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
March 31, 2020 / 6 Nisan 5780
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Ki Tisa Hints at the Coronavirus
On the Eve of Shabbat, we received a government mailing containing documents that we were required to fill out and send back to the Census
March 16, 2020 / 20 Adar 5780
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In the Beginning — It’s All About Change
In the beginning G‑d created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) The first verse in the Torah is key to understanding the fundamentals
March 11, 2020 / 15 Adar 5780
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It Is Not Good For Man To Be Alone
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)
February 7, 2020 / 12 Shevat 5780
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The Tree of Life and Wave Mechanics
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
December 30, 2019 / 2 Tevet 5780
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Noah’s Ark — Sailing through the Flood of Time
Time is a storm in which we are all lost. ” (William Carlos Williams, Introduction to “Selected Essays”) I always had a hard time relating
November 2, 2019 / 4 Heshvan 5780
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Cosmic Symphony
Strings vibrate, Souls tremble, Angels are running and returning, G‑d is touching and not touching – The rhythms of the universe… Nothing stays still… all
October 30, 2019 / 1 Heshvan 5780
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Fitting Pieces of the Puzzle Together
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
June 21, 2019 / 18 Sivan 5779
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Collapse of the Wave Function
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – III This is the third installment in the series of posts related to the Ezekiel’s prophesy, Maaseh Merkava, “The
June 18, 2019 / 15 Sivan 5779
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Relational Space
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – II This post is a sequel to my previous post, “Space – Between Future and Past.” For background information,
June 17, 2019 / 14 Sivan 5779
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Space – Between the Future and the Past
Meditations on the Maaseh Merkavah – I We do science by studying nature. We study physics in a lab, peering into space or working out
June 13, 2019 / 10 Sivan 5779
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The Puzzle of Pi
March 14 is celebrated by nerds around the world as the Pi Day. When written in digits, 3/14 represents first three digits of the number
March 14, 2019 / 7 Adar II 5779
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Grand Unification
In physics, we seek Grand Unification, also known as the Theory of Everything. The Standard Model describes three out of the four fundamental forces: the
December 23, 2017 / 5 Tevet 5778
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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
May 29, 2017 / 4 Sivan 5777
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Entangled Cherubs
And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold; of beaten work shalt thou make them, at the two ends of the ark-cover. And make one
March 4, 2017 / 6 Adar 5777
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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
July 8, 2015 / 21 Tammuz 5775
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The Final Frontier
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,
August 3, 2014 / 7 Av 5774
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G‑d Collapses Sotah’s Wave Function
The story of Sotah, a suspected adulteress, is very troubling on the first blush. Why would a woman be subjected to such humiliation? The Lubavitcher
June 1, 2014 / 3 Sivan 5774
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Thou Shall Not Be a Flipper
Reading the Haftorah this Shabbat brought to mind scenes from the 2004 Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden in New York City where attendees where
February 18, 2014 / 18 Adar I 5774
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Jacob’s Ladder
And he dreamed, and behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels of G‑d were ascending
November 29, 2012 / 15 Kislev 5773
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Leprous Cats and Angry Birds
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
April 30, 2012 / 8 Iyyar 5772
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