REAL TORAH CODES - The Wrath and Anger of G-d in Jewish History in Torah Codes

Real Torah Codes

The Wrath and Anger of G-d in Jewish History in Torah codes

Rabbi M. Glazerson Professor R. Haralick 1

A note from the Editor The aim of the Magazine “Real Torah Codes” is to bring the truth of the Codes to light.

Unfortunately this subject is not properly understood. The antagonistic attitude often found towards the Codes is due to the abundance of mis-information and superficial study which can mislead the uninformed person.

A in-depth study and understanding of the Codes will remove all opposition.The Codes are based on Kabbalah and must be understood in the context of their appearance in the Torah.

What the wellregarded scientists say about the “Torah codes” Professor Robert I. Aumann: Famous mathematician, Nobel Prize awardee, and member of the National Academy of Science of America.

“If the research of the Torah Codes comes to light, behold this is the greatest discovery of three hundred years of scientific research.”

Professor Persi Diaconis:

With best wishes for a Shana Tova to the reader,

Famous professor of statistics and member of the National Academy of Science of America.

“We agree that this research, if born out, is of broad scientific interest, and has important implications for our way of thinking about our physical world. It is not only a matter of biblical studies.”

The editor,

Professor Atzmon:

In this first issue of “Real Torah Codes”, we deal with world disasters, which according to our Sages stem from the “Anger and Wrath” of G-d, representing His quality of strict judgment.

Matityahu Glazerson

“A great revelation, that clouds even Copernic’s revelation. If there is substance to this research, then the foundation of the human way of thinking will experience strong tremors.”

Copyright © 2009 by Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson and Professor Robert Haralick.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permisison in writing from both the copyright holder and the publisher.

2 Magazine design: Sara Hager 02 582 6101 spotondesign1@gmail.com

Torah Codes Articles ................................ 4 Anger and Wrath ..................................... 24 World War One........................................ 26 Auschwitz, Hitler and Final Solution ........ 28 Anger and Fury ........................................ 30 The Holocaust.......................................... 32 The Twin Towers ...................................... 35 New Orleans: Katrina............................... 38 Tsunami Anger ......................................... 41 The Bird Flu ............................................. 42 Annapolis ................................................ 43 Abu Mazen .............................................. 45 The Disengagement ................................. 46 The Golden Calf ....................................... 53 P.O.BOX 16183 Jerusalem Israel U.S.A: cell. 001 646 5065783 EMAIL: mglazerson@aol.com www.glazerson.com www.realbiblecodes.com

RAZ-OT LEV ELIYAHU Leonard Himelsein Torah Foundation USA: 914 419 9917 Fax: 914 961 6855 Israel: 02 642 1469 UK: 07973 536 315

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Torah Codes: Responding to the Critics Scientific research has confirmed that there are hidden codes in the Torah.[1] Given the consequences of this research, it was inevitable that some people would take exception to the findings. Despite the integrity of the research and the researchers, critics have made many strong attempts to refute the findings and discredit the researchers.[2] We are not under any illusion that any counter-arguments will have any effect on the critics. For most of them, the issue is not the existence of codes; it’s the implication, which runs contrary to their a priori assumptions about the divinity of the Torah.

This view is best expressed by one of the critics. When challenged, “what evidence would be enough to convince you that the codes exist?” she responded “no amou am amount ount nt of of evidence. evid ev iden id ence en ce.. I know ce k ow kn w tthat hatt ha thee To th Tora Torah rah ra hw was as written wri w ritt ri ttten by by hu human umaan beings!” bein be ings gs!” !” For For other oth o ther err reasons, rea easo sons so ns,, even ns evven reli re religious ligi giou ouss Jews Jews w ccan an n be be ideologically ideo id eolo eo lo ogi gica c llllyy ca both bo bothered ther ered ed by by th thee id idea dea that tha hatt the th he Tora To Torah rah hh has as such ssuc uch uc h hidden hidd hi dden dd en codes. ccod odes od ess.

Scientific rests Scie Sc ient nttif ific ic evidence eevi vide idenc ncee re esstts on facts, demonstrated through fact fa cts, ct s, d dem emon onst stra rate ted d th thro hroug ugh h repeated experimentation repe re peat ated ed eexp xper erim imen enta en tation tati on n aand nd independent inde in depe pend nden en nt verification. veeri rifi fica fi cati tion on.. This on Thiss Th h ha has as been been n done, don onee, e, and and is is the the basis basi ba siss of si ourr reliance ou relilian re ance ce on on the the authenticity a th au then heen n nti tici ti ciity [1]

of Torah codes. We present here some of the most common misconceptions and claims made by the various critics, as well as our responses.

Claim 1 - Scientists have disproven the idea of codes in the Torah: Statistical Science recently published an article in which the

Imagine Marconi demonstrating his invention of the first radio, bringing out a box of considerable size and turning it on. authors au uth hor o s claim ccllai aim to have havve “solved hav “ ol “s olve lve ved d the bible th he bi b bibl ibl b e code code de puzzle”. puz p uzzl uz zle” zl e””. In truth, e”. truth ru uth t , this th is article arttic icle lee is is a compilation comp co mpilillat mp atio ion io n of crit cr criticisms itic icis isms ms that tha hatt have have helped hel elpe p d make pe make integrity Torah codes thee in th inte tegr te grit gr itty of the thee To Tora rah ra h ccod odes od es stronger best, stro st rong nger er than ttha han n ever. ever ev er.. At bes er b est, es t tthe t, he critics crit cr itic icss have haave only only nly raised nl rraaais isseed d questions que uest sttio onss off possible pos p ossi os sibl sibl b e flaws f aw fl awss in n one one ne of of the the earl ea early rly expe rl eexperiments. ex xpe p ri rime ment me nts. nt Imagine Marconi Imag Im aggine in ne Marc Ma rcon rc on ni

demonstrating his invention of the first radio, bringing out a box of considerable size and turning it on. Naturally, skeptics who have never seen such a thing would be critical, and could claim that Marconi may have cheated; that really this box is so large that the voice coming from within is really just a crouched up human being. At this point, the critics would have the upper hand. But when a later generation comes along with a radio the size of a walkman, is there any validity left to the critics’ arguments? How would one look at the critics if they persisted in clinging to their obsolete theories of deception?

This is precisely the situation with the Torah Codes. The main point of the attack by the critics is the input data of the original Rabbis’ experiment of 1994 (see details below). The data was of a relatively complex nature, and was provided by an expert, Prof. S. Z. Havlin, who is an internationally known scholar in the area of Rabbinical bibliography. The critics, however, claim there is “wiggle room” in the data. We believe that their arguments are riddled with logical, procedural and and grammatical gram gr amma am mati ma tica call errors. erro er rors rs.. But But aside asid as idee from recent codes from these, tthe hese he see, several seve se vera rall re rece cent nt ccod odes es experiments been conducted exxpeeri rime ime ment nts ha nt havee b have een ee n co cond n uc nd ucte ted te ted which whic wh icch completely comp co mple lete le tely te ly avoid aavo void vo id the the need nee n eed d for opinion for any any expert expe ex pert pe rt o opi pini pi nion ni o for on for the the input in np pu ut data. ut d ta da ta.. The The data data collection ccol olle lect ctio ion n is simple ssiimp ple and and d explicit eexp xp plilici citt and an nd leaves leav le aves es no no room ro oom ffor orr cchoices hoic ho i es or ic or optimization. opti opti op timi miza mi zati za tion ti on..

Itt iiss difficult diff di ffic ficcul ultt to understand und nder e st er stan and d why why the well th he crit ccritics, cr rit iticcss,, w itic who ho are are r w e l aware el awar aw a e of ar the existence papers, fail the ex xis i teenc ncee of these tthe hese he s p se pap a er ap ers, s, ffai aill ai to mention to even eve ven me m n iio nt on the th he existence exis exi ex istenc ist tenc te n e of of

SSee e tthe ee he aarticle he rtic rt icle ic le ELS EELSs LSss in n the thee Book Bo oo ok of Genesis, Gen enes esis i , printed prin pr in nte ted ed in Statistical Sta tati ttiist s iiccaall Science, Scciien ence nce, ce, June ce J ne Ju ne 1994.

199 994 4.. The The he research resea esea es earcch was waas conducted w cond co ond n uc ucte ted by Doron Doron Dor on Witztum, Wit W itzt ztum um,, aalong al ongg with on w th wi h Professor Pro rofe fess fess ssor o Eliyahu Eliliya yyaahu hu Rips, Rip ips, s, a world-renowned wor orld ld-r -ren ren eno ow wne ned ed m ma ath hem emaattic tic iciiaan icia n.. mathematician.

[2] [2] [2 2] Att on A onee point, poin po nt, t in in lieu liieu e of of any any of their theeir i arguments arrggumen um meen ntss being beeiing ng accepted accep ccep cc epte pte ted for for publication, fo pu p ub blliiccatio aattio on, n, the the he critics crriittiiccss went wen entt so so far farr as as to to gather gatthe gat herr a petition peti pe titi ti tion ti o of on of scientists scie sc ient ntis nt ists is tss who are wh are op ar o ppo pose pose po s d to t the the he research reessea e rc rch h being beein b ing carried carrrrie ca ied ed out. out. ou t. When Whe hen was waaass the w th he last llaasstt time tiim me a scientific scieen sc scie nttif tif ificc issue issssu uee was wass decided dec ecid ided ed d by by petition? p ti pe titi tion ti on n? who opposed

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these new works. This deception leaves us wondering whether their goal is scientific truth or public relations.

Claim 2 - The idea of Torah codes is not supported by Jewish tradition: While there are even Rabbis who repeat this assertion, one would do well to look carefully at traditional and widely accepted Jewish sources that deal with the idea. The concept of “encoded information” and a “hidden text” in the Torah is a wellknown and established part of Jewish tradition. The Ramban (Nachmanidies), Maharal, the Vilna Gaon, and others refer to “hidden information in the letters of the Torah” in their writings.

There are sources that explicitly state that such codes do exist in the Torah. In other words, the existence of codes in the Torah is not something new. All that is new is the ability to find them with computers and evaluate them with modern statistical methods.

See Appendix A for more details.

The critics then turn to the issue of Rabbinic endorsement forr codes fo code co dess research. rese re sear arch ch..

Mar M arch ch 2, 2, 19 1997 97 7 a p pub ublililicc ub On March public stat st atem at em men e t wa w as is sssu ued d in in Jerusalem Jeru Je rusa ru sale sa lem le m statement was issued byy the the rrenowned enow en ow wne ned d Ra Rabb bbii Sh bb Shlo lomo lo mo Rabbi Shlomo Fish Fi sher sh er,, wherein er wher wh erei ein ei n he testified ttes esti es tifi ti fied fi ed Fisher, th hat one one ne of of the the greatest grea gr eate ea test te st that sage sa gees of our our generation, ggen ener en erat er a io at on, sages Ra abb bi Shlomo Shlo Sh lo omo mo Zalman Zal alma man Auerbach Au A uer e ba bach cch h Rabbi ztz” zt z”l,l, met met w ith it th the the researchers rese re seear arch cher cher ch ers ztz”l, with occasions. on several ssev evver eral all o occ ccas cc asio as ions io ns.. He stat st ated ed ttha hatt Rabbi ha R bb Ra b i Auerbach Au Auer uer erba bach ch h stated that n no ot only on o nly gave gav ave his his hi not

approval to Codes research but also encouraged its use in Jewish outreach efforts. Rabbi Fisher is also familiar with the research, and wrote his own letters of encouragement.

More recently, several other leading Rabbis have given written endorsements regarding the validity of codes research, the integrity of the researchers, and have endorsed its presentation to lay audiences.

See Appendix B for more details.

Claim 3 - Scientists have disproved the existence of Torah codes by showing that such codes exist in other books, like War and Peace and Moby Dick: For anybody familiar with the basic idea of ELS codes (see Appendix C for a simplified explanation), it is self-evident that one can find ELSs of words in any text. One could easily find “encoded words” on the side of a box of cereal, in this paragraph, and yes, even in Moby Dick. The

ELSs appear near each other any more often than what would be expected in a comparably long text.

So what have the critics found?

That theoretically one could cheat. That by surreptitiously not using an objective list of pairs of words, by playing around with many alternative spellings of words, by breaking basic rules of grammar, or by not considering minimal ELSs (see Appendix C), one could concoct a contrived list and deceive people into believing that an objective experiment was performed.

This is precisely the method used by the critics to create “counterfeit” codes in Moby Dick; this is also the technique used in most of the popular books on Bible Codes, as well as the plethora of Christian codes books claiming that “Jesus is Messiah”.

The only difference between the scientists opposed to codes, and the non-scientific use of codes (Michael Drosnin and the Christians) is that the critics admit

One could easily find “encoded words” on the side of a box of cereal, in this paragraph, and yes, yes, eeven ven iin nM Moby o by D Dick. ick. TThe he question is not one of of finding fin nding ELSs. ELSs. ques qu esti tion on n is is not not one one of o finding fin indi ding di ng question ELSs EL Ss.. The Ss The simple s mp si ple fact fac actt iss that ttha hatt no o ELSs. crit cr itic it ticc has has found, ffou ound ou nd d, or critic even ev n cclaims laaim ms to o find, fin nd, even the statistically th he sttatis attisstiica callllllyy s gn si gniiffic ican ant effect effe ef fect ct significant foun fo und un d in in Genesis.

Gen Gen enes esiss. found II..ee.. no no critic crit cr i icc has it hass I.e. su succ ucc ccee eede ee ded de d iin n succeeded taking taaki taki king king ng an an objective o jeecttive ob i ve iv lilistt of of pairs p ir pa irs rs of o words, wo orrds d , list and shown an sh how o n th tthat h hat a their at the heir ir and

that their the heir ir results rres esul ults ts were wer w eree obtained obta ob tain ined ed that thro th roug uggh selective sele se lect le ctiv ivee choices choi ch oice cess of through data da taa, i.e. i.i.e. cheating. cheeat atin ing. in g Their g.

TThe heir ir claim ccla laim im data, h weeve ho v r, r, iiss th that hat tthe he o he riigi gina ina nall code co ode dess however, original codes researchers cheated same rese re eseear a ch her e s ch chea eate ea ted te d in n tthis hiss sa hi ame wayy.. wa way.

To summarize, sum sum mma marriizee, there mari ther th e e ar er aaree no n To scie sc ien ntti tist isttss who is who ho claim cla laim im that tha hat hidden h dd hi dden en scientists code co dees actually acctu t al ally ly exist exi x st s in in different diff di ffeerren ff ffer nt codes texts. text te xtss.. Their The The heir ir claim ccla laim la im m is is the the opposite oppo op posi po sitee that in in fact, fact fa ct, ct t, there th her e e iss no no such ssu uch h thing thiing ng that as a codes cod dess phenomenon phe heno nome men me no on in in any any ny as 5

text, and that the experiments performed and published are fraudulent.

See Claim 5 for the researchers’ response to this claim.

Claim 4 - There is too much “wiggle room” (i.e. flexibility) in the experiments to consider them as objective science.

Ironically, when the critics first made this claim, they provided several instances of where the researchers could have “wiggled”, involving certain choices of names, spellings of Hebrew dates, etc. When these apparent optimizations were examined by rerunning the original experiment, the original results changed from a significance level of 16/1,000,000[3] to 4/1,000,000.

(See http://www.Torahcodes. co.il/docum4eng.htm for more information.)

In addition, one of the main questions regarding codes experiments is in the integrity of the data set, i.e. the set of words being searched for in the text. Doron Witztum and Eliyahu Rips, the original researchers who conducted the Rabbis’ experiment, were well aware of this factor. To avoid any accusation of cheating, the task of deciding on spellings and constructing the list was delegated to an outside expert in Rabbinical bibliography, Professor Shlomo Zalman Havlin, from the Faculty of Information Studies and Bibliography at Bar [1]

Ilan University.[4] Professor Havlin also pre-established a list of guidelines that would guide his determination of which forms and spellings of names he would take. The appellations used by the researchers were precisely those submitted to them by Professor Havlin.

When the critics questioned Professor Havlin about his methodology in establishing the list of names, he presented to them the guidelines he followed.

Of course, when presented with this list of guidelines, the critics responded by claiming that he too must have been involved in the grand conspiracy! (His guidelines are available at http://www.

Torahcodes.co.il/havlin.htm.)

To further bolster their claim of wiggle room, the critics, through many months of experimenting with different combinations of appellations and spellings, fabricated their own list (which they admitted was doctored), which does succeed in the Hebrew translation of War and Peace.

Their list, however, is riddled with spelling errors, data taken from inaccurate or ambiguous sources, and, despite their insistence to the contrary, repeatedly breaks the original guidelines set by Havlin. A full 45 page refutation of every one of their inadmissible choices is available at http://www.

Torahcodes.co.il/debate.htm.

Their response? To find an “expert” to back up their claim

that their list was valid and accurate. The one expert they managed to find was Professor Menachem Cohen, a professor of Bible Studies at Bar Ilan University.

Is there any reason to think that a Professor of Bible Studies could proffer an expert opinion on Rabbinical bibliographic data any more than a professor of Chemistry, or a professor of English?[5] For a sample of one of the many humorous errors in their list, see Appendix D. Claim 5 - The researchers who conducted the Famous Rabbis’ experiment (published in Statistical Science in 1994) cheated by intentionally manipulating the data while conducting the experiment: This claim has already been refuted from a number of angles.

A) Independent Verification.

A number of independent researchers have confirmed the integrity of the data and methodology of the original experiment.

Harold Gans, formerly a senior mathematician and cryptologist at the U.S. Dept. of Defense, conducted an independent experiment to verify the integrity of the data. He did so by searching for codes related to the places of birth and death corresponding to the precise listing of Rabbis used by Witztum

See the article ELSs in the Book of Genesis, printed in Statistical Science, June 1994. The research was conducted by Doron Witztum, along with Professor Eliyahu Rips, a world-renowned mathematician.

[2] At one point, in lieu of any of their arguments being accepted for publication, the critics went so far as to gather a petition of scientists who are opposed to the research being carried out. When was the last time a scientific issue was decided by petition?

[3] The original published statistic was 16/1,000,000, or p=.000016. The experiment was later re-run on a more expansive set of control tests and achieved the result of 59/100,000,000. After taking into account possible optimizations, the results changed to 19/100,000,000!

[4] An expert in linguistics, Yaakov Orbach z”l, was also consulted regarding the proper way of referring to Hebrew dates.

[5] Note too, that independent Rabbinic authorities, in a public letter, stated that “we checked the rules according to which Professor

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and Rips. He obtained highly statistically significant results. The critics’ response? Yes, he too must have somehow been involved in the (ever-growing) conspiracy.[6] Furthermore, Israeli mathematician Alex Lubotsky challenge the researchers by speculating why they didn’t run their experiment with a much simpler data set, composed of the names of the Rabbis the way they are referred to in Jewish tradition “so-and-so son of so-and-so”.

Witztum took the offer as a

researchers, have further confirmed the existence of codes in the Torah. In brief: a) Dr. Alex Rotenberg, a technical programmer in Jerusalem, conducted his own experiment looking for pairings of the names of the children of Haman (found in the Book of Esther 9:7-9) with their date of death, and obtained highly significant results. His experiment can be found at http://www. math.tau.ac.il/~tsirel/claims.htm. b) Doron Witztum has

In addition, a simple logical argument shows that this criticism is meaningless. legitimate question, ran exactly such an experiment, and achieved significant results! Note that this experiment was a) suggested by one of the critics, and b) has no “wiggle room”.

In addition, Dr. Robert Haralick, Boeing Professor of Electrical Engineering and an expert in Pattern Recognition at the University of Washington, has confirmed the statistical significance of the original Great Rabbis’ experiment by rerunning the experiment using an entirely different methodology.

B) New Experiments.

Many other experiments, including those by independent

recently conducted another new successful experiment, modeled after the original Rabbis’ experiment, searching for the names of personalities mentioned in Genesis (Adam, Isaac, the children of Jacob), finding that they appear in proximity to their dates of birth. The beauty of this experiment is the lack of even potential “wiggle room”. The data is taken directly from a Midrash, and the names are spelled exactly as they are found in the Book of Genesis. This experiment, as well as others, can be found at http://www.Torahcodes.co.il/ researches.htm.[7] c) Several other successful experiments have also been

reported. One of the strongest of these is an experiment looking for information relating to the 70 nations described in the Torah as being the descendants of Noah and his sons. These experiments can be viewed at: http://www.

Torahcodes.co.il/whatsnew.htm.

C) The Challenge.

In the eyes of the critics, the central problem in the Rabbis’ experiment is the claim that the researchers could have cheated using the “wiggle room” available within the rules established by Professor Havlin. In addition to unequivocal refutations of their arguments, the researchers openly proposed a public challenge to the critics well over one year ago: to come to an agreement with us on the appointment of a new independent expert in Rabbinic bibliographical data, and to have him construct his own list of appellations using the original guidelines.

We are still waiting for their response to the challenge.

Claim 6 - The Torah texts we possess today are substantially corrupt compared to original texts: The simple fact is that the researchers ran their experiment on the Textus Receptus, by far the most widely used text in circulation in Jewish communities around the world. While there may be slight variations in other

Havlin formulated his list of names and titles of Torah leaders, and we found that it was commensurate with both professional standards and common sense. The list is in keeping with the principles. We found that all the claims concerning the opponents’ individual claims concerning deviation from the principles to be false.”

[6] To quote Harold Gans: “It is important to note that the list of places of birth and death were obtained using a precise and detailed linguistic protocol to ensure accurate data and accurate spelling. In spite of the fact that this experiment directly corroborates [the Witztum-Rips] Famous Rabbis’ experiment, and has been public knowledge for over eight years, no one has ever succeeded in producing a counterfeit of this experiment. The strict use of a precise protocol effectively blocks any attempt to cheat.”

[7] Professor Rips ran a similar experiment, focusing only on the names of Jacob’s twelve sons, and also using other variant sources for the

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Are they troubled that at seminars to make people religious, these astonishing matters are sometimes taught, and their effect on the listeners is profound? Is this what is bothering them?

extant versions of Torah texts, the differences are much too negligible to have a serious detrimental effect on the results.

[8]

In addition, a simple logical argument shows that this criticism is meaningless. There is a difference of opinion among scholars as to how much the text of the original Torah has been corrupted. Some say it has been corrupted by many errors, while others say that no more than a single letter is in question. Thus, one can reason as follows: (1) There is very strong statistical evidence that the codes are real; (2) If there are few errors in the Torah, the statistical evidence for codes will still be there, albeit not as strong had there been no errors at all; (3) if there are many errors in the Torah, the statistical evidence of codes would vanish completely.

We therefore conclude that there are at most a few errors in the Torah, as some experts claim. The critics’ position that there must be many errors is thus logically untenable.

Codes Web Sites: http://www.

Torahcodes.co.il.

Web site of Doron Witztum: http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~rips.

Website of Prof. Eliyahu Rips: http://www.discoveryseminar. org/codes/codes.htm.

Aish HaTorah’s codes mini-site: h tt p : / / m e m b e rs . xo o m . c o m / bcodes.

Web Sites of Codes Critics: http:// cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/diligum/ Torah.html.

Web Site of Prof. Brendan McKay: http://wopr.com/biblecodes.

Appendix A - Some of the Jewish Sources for Codes: · The great teacher of the Ramban, Rabbi Eliezer (Rokeach), in the introduction to his commentary on the Torah, describes “73 ways to understand and interpret the letters of the Torah”. Number 54 is called “the way of skipping”. · An example of an ELS code is explicitly mentioned in a commentary on the Torah written by Rabbi Bachya in 1291 (chapter 1, verse 2). · The renowned Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, head of the Rabbinical Court of Tzfat, wrote a book called Pardes Rimonim in 1549. On page 68,

he writes that the secrets of the Torah are revealed in its letters through many means, including “skipping of letters”. · In 1957, the students of Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl published a book called Torat Chemed that contains many examples of letter skipping patterns found by their teacher.

Appendix B Endorsements:

-

There are letters available to the public by some of today’s leading Rabbis. They deal with: a) Confirmation that there is an accepted Jewish tradition that there are ELS codes in the Torah. b) The reliability of the researchers and the accuracy of their data. c) The encouragement to research and publicize the findings of Torah codes.

Letters are available in the

dates of death. He too achieved significant results. His experiment is available at http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/~rips.

[8] The one other well accepted text of the Torah is the standard one used by Yemenite communities, in which there are 8 variations over the 304,805 letter text of the Torah. When tests were run on the Yemenite version of Genesis, the results remained significant.

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Rabbinic

original Hebrew, as well as translations, from: Rabbi Shlomo Fisher (his own letter, plus one attesting to the endorsement of the late Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztz”l), Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, Rabbi Shmuel Deutsch, Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, and Rabbi Matisyahu Solomon.

It is worthy to note as well, that not one Rabbinic authority has endorsed the claims of the critics.

Following is a letter of approbation from the renowned Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe.

2 Marcheshvan 5759 It is known that a way exists to discover hints and matters from the Torah by reading letters at equidistant intervals. This method is found in the commentary of Rabeinu Bachya on the Torah and the works of Rav Moshe Cordovero. More recently, the tzadik, Rav Weissmandel, revealed wondrous things with this method.

To my surprise, I have heard that opponents to this method have arisen claiming that various deceptions were performed by those who are involved in this method today. It is astonishing to me that they were not intimidated to state their claims after the Gaon Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach gave his clear agreement to the method of equidistant intervals, and after Rav Auerbach’s son, the Gaon Rav Shmuel, censured them.

I am uncertain of these opponent’s intentions. Are they troubled that at seminars to make people religious,

that these astonishing matters are sometimes taught, and their effect on the listeners is profound? Is this what is bothering them? Whatever the reason of those who oppose this method, it is certainly not a dispute for the sake of heaven, and we must strengthen those who are engaged in this method, for it is a totally honest endeavor. May they be encouraged and see blessed results from their deeds, and may they continue to increase the honor of our holy Torah and its influence on all who seek the Almighty’s closeness. May the Almighty help those who engage for the sake of heaven in this honest discipline of studying equidistant intervals, Shlomo Wolbe.

Appendix C - What is an ELS code?

To fully understand the method of finding and evaluating the codes, one must read the full technical description given in the paper in Statistical Science (Vol. 9, issue 3, June 1994). However, the following simplified explanation will give the reader a rough impression of the nature of the research. The claim made by the researchers is roughly as follows: 1) ELSs (Equidistant Letter Sequences) are words spelled out in a text by skipping an equal number of letters.

2) Any word may appear several times at different skip intervals in the same text - i.e. the word “hammer” may appear in a text every 4th letter at a certain point, somewhere else every 29th letter, somewhere else every

245th letter, etc. One of these occurrences will be the “minimal” ELS. (In this example, the ELS of 4.)[9] 3) We observe that in the Hebrew text of Genesis, the minimal ELSs of related words (i.e. “hammer” and “anvil”) appear encoded in close proximity to each other.

4) We perform objective experiments on large sets of pairs of words and demonstrate that this effect (called “the proximity of related ELSs”) occurs much more often than would be statistically expected.

Appendix D - The debate over spellings of names: When the critics manipulated their list of names to make it succeed in War and Peace, they consistently violated basic rules of spelling and grammar. At times, they went even beyond, and had difficulty even just looking up names. Here we will cite only one flagrant example: They attempted to prove that Rabbi Moshe Zacuta’s name does not appear in the form “Zacuta” (‫( )זכותא‬as was used in the original experiment), but only as “Zacut” (‫)זכות‬. To this end they cite the title page of his biography, where the name “Zacut” indeed appears.

Had they turned one more page they would have seen that in the Polish title the name appears as “Zacuta”, and in the German as “Zakuto”.

For a detailed analysis, see the full refutation of the critics’ data at www.Torahcodes.co.il.

[9]

Other ELSs that are not the minimum, but are minimal over large areas of the text are also considered, but their effect is pro-rated in kind.

9

And not merely in a

The Seal of G-d is Truth

by Doron Witzum

general sense, but including the details of every species and every person

Professor Barry Simon informs us at the conclusion of his article, “A Skeptical Look at the Torah Codes”, that he hesitated before presenting his doubts about the existence of Torah Codes. Those hesitations were overcome, however, by reminding himself that HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s seal is truth.

Devotion to truth, alas, is not proven by how loudly one proclaims his allegiance, but by one’s exertions in its pursuit. Here Professor Simon’s efforts have fallen short. The arguments he presents against the Codes are a rehash of those made by others over the past year on the internet and in other media.

Had Professor Simon approached me before writing his article, I would have provided him with complete and detailed p answers these answ an swer sw erss to aallll tthe er hese se cclaims. laaim laim ims. s. In In light liligh ghtt of the the fact ffac actt that th hat I have hav a e been been n primary Torah thee pr th prim imar aryy researcher reese s ar arch c er iin ch n To Tora rah Codes his Code Co dess for f r the fo thee last th last 12 la 12 years, year ye ars, rs, s, h iiss failure fail fa ilur uree to do do so before bef b efor ef oree writing writ wr itin ingg what wh at purports pur pur urpo port po rtss to be rt be an overview ove o veerv rvie iew ie w of the the subject sub ubje ject je ct is is little lilitt ttle le short ssho ho ort of of astounding. asto as toun to undi ding ng.. (Full (Ful (F ulll responses resp re spon sp onse sess to opponents Torah Codes oppo op pone nent ntss off the thee To Tora r h C ra Cod odes od es can ca n be found fou und n at at internet i te in t rn rnet e web et web site ssit itee it http://www.Torahcodes.co.il http ht tp:/ ://w /www ww.T .Tor orah ahco code co des. des. s.co c .iil and co aan nd in n my my forthcoming fort fo rthc hcom hc o in om ng book book on on the t e th ssubject.) su bjec bj ect. ec t) t.

Professor P Pr rof ofes fes esso so or Si SSimon imo m n did diid d id spend spen sp end d hours a few ffeew ew hour h ho ou urrs with wiitth w h my my colleague co olll eagu eaagu gue Professor P Pr offes o esso sor Eliyahu Eliyah El iyyah ahu u Rips Rp Ri pss of of the tth he 10 10

Hebrew University, but according to Professor Rips the discussion touched superficially on only a few technical aspects of the research. Convinced that Professor Simon did not understand the phenomenon revealed by our research, Professor Rips was eager to meet with him again even offering to fly to the United States at his own expense to do so - but Professor Simon replied that he was “too busy”.

Not surprisingly, given Professor Simon’s half-hearted search for the truth, his article is rife with factual errors and misinterpretations, misquotations and mistaken conclusions.

Before detailing his major failings in each of these areas, however, a general discussion of Torah Codes in the Mesorah is appropriate. pp p Torah Codes Mesorah: To Tora ah Co Code de es in n tthe he Me he Meso sso orah ra ah: It is It is axiomatic axxio axio oma mati tic for ti for fo or all aalll believing belilil ev be evin ingg in JJews Je ws tthat hat th ha thee To Torah ora rah h iiss the the repo re repository posi sito tory ry of of all alll knowledge. know kn owle ow ledg le dge. dg e. To Torah ora r h is the the blueprint blu b luep lu epri ep rint ri nt for for Creation.

Crreeat atio ion. n. As As Zohar thee Zo th Zoha harr puts puts it, it, “HaKadosh ““Ha H Kado Ha Kado Ka dosh sh h Baruch Torah Baru Ba ruch ch Hu Hu llooked o keed into oo iin nto to the the h To Tora rah h world.” and created an and crea cr eate ea t d th te thee wo w worl orl rld. ld. d.” In n some som som o e ssense, se nse, ns se, e, eeverything very ve very ryth ytth h hin i g is in is included inc nclu lu uded ded in the de th hee Torah.

Bag Tora To rah ra h. As As Ben Ben n Bag Bagg B agg ssays, ays, ays, ay s, ““Delve Deelv lvee into iin nto to [the [th he To TTorah] ora rah] an rah and d continue cco onttin nue u to to delve d de elve lve in lv iinto to it, it, for forr everything eve veryth ryyth thin i g iss in in in Avos 5:26) According it.” it .” (Pirkei .”

(Pi Pirk rkei A rk vo s 5 vo vos :2 26) 6) A ccor cc ccor ordi ordi ding ng tto ng o Ramban thee R th Ra amban amb mbaan mb n (in (in in his hiiss introduction in nttro rodu duct ctio ion Torah), to his to his is commentary com mm meent ntar ary on on the the he To Tora ora ah), ),

individually, and the most minute details of his life from the day of his birth until his death. the Vilna Gaon and others, not only are the general outlines of world history contained in the Torah, but the precise details as well. In his commentary on Sifra d’Tzniusa, the Gaon writes: The rule is that all that was, is and will be, until the end of time, is included in the Torah from [the word] “Bereishis” to “l’eynei kol Yisrael”. And not merely in a general sense, but including the details of every species and every person individually, p y and the most minute minu mi nute nu te details det d etai et ails ai ls of of his his life life from ffro rom m the the dayy of da o his hiss birth bir b irth until ir irth unttili his his death. dea eath th.. th Obviously Obvi Ob viou vi o sl ou s y thes tthese th heesse de deta details tailili s are ta are not not explicit expl ex pllicit icitt in ic in the the To Tora Torah rah ra hb but ut contained con o ta tain ined ed i re in rremazim mazi ma zim zi m ((hints) hint hi ntts) of of various vari va riou ouss types. type ty pees. s O One n of ne of these th hes esee types type ty pess of hints pe hin h ints ts is in in the th he form f rm of fo of Equidistant Equi Eq uidi idist stan antt Letter Lett Le t er tt Sequences Se Sequ equ quen e ce en cess (ELSs), (ELS (E LSs) LSs) s , words word wo rdss formed rd f rm fo rmed ed intervals byy ccounting ount ou ntin nt i g at sset in et iint et nter nt erva er vals ls betw be between tw wee e n le lett letters tter tt erss in a p er particular arti ar t cu ti cula larr la text. tte eext xt. Rabbeinu xt xt.

Rabb Ra bbei einu inu nu Bachya, Bac ach achy hyya, a, one on nee of of the tth he greatest off th the ggr rea eate ate test st o st he ea eearly arl rlyy kabb kkabbalists, ka abbal bballis ists ts,, mentions me m ent ntio ons ns an an example eexxam a ple ple of pl o an an ELS ELS in his Bereishis, h hi is is co ccommentary omm mmen nta tary on on Be B reis re ishi is hiss, an hi and d ccomments comm co om mm men nts ts tthat hat its hat ha itts appearance a pe ap p ar aran ance cee is is tthe th he re result essu ultt of of intentional in nte tent ntio nt tio iona nall design. na desi de sign si g . gn

Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, one of the leading mystics of Tzfat, describes in the thirtieth “Gate” of his monumental work, Pardes Rimonim, the various ways in which the Torah encodes information. Amongst these, he mentions ELSs. In our century, Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl, famed for his heroic rescue activities during the Holocaust, discovered many amazing examples of ELSs in the Torah. In perhaps the most famous example, Rabbi Weissmandl found that beginning with the first tav in both Bereishis and Shemos, and counting at 50-letter intervals (50 being the number of the Gates of Wisdom), one finds the word Torah spelled out.

Perhaps even more amazingly, given that Rabbi Weissmandl was operating without benefit of a computer, it is known that he made a number of findings concerning Megillas Esther using skip distances of 12,111 letters, the exact number of letters in Megillas Esther. I was able to reconstruct one o f these using a computer.

If one starts with the first regular mem (as opposed to “final mem”) in Bereishis 4:14, where the name Esther (vocalized differently) appears for the only time in the Torah, and counts at intervals of 12,111 letters, one finds spelled out the phrase “Megillas Esther”.[1]

Prior to the Holocaust, Rabbi Weissmandl showed his findings to the gadol hador, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzensky of Vilna, w h o was very impressed b y them. Years later, the Steipler Gaon described Rabbi Weissmandl’s discoveries as stemming from ruach hakodesh (Divine inspiration).

Modern Research in the Codes: More than a decade ago, Professor Eliyahu Rips of the Department of Mathematics of Hebrew University became aware of some of Rabbi Weissmandl’s research.

Rabbi Weissmandl had shown patterns of ELSs that intuitively seemed far too strong to have been accidental.

The question that Professor Rips asked himself was: Using modern computers and employing a scientific methodology, can

my doctoral work in physics to do so. If anything were to come of this project, it would obviously be very time-consuming and distract me from my Torah studies.

I consulted with HaRav Shlomo Fisher, who encouraged me in the strongest terms to engage in this research. One of the questions I asked Rabbi Fisher at our first meeting on this subject was whether our text of the Torah is accurate. He told me that we could fully rely on our text.[2] Later, after we had achieved the first promising results, I spoke again with both Rabbi Fisher and Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, and both insisted that I continue with the research.

Over the years, I also consulted on several occasions (twice together with Rabbi Fisher) with HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, ztz”l, who gave me his blessing to disseminate our findings as widely as possible. We raised a number of issues with him in these meetings.

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman assured us that this would happen, but nevertheless told us to carry on.

“Don’t pay attention to scoffers and gentiles,” he said. the existence of codes in the Torah formed by ELSs be demonstrated?

After Professor Rips’ early research in the topic, he asked me to join him in this enterprise.

I hesitated. I was then learning Torah full time, and had given up

One of these was the potential for others to create counterfeit codes, lacking any scientific foundation that could be used for a variety of purposes, including by Christian missionaries.[3] Rabbi Shlomo Zalman assured us that this would happen, but nevertheless told us

[1]

It has also been found that the name of Haman’s ancestor, Amalek, is found as an ELS with a skip distance of 12,111 letters in Bereishis.

That ELS begins with the first ayin in the first mention of Amalek and ends with the koof in the second mention.

[2] A full treatment of this issue appears at our web site http://www.Torahcodes.co.il, including a discussion of the well-known statement of the Gemorah in Kiddushin (30a) that we are not experts in malei and chaser.

[3] Our concerns on this score have, unfortunately, been realized. Christians have indeed used “codes” in missionary activities. In my forthcoming book, I will demonstrate the various distortions in their use of “codes”, and how far they have departed from any scientific methodology.

11

to carry on. “Don’t pay attention to scoffers and gentiles,” he said.

Nine years ago, Professor Rips and I visited Rabbi Shlomo Zalman to discuss the criticisms of an Orthodox statistician from Australia, who was concerned about the use of the Torah Codes in kiruv work. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman’s response was the same: He smiled and told us not to worry.

Our initial research in Torah Codes produced some very exciting results. I discovered certain conditions under which conceptually related ELSs appear in close proximity to one another.[4] Professor Rips made an important contribution by developing a measure of the statistical significance of the proximities discovered, and Yoav Rosenberg developed the necessary computer software for running the experiments.

After several minor experiments in different subjects, we decided upon a large-scale experiment.

Professor Rips suggested the idea of testing the proximity between the names of famous rabbis, expressed as ELSs, and the dates of their birth and/or death as expressed expr ex pres esse sed d as EELS ELSs LSSs (the (the so-called soo ca calllllled ed “Famous “Fam “F amou am ouss Rabbis’ ou Rabb Ra bbis bb is’’ Experiment”). is Expe Ex peri pe rime ri ment me ntt ”)). n [4]

We created a list of famous rabbis comprised of all those whose biographies take up three columns or more in the Encyclopedia of the Great Men of Israel and for whom there were dates of birth and death. Having compiled our list, we realized that the names of these famous rabbis might be expressed by a number of different appellations.

We approached Professor Shlomo Zalman Havlin, professor of both Talmud and Informations Sciences at Bar Ilan University, and one of the world’s leading experts in Hebrew bibliography, and asked him to create a list of appellations for the list of famous rabbis. At the same time, we requested that Yaakov Auerbach, z”l, a linguist, provide a set of spelling rules to be followed.

Using the list created by Professor Havlin and Yaakov Auerbach’s rules, we ran our experiment and obtained statistical results that were highly significant. These results were then sent to Professor David Kazhdan at Harvard University, who in turn forwarded them to Professor Persi Diaconis, one of the world’s leading statisticians.

Professor Diaconis Prof Pr ofes of essso esso sorr Di Diac acon ac onis on is challenged cha hallllllen en nge ged d uss to experiment on to run run a new new ex expe peri pe rime ri ment me nt o nt na

To the surprise of Diaconis, the results of the second experiment were also highly significant. second list of rabbis. This time we chose those whose biographies take up between 1 1/2 and 3 columns in the aforementioned encyclopedia, and again asked Professor Havlin to prepare a list of appellations. That experiment, too, yielded highly significant results.[5] Defense of the Famous Rabbis’ Experiment: As the best-known verification of the Torah Codes, the “Famous Rabbis’ Experiment” has attracted the majority of fire from those who reject the existence of Torah Codes.

Those attacks have focused primarily on claims that the data was “cooked” in one way or another and the experiment was not a true a priori experiment following follllllow fo owin ow ingg fi in fixe fixed xed xe d ru rule rules less de dete determined term rmin ined ed in advance. aadv dvan dv ance an ce.. Essentially ce Esse Es sent ntia iallllyy the the claim clai cl aim m is

The The full fful ulll details deta de taililss off this tthi hiss discovery d sc di scov over ov erry are arre beyond beeyo yond nd the nd the h scope ssco cope co pe of pe of the th he present prres p res esen esen e t article, arti ar ticlle, ticl ti e, but but u are are r presented pre p rese re sent nted nt ed d in in full fulll in in my forthcoming forrth thco comi co ming mi ng book. boo b ook. oo k.

In In addition addi ad diti tion on to to the the two two experiments expe ex periime peri pe m nt nts published p bl pu b isshed heed as as “Equidistant “Eq Equi uidi ui diisttan dist antt Letter Lett Le tter tt er Sequences Seq eque uenc ue n ess in nc in the the Book Book of of Genesis” Gene Ge nesi ne sis” si s” by

by Doron Doro Do ron ro n Witztum, Witz Wi t tu tz tum, m, Eliyahu EEliliya yahu hu Rips, Rip R ips, s, and Yoav Yoav Rosenberg Ros R osen enbe beerg in in Statistical Stat St atis isti tica call Science ca Scie Sc ienc n e (Vol. nc (Vol (V ol.. 6, ol 6 No. No. 3), 3), a number num n umbe berr of other oth oth ther er experiments eexp xper xp erim imen ents ts have hav avee been been be en run run n verifying vver errif ifyi ying yi ng the the existence exi xist sten st e ce o en off Torah Tora To rah h and Code Co des. s. One One of of these thes th e e experiments es expe ex peri rime ment nts ts was was performed perf pe rfor rf orme med me d by H Har arol ar old ol d Ga ans n , fo form rmer rm errly erly l a ssen enio en iorr cr io cryp ypto yp tolo logi gic ma math them th emat em a iccia at ian n in n tthe he U U.S .S.. Department D pa De part rtme ment nt Codes.

Harold Gans, formerly senior cryptologic mathematician U.S. Def D efen ef ense en se,, sp se sspecializing ecia ec ialilizi zing ng in in code-breaking. code co de-b -bre reeak a in ing. g. He He has has shown show sh own n in “Coincidence ““Co Coin inci cide denc de ncce off Equidistant EEqu q id qu dis ista tant ta ntt Letter LLet ette et terr Sequence te SSeequ quen en ence ncee Pairs Pai Pai airs rs in rs in the the Book Book Bo ook ok of of Genesis” Gene Ge neesi sis” s” of Defense, (pre (p repr prin int) t),, a significant sign si gnif ific ican antt correlation corr co rrel elat attio i n between betw be twee tw een n ELSs ELSs of of the the appellations ap pp peelllat a io ons ns on on both both lists bo lis ists ts of of rabbis raabb bbis iss and and ELSs ELS ELS LSss of of the thee Jewish Jew ewissh communities co omm mmun unit itie it iess in which ie whi w hich ch (preprint), they w wer eree bo born rn o orr di died ed d. they were died.

Anot An o heer th ot thre r e ex re exam am mpl ples es are are p pre rese re sent se nted nt ed iin n “E Equ quid id disstant taantt LLetter ettte ter Se Sequ quen qu en nce cess in in tthe he B he ookk of Gen oo G enes en esis es is III: I: R elat el atio ions io nshi ns hip hi p to t tthe he TTex ext” ex t (preprint) t” ((pr prep pr e ri ep rint nt)) by nt Another three examples presented “Equidistant Sequences Book Genesis Relationship Text” Doro Do ron n Witztum, Witz Wi tztu tum, m, Eliyahu EEliliya y hu ya h Rips, Rip ps, and and d Yoav Yoa oav Rosenberg. oav R se Ro senb nber nb erg. er g. Four FFou o r additional ou a di ad d ti t on onal al examples exa xamp mple mp les produced le p od pr duced ucced ed by by the th he same same me authors aut utho hors were ho wer ere presented p esen pr esen es nte ted in n a guest gue uestt Doron leect c urre to o tthe h IIsrael he s aeel Na sr N ati tion ti onal al Academy Aca A cade ca demy de my of of the the Sciences th SSccie cieenc nces es and an nd d Humanities Hum uman anit an ittie iess on n Adar Adar Ad ar 28, 28 8,, 5 756, 75 6, aand 6, nd n d aare re d re escrib escr es crib cr bed d iin n “A “A Hidden Hiid Hid ddeen Code Cod dee in in the th he Book Book lecture National 5756, described Gen G enes en e iss: The es The Statistical Stat St atis at isti is tica caal Significance Sign Si g ifficcaan gn ncee of of the tth he Phenomena” Ph P hen nomen om mena” en na” (preprint). ((pr prreep p pri r nt). ntt). ). of Genesis: Eaach of of these th hes ese ten tteen experiments eexxpeeri rime ment nts involved iin nvo volv lvved d a list llis isst of pairs pai a rs of of conceptually co on nccep epttu ual ally ly related ly rrel eellated ated at d terms tter e mss compiled er com ompi pileed according aacccord co ord rding rdin in ng to to objective obj bjeeccti t vee and and a priori pri p rior ri orii criteria. or crit cr iter it eria er ia.. ia Each Of these th heese ese se experiments, exp peerrim imen e ts ts, ei eigh ghtt yi gh yiel ellde ded d results reesu ult ltss that th hat at were were eerre h hi igh igh ghlyy significant siggni niffiica cant ant nt statistically, sttaattiistticcaallllyy, one one was on was significant, wa s gnif si gniiffic gn fic ican an nt, t, and and one onee was was judged jud dge g d a failure. faililur fa ure. ur e.

Of eight yielded highly Ad A d ddi diiti d tion ion onal al examples examp xamp xa mple l s will le will be wi be described deesc d scri ribe ri bed be d in n detail deettaaiilil in in my my new new book. ne bo bo ook ok. ok k. One One of On of these theese se can can an be be found f un fo und in n the the last llas astt section as sect se ctio ct io on of this thi hiss article. arti ar ticl ti cle. cl e.

Additional [5]

12 1 2

that we first ran a multitude of experiments until we achieved statistically significant data, and only then

did we develop our rules for the

subjected to peer review by other experts in the field.

That point, however, has no relevance to the extraordinary scrutiny to which our paper was subjected. When our article was first submitted for

They prepared a list of appellations over many months, and went through a number of versions until they found one that worked - the exact opposite of an a priori experiment. experiment to comport with the data.

Professor Simon follows that approach.[6] He is too much the gentleman to say outright that we only reported on our successful results out of a multitude of failures. But that is his basic claim. Indeed, he repeatedly characterizes various aspects of the experiment as ad hoc, i.e., based on rules determined after the fact, rather than a priori.

Professor Simon begins his his critique crit cr itiq ique ue of of the the “Famous Fam amou ouss ou Rabbis’ Rabb Ra bbis is’’ Experiment” Expe Ex peri rime ment nt”” by charging cha harg rgin rg ingg in proponents prop pr opon op on nen e tss of of the t e Torah th Tora To rah ra h Codes Cod C odes od es with wiith grossly gro ross ssly ss ly overstating ovveerssta tati ting ti ng the the significance sign si gnif ific ican an nce of of the the fact fact that ttha hatt the ha the results resu re sult ltss of the the experiment eexp xper erim imen entt were en were published publ pu blis ishe hed d in a respected, rres esspe espe pect cted ct ed,, refereed ed refe re feereeed scientific scie sc ieent ntif iffic journal. jou urn naall. We We can can n readily rea eadi eadi dily lyy concede conc co nced edee his ed his general gene ge n ral ne raal point po oin nt that that a the the truth trut tr uth ut h of o the thee conclusions concl on ncl c us u io ons n of of an article aart rtticcle published pub ublilish liish shed ed d in in a scientific scie sc i nt ie ntif iffic journal jjo ou urrnaal are are not not established no esta es tabl blis lis ish ishe heeed d just jju ust st because beca be caaus use the use the article th arti ar arti ticl icl cle has haas been h been be e

publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), it had already undergone careful scrutiny by Professor Diaconis, as described above, and we had run a completely new experiment at his suggestion.

Contrary to what Professor Simon alleges, we neither “refined” nor changed our analysis in any way from the first experiment to the second. We ran the new experiment without any changes in the method of measurement. mea easu sure su reme re ment me ntt. TTh hiss is his is fully fullllyy fu This conf co nfir nf irme ir med me d by o ur ccorrespondence orre or resp re spon sp onde on denc de ncee nc confirmed our with wi th Professor Pro P rofe ro fess fe ssor ss or Diaconis. or Dia D iaco ia coni nis. s. (Even (Ev (Ev E en thee fi th fier erce er ceestt o ppon pp on nen ents ts of of the t e th fiercest opponents TTorah To rah ra h C od o des des, ess, psychologist psyc ps yccho holo l gi lo gist st Maya May ayaa Codes, Barr Hi Ba Hill llllel el and an nd d mathematicians mat athe hema he mati tiici cian anss Dr. an Dr. Hillel Dror Dr or B a -N ar -Nat attan n aand n Dr. nd Dr. r. Brendan B Bre rend nd dan Bar-Natan M Mc McKa cKa K y - he h reeaf afte terr “M te “McK cKay cK ayy eett al aal.” . .”

McKay hereafter “McKay aad dmi m t this.) this th is..))[7]7] TTo is o the th he surprise s rp su r ri r se of of admit Diaconis, D Di aaccon onis onis is, s, the th he results rreeesu ssu ult ltss of the thee second sec e ond on nd expe ex experiment p rriime pe m ntt w were eerre al aalso lso so h so highly igh ig hlly ssignificant. si gnif gn iffic ican nt.

At PNAS stage, A the the he P NAS sst NA NAS tagge,, o our ur aarticle r icl rt iccle le

was referred for peer review to six famous statisticians, including Professor Diaconis, each of them a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Because of the amazing claim made by our research, they checked the results very carefully.

After receiving the second preprint, Professor Diaconis had a further request of us. He asked us to employ a new statistical test devised by him on the second list of rabbis to assess the likelihood of our findings appearing at random.

He and the other referees were so confident that the new test would completely destroy our results that they required us to sign an agreement that even if the new experiment resulted in failure we would publish the results from the new experiment along with our previous results.

Professor Diaconis and his colleagues were shocked when, employing his measures of statistical significance, we once again obtained highly significant results for the list.

Despite having passed all hurdles set up by Professor Diaconis and the other peer reviewers, they ultimately reco re comm co mmen mm ende en ded d ag agai ains nstt publication publ pu blic icat atio ion n recommended against off the the results rres esul ults ts of of our our experiment expe ex peri rime ment nt in in PN NA ASS o n th thee gr grou ound ndss that that there tthe here re PNAS on grounds wass a “lack wa “llac “lac ackk of public pub p ublililicc interest” ub inte in tere te rest re st”” st in the the phenomena phe p heno nome mena na described. des d escr crib ibed ed..

Stra St rang ra ngel ng ely, el y tthe y, heyy on only ly ccam amee to tthi hiss Strangely, they came this cconclusion co nclu nc lusi lusi s on after aaft fter er having hav h avin ingg made made rrepeated re epe peat pe ated at ated d d dem em man ands d u ds upo pon n us for for demands upon yye earrs.. The TTheir heir he irr ccon oncl on ncl clusi ussio ion off a lack ion lack ack of ac o years. conclusion pu p ubllic interest ubl intterres estt is even eve ven nmo n mo m oree curious cur u io ious us public more w wh e one en one considers con onsi side si ders de rs that tha tha hatt Michael M ch Mi chae a l when D Dr ros osni sn niin’ in’ n s pseudo-scientific pseeu ps udo udo do-s -sci -s cien ci enti en tifi ti ficc and a d an Drosnin’s sse ens nsat ationa iona io nalililistt book bo oo ok on n “Bible ““Bi Bibl Bi be sensationalist

[6] 6]]

Allllll references A ref e er eren eren ence c s to Pro ce P Professor ro rofe ofe f ss so orr SSimon’s im mon on’ss aarticle on’s rtic rt ticcle le are aree tto o th the he vve version eers rsio rs ion published pu p ubl blis issheed on on internet int n er e ne nett in n early ear arly lyy November, Nov Nov ovem embe b r, r, 1 1997.

997.

99 7.

SSee eee ttheir heir he ir aarticle rtic rt rtic icle cle le iin n the the Israeli th Issra rael ael eli magazine maggaazi ma zine ne Galileo Gaallilleeo o (Tishrei (Ti (Ti Tish shre r i 5758).

575 758) 58) 8). My rresponse esspo pons nsee appears a pe ap p ar ars in in the th hee Kislev Kis Kis isleev iissue ssue of ss of the the same th same sa mee magazine. mag agazin azine. az in ne. [[8] 8] 8] TThe hee correspondence co orrreesp spon onde nde denc nce ce with wiitth w h Professor Prro ofe fessssor fess or Diaconis Diaco iaaco coni nis will nis willl be wi be published pu p publ ubl blis ishe hed in hed in my my forthcoming f rthc fo rtthc hcom omin ing ng book. b ok bo ok. I have haave confirmed con onfi firm fi rm med e that tha tha hatt Professor Proffesso Pr eesssor so or Simon S mo Si on was wass wa [[7] [7 7 7]]

13

Far from disproving the existence of the Torah Codes, however, the results of the War and Peace experiment ironically provide strong evidence of the rigidity of our experimental rules.

Codes” was an international publishing phenomenon this past year.

After the rejection by PNAS, we submitted our article, with the results of the Diaconis experiment, for publication in Statistical Science, where it was subjected to further peer review.

Only after nearly eight years from the time the paper was first sent to Professor Diaconis, during which time none of the eminent reviewers were able to find any error in the methodology or conclusions, was the article finally published. In his introduction to our article, Professor Kass, then editor of Statistical Science, wrote: When the authors used a randomization process to see how rarely the

patterns they found might arise by chance alone, they obtained a very highly significant result, with p=0.000016 [a probability of 1/62,500]. Our referees were baffled: their prior beliefs made them think the Book of Genesis could not possibly contain meaningful references to modern-day individuals, yet

when the authors carried out additional analyses and checks, the effect persisted. The paper is thus offered to Statistical Science readers as a challenging puzzle.

What I have described is hardly the normal process of peer review described by Professor Simon.[8] In his concluding section, Professor Simon spells out his “strongest reason” for skepticism concerning the Torah Codes: the sensitivity of the experimental results in the “Famous Rabbis’ Experiment” to the specific appellations chosen for rabbinic figures whose dates of death and birth are being searched. Here he relies entirely on what he terms the “d e va sta t i n g analysis” of Drs. Dror Bar-Natan and Brendan McKay. In an article posted on the internet in late Elul entitled “Equidistant Letter Sequences in Tolstoy’s War and Peace”, McKay et al. claim to have reproduced the same phenomenon described in our original paper in a Hebrew translation of War and Peace.

Now, obviously, they do not think that War and Peace is encoded.

made fully aware of this correspondence prior to publication of his article.

[9] They were firmly in place before the first experiment as well.

14

Their point is rather that our results do not show an intentional code in Bereishis either.

Far from disproving the existence of the Torah Codes, however, the results of the War and Peace experiment ironically provide strong evidence of the rigidity of our experimental rules. Two points deserve to be highlighted about the McKay’s results: (1) The alleged “success” in War and Peace was produced entirely by breaking the rules.

Thus the results are completely lacking in significance; and (2) McKay and company did not demonstrate a single instance in which we deviated from our rules in carrying out the original research.

It is agreed by both proponents and opponents of the Torah Codes that without pre-established rules, it is possible to create the appearance of “success” in any text. That is why the “success” of McKay et al., which was achieved solely by breaking our rules, is without significance.

McKay and Bar-Natan admittedly manipulated the appellations used for the rabbis on the list. They prepared a list of appellations over many months, and went through a number of versions until they found one that worked - the exact opposite of an

a priori experiment.

In defense of this procedure, however, they claim that they granted themselves no more leeway than we had in our choice of appellations, or alternatively, that they broke our rules no more frequently than we did. That claim is without foundation.

Though McKay and Bar-Natan admit that before our experiment was run on the second list of rabbis all the experimental rules were firmly in place,[9] they insist, however, that the rules governing Professor Havlin’s choice of the rabbis’ appellations were sufficiently flexible to explain our striking results. On that basis, they proceeded to erase many appellations from our list and to add many others.

They have demonstrated no justifications for doing so. With respect to the names erased from the list, they have not shown a single instance in which Professor Havlin departed from his rules for compiling the lists of appellations.

Of their additions, no more than five can arguably be said to be justified by Professor Havlin’s rules. Two of these five do not appear as ELSs in Bereishis, and the inclusion of the other two would have improved our results by a factor of 1.5.

Each of their other additions and remember it is these additions

which account for the “success” in War and Peace - border on the absurd; eight are complete fabrications,[10] another eight are not pronounced (e.g., Bi is not an appellation for the Bais Yosef), and three violate the spelling rules, etc. These deviations from our research protocols were neither slight, nor legitimate, nor within the rules established by Professor Havlin.[11] The reader will no doubt wonder how McKay et al. could have relied on a list of appellations so laughable to anyone with even a passing knowledge of gedolei yisrael and Hebrew. The answer is that their list was not prepared by anyone with bibliographic expertise.[12] Since the only flexibility by which McKay and Bar-Natan justify their many erasures and additions was in the choice of

In war, it is common for one side to attempt to undermine confidence in the other side’s currency by circulating counterfeit currency.

appellations, their claim boils down to the charge that there is something “fishy” about Professor Havlin’s choice of appellations.

(Let’s make no bones about it; they accuse Professor Havlin of having conspired with us to compose a list of appellations that would achieve successful results.) I have suggested, through an intermediary, to the leading opponents of the Torah Codes that instead of engaging in the parody of producing blatantly counterfeit new “codes”, that we should instead agree upon a mutually chosen bibliographic expert, provide him with Professor Havlin’s rules of choice and have him independently prepare a new list of appellations for the second list of rabbis on the basis of Professor Havlin’s rules. They have not picked up the gauntlet.

They prefer instead to employ tactics more appropriate to warfare than scientific inquiry.

In war, it is common for one side to attempt to undermine confidence in the other side’s currency by circulating counterfeit currency. The ease with which the counterfeit code of McKay et al. is discerned, however, only serves to differentiate it from the Torah Codes and to buttress the veracity of the latter.

McKay et al. also charge us with having made biased decisions in

[10]

E.g. Yitzchak Levi, harav”d sheini.

These deviations are more fully discussed in my article “A Refutation Refuted” in Galileo (Kislev 5758) and in great detail at our web site.

[12] McKay et al. credit Professor Menachem Cohen of Bar Ilan University with helping them prepare their list. Professor Cohen’s area of expertise is not in bibliography; his field is Tanach. More importantly, Professor Cohen did not actually compile the list of appellations.

That task was left to Aryeh Levitan who has no expert knowledge of gedolei Yisrael and who, as a nonnative Hebrew speaker, is prone to basic Hebrew errors.

[13] Professor Simon’s criticisms of my other Code experiments carry no more weight than those concerning the “Famous Rabbis’ [11]

15

formulating the research protocol.

But they have shown almost no such choices not dictated by the nature of the experiment.

(The decision to use the correct dates of birth and death for the rabbis on the list is, for instance, obviously dictated by the nature of the inquiry.)

At an academic conference last winter, Professor Maya Bar Hillel presented a list of 13 research decisions she claimed were biased in our favor. In a written response, Professor Robert Aumann, winner of the Israel Prize in mathematics and one of the world’s leading mathematicians, stated that he found only one research choice that could be said to be “favorable” that was not clearly dictated by the nature of the research. On the other hand, he found several which had a negative impact on the results.

Many of the “biased” decisions with which McKay et al. charge us, in fact, had the effect of reducing the statistical impact of our findings. For instance, they claim that we miscounted text lines in compiling our lists of rabbis from the Encyclopedia of the Great Men of Israel. But making the exclusions and inclusions in the list that they say should have been made, would have resulted in improving our best result for the second list from a random probability of four in a million to one in five million.

Elsewhere McKay and his colleagues ask why we did not

place the preposition “u” before both the day of the month and the month in our expression of the date of birth and death. Yet doing so would have only increased the statistical significance of the results for both the first

Many of the “biased” decisions with which McKay et al. charge us, in fact, had the effect of reducing the statistical impact of our findings. and second list of rabbis. McKay cites 20 separate decisions in our method of measuring the proximity of ELSs to one another.

Yet 11 out of those 20 decisions had a negative impact on our data, and had we changed just one of them we would have improved our results a thousand fold.

Clearly, if we had prepared our research protocol after the fact, as McKay et al. charge, we did a very poor job of it.[13] The Seal of HaKadosh Baruch Hu: Professor Simon states that he was guided throughout his inquiry by the statement of Chazal: “The seal of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is truth - Chosmo shel

HaKadosh Baruch Hu Emes.” (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:9) I decided to see whether the concept of Elokim Emes is encoded in ELSs in Bereishis. To do so, I checked whether the expression Elokim Emes appears as an ELSs in proximity to the word “seal” as it appears in Bereishis.

The first step was to list all the ways in which “seal” might be expressed: 1: Ches Tav Mem - ‫ חתם‬- seal.

2: Ches Vav Tav Mem - ‫ חותם‬- seal.

3: Hay Ches Tav Mem - ‫ החתם‬- the seal.

4: Hay Ches Vav Tav Mem - ‫החותם‬ - the seal.

5: Ches Tav Mem Vav - ‫ חתמו‬- His seal.

6: Ches Vav Tav Mem Vav - ‫חותמו‬ - His seal.

7: Ches Tav Mem Yud - ‫ חתמי‬- My seal (i.e., God writing about His seal) 8: Ches Vav Tav Mem Yud - ‫חותמי‬ - My seal.

Of these possibilities, only 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 appear as consecutive letters in Bereishis. Each of these words appears in exceptionally close proximity to an ELS of Elokim Emes. Calculating the probability of an ELS of Elokim Emes, in such close proximity to 2, 3, 5, and 7 (1 was omitted because its success was included in 3, 5, and 7), I arrived at an overall probability of less than 1 in 2,500,000.

Indeed, the seal of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is truth.

Experiment”. For instance, in discussing the “Chanukah Codes”, he notes that there are three or four different ways in which Chanukah could have been spelled. True enough. But as a professional mathematician, Dr. Simon surely realizes that fact does not render it impossible to discuss the statistical significance of the result; it merely alters the result by a factor of 3 or 4. My results were highly significant, and remain so even after this adjustment. See “Did They Really Find Chanukah Codes in War and Peace?” at our web site.

Dr. Simon makes essentially the same mistake in discussing the Seventy Nations example. He quotes Professor Rips as telling him that if we had used the term lashon instead of safat for “language”, the statistical effect would have disappeared. But Professor Rips told him exactly the opposite: The statistical result remains very highly significant.

16 6

Torah Codes and Kiruv Rechokim

by Rabbi Daniel Mechanic

Dr. Barry Simon has chosen to publically attack both the scientific Codes research and the integrity of Aish HaTorah’s presentation of Codes in their ongoing Kiruv Rechokim efforts. Although the answers to his questions and concerns can be found in Mr. Witztum’s accompanying article and at the Torah Codes website, there is still a need to clarify a number of other important issues.

Authoritative Sources for Codes: It is important to emphasize at the outset that neither Doron Witztum nor Dr. Eliyahu Rips discovered the fact that G-d deliberately inserted ELS Codes (Equidistant Letter Sequences) in the Torah. That information is hidden in various ways within the words and letters of the Torah is a well-known and established part of our Mesorah.

The Rokeach (Hakdamah Al HaTorah) and the Ramak (Pardes Rimonim, Shaar Lamed) mention the phenomenon here under discussion, of G-d encoding hidden information through the “skipping of letters”. Furthermore, Rabbeinu Bachya in Bereishis (chapter 1, verse 2), Rav Avraham Abulafia in his sefer Imrei Shefer (Aseres Hadibros), and the Ramak all asserted not just the simple fact that deliberately placed ELS Codes exist, but provided explicit examples of them. It is clear from

their specific comments, as well as the general context of their discussion, that their assertions were not merely poetic metaphors, but reflective of an authoritative and legitimate methodology.

In more recent times, the students of the famous Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandl Zt’l, published a book called Toras Chemed that contains many compelling examples of ELS Codes found by their teacher.

The fact that G-d placed Codes in the Torah is therefore not something new. What is new is Doron Witztum’s and Dr. Eliyahu Rips’ carefully-developed procedures for assessing the phenomenon scientifically, taking advantage of high-speed computers and modern statistical methods.

Rabbinical Support for the use of Codes: A number of contemporary Gedolim and Torah sages have repeatedly given their strong support for the use of Codes as a Kiruv Rechokim tool. Included in this prominent group is the renowned Jerusalem Posek and Rov, Rav Shlomo Fisher. In addition to his own 1989 Psak Din stating that “it is a Mitzvah to teach Codes”, Rabbi Fisher recently issued a public letter wherein he states that he met with

Doron Witztum and Dr. Rips on several occasions, together with Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Zt’l. He testifies that Harav Auerbach not only gave his unequivocal approval of the Codes research but also strongly encouraged the use of this material in Kiruv Rechokim efforts.

Numerous prominent Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbonim have personally sat through Codes presentations at our Discovery seminars. Among those who have attended - and gone on record as supporting the use of Codes for Kiruv Rechokim are Rav Yaakov Weinberg, Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky, Rav Moshe Heinemann, and Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan. In fact, Mr. Harold Gans, a former senior cryptologic mathematician with the United States’ National Security Agency for twenty-eight years, has had a number of long discussions about the Codes with Rav Moshe Heinemann. Despite the recent controversy surrounding the topic, Rav Heinemann remains emphatic in characterizing the Codes as “absolutely part of our Mesorah, and a Kiddush Hashem to teach.”

In addition to consulting with Poskim, we have been scrupulous, of course, in obtaining confirmation of the ongoing research by independent scientific experts.

The presentation of this material to the public has been handled with a high level of integrity, objectivity and professionalism.

In light of these facts, we continue to receive approval for the teaching of Codes from universally recognized Gedolim and Torah authorities who are themselves intimately involved in all aspects of Kiruv.

17

The Effect of Codes in Kiruv

Dr. Simon asserts that “Torah Judaism has so much richness to offer” to the potential Baal Teshuvah besides the Codes which are “peripheral to Jewish values and practice”. Dr. Simon’s unfortunate choice of words contributes to the perpetuation of the myth that Aish HaTorah convinces secular Jews to become frum because of the Codes.

Let us therefore again set the record straight concerning the purpose and goal of Discovery in general, and Codes in particular.

Codes are one class out of a one day or weekend-long Discovery seminar that explores the many rational bases for belief in a G-dgiven Torah. As such, the Codes are presented in the context of a whole system of classes that examine various aspects of that claim - historical, philosophical, psychological, scientific etc. If someone finds the evidence for the Torah’s veracity compelling, they will then want to examine its content in depth. Discovery - and Codes - have been overwhelmingly successful in breaking through the enormous barriers that prevent secular Jews from seeing the richness and depth of Torah. It has served as a potent catalyst for secular Jews to open their eyes and take the reality of Torah seriously. The Torah is a mansion; the Codes 18 18

are but one of many doorways.

Discovery - like 99.9% of its participants - has never made the

Discovery - and Codes - has been overwhelmingly successful in breaking through the enormous barriers that prevent secular Jews from seeing the richness and depth of Torah.

mistake of confusing an entrance for the home itself.

One of Dr. Simon’s justifications for publicly attacking Aish HaTorah’s use of Codes is that he claims to have received reports that there are some people who were turned off to Judaism because of the Codes presentation. We have on file over 40,000 detailed seminar evaluations from our participants. These evaluations clearly show that Discovery

has a positive transformational effect on the vast majority of its participants. Of course there are a few Discovery participants who were not impressed by the Codes.

But after carefully reading these 40,000 evaluations - specifically for the purpose of responsibly determining what is and what is not effective and well-received - we found only an extremely small number of attendees who were not strongly impacted by the Codes. Letters, personal anecdotes and reports from all the major Kiruv organizations in North America are received daily at the Discovery office describing secularized Jews’ journeys back to Torah that began with a Discovery Seminar.

To evaluate the legitimacy and effectiveness of Codes as a Kiruv tool off-handedly and at a distance, is unwise and counterproductive. Dr. Simon surely realizes that opinions about such sensitive issues should not be based upon anecdotal evidence or second hand reports. We would have expected someone who has chosen to air his criticism publicly about, amongst other things, the rigor of the Codes researcher’s methodologies, to have chosen a far more rigorous methodology himself before publicizing his attack. We invite anyone who is truly serious and responsible about determining what Kiruv tools are effective to carefully examine carefully the seminar evaluations and the hard data which is, in fact, available. Without such a careful examination, skewed conclusions are bound to be reached.

Another point Dr. Simon makes

Furthermore, Jews for Judaism, the largest counter - missionary organization in North America, reports that they are unaware of a single Jew who became a believer in J.C because of the Christian’s misuse of the legitimate Codes research. in his attack is his concern over the potential misuse of Codes

by Christian missionary groups in their proselytizing of Jews. If we were to follow Dr. Simon’s reasoning to its logical conclusion, it would lead all of us immediately to ban the Tanach from our homes and schools since for nearly 2,000 years missionaries have misused it as their single greatest proselytizing tool far more successful than the Codes could ever be.

Nevertheless, this concern was brought before the proper authorities. The Posek Hador, R’ Shlomo Zalmen Auerbach Zt’l, explicitly said to continue the Codes research and teaching, and not to worry “Lo Lelaitzim Velo Lanotzrim” - “Pay attention to neither scoffers nor Christians.”

Furthermore, Jews for Judaism, the largest counter missionary organization in North America, reports that they are unaware of a single Jew who became a believer in J.C because of the Christian’s misuse of the legitimate Codes research. In fact, Jews for Judaism reports that subsequent to reading the two articles I authored demonstrating the Christian’s fraudulent tactics and claims regarding the Codes, several Jews for J. returned to Torah and Mitzvos.

Misinterpreted Quotations: Dr. Simon asserts that we are overselling our claims concerning the Codes on the Discovery website (www.discoveryseminar. org). In fact, as will be demonstrated, it is Dr. Simon who has oversold his interpretation of what was written and, by doing so, created exaggerations that he can then refute.

For example, in an attempt to diminish the rigor of the scientific research, Dr. Simon refers to a letter reviewing Mr. Witztum and Dr. Rips’ work signed by four world-renowned mathematicians whom Dr. Simon attests to as having impeccable scientific credentials. But Dr. Simon refrains from quoting the letter for the readers, choosing instead to interpret it for them. He insists that the writers meant “nothing more than that” they find the Famous Rabbis’ experiment interesting and worthy of further study.” Dr. Simon is misleading the readers because, as he is well aware, the actual statement strongly affirms the rigor and integrity of both the scientific research and the researchers.

Their own words are as follows: “...[The] author [Doron Witztum] and his collaborators make a rather convincing case for the predominance of equal - spaced occurrences of

‘meaningful’ word pairs.....

The present work represents serious research carried out by serious i n v e s t i g a t o r s .”

(Emphasis added.)

Furthermore, in the context of how he claims we present the general scientific community’s opinion of the Codes, Dr. Simon references the following quote from our website: “The Codes phenomenon is real.” (Dr. David Kazhdan of Harvard University.)

Dr. Simon publicly attacks our integrity by accusing us of both misquoting and of misusing Dr. Kazhdan’s statement. The reality is that this statement is a word for word quote of Dr. Kazhdan taken from the Modesto Bee newspaper of November 4, 1995. Furthermore, we heard indirectly 10 months ago that Dr. Kazhdan was unhappy about this specific quote being mentioned on our website. We immediately removed it, leaving it only in an article I wrote refuting the claims of Christian Missionaries.

It is mentioned there ONLY to demonstrate how the Christians manipulated the statement of Dr. Kazhdan about the legitimate research and deceptively applied it to their nonsense. In other words, this quote was not used as support for the legitimate research, as Dr. Simon insinuates, 19 19

but rather as a demonstration of Christians’ fraudulent tactics.

It is unfortunate that in defense of truth Dr. Simon has allowed himself so much latitude with it. (The reader should be aware that Dr. Kazhdan is one of the four world-class mathematicians who signed the above-mentioned letter confirming the seriousness and rigor of the Codes research.)

Finally, Dr. Simon references another quote from the same article. “Since its publication over two and a half years ago, world-class statisticians and Bible scholars have reproduced and verified these results.” Dr. Simon insists that with this statement we are claiming that “the scientific community generally supports the notion that Witztum et al. have proven that the codes phenomenon is real.”

The reality is that that is not at all what was meant with that statement, nor ever claimed by us. This statement means exactly what it says: that other independent academics and scientists have reproduced the results of the Famous Rabbis’

experiment. Some of those that have replicated the research of Witztum and Rips are Dr. Brendan Mckay, a probabilist at Australia National University and a major critic of the Codes, and Dr. Alexander Pruss, a mathematician and probabilist at the University of Pittsburgh.[1] Dr. Robert Haralick, Boeing Professor

The Torah is a mansion; the Codes are but one of many doorways. Discovery - like 99.9% of its participants - has never made the mistake of confusing an entrance for the home itself.

of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington,[2] and Harold Gans, a former senior cryptologic mathematician for the United States’ National Security Agency,[3] have likewise replicated the original results and extended it further as discussed below.[4, 5] Among those who have gone on record attesting to the seriousness and quality of the research, besides the four worldclass mathematicians mentioned before, are: the renowned Israeli mathematician Dr. Robert Auman, [6] Dr. Andrew Goldfinger, a senior physicist at Johns Hopkins University and a senior member of the Space Computer and Technology Group and Dr. Daniel Michaelson, a mathematician at the Weitzmann Institute. Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, previously adjunct faculty at Yale University and a former William James Lecturer at Harvard,[7] has written a book called “Cracking the Bible Code”[8] that substantiates the seriousness and value of the research (and explains many of the misunderstandings that have recently arisen).

[1]

Neither Dr. Mckay nor Dr. Pruss subscribes to the methodology or conclusions of Mr. Witztum and Dr. Rips.

Dr. Haralick has published over 400 scientific papers. He is the developer of the Unix image processing system and is a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition.

[3] The National Security Agency employs more mathematicians than any other institution in the world. It devotes its resources almost exclusively to the making and breaking of codes.

[4] Cryptologic mathematics is without question the domain of expertise most pertinent to assessing the Codes, and Mr. Gans is the recipient of the United States Department of Defense’s second highest honor, the Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He received this honor for having led a team of mathematical cryptologists in cracking a problem that had been considered all but unsolvable. Almost all of his 180 published papers - as well as the work for which he received the above-mentioned award - remain classified by the government.

[2]

Gans and Haralick are two of the world’s experts in the application of statistics to decoding and pattern recognition.

Dr. Auman is one of the world’s experts in game theory, and a member of both the Israeli and U.S. National Academy of Science.

[5] [6]

[7]

Dr. Satinover holds degrees from M.I.T., Harvard, and the University of Texas. Currently, he is studying physics at Yale University.

This book should not be confused with The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin. Unfortunately, Mr. Drosnin’s book is a gross misrepresentation of the legitimate scientific research, and has caused a great deal of confusion as to the validity and proper use of the Codes phenomenon.

Almost all of the examples in Drosnin’s book were not generated using any legitimate scientific methodology and bear, at best, only superficial resemblance to the research of Mr. Witztum and Dr. Rips. Furthermore, Mr. Drosnin irresponsibly uses his so-called “codes” to attempt to predict future events, a premise rejected outright by all the serious codes researchers.

[8]

20

Slanderous Attacks by the Critics

Dr. Simon states that someone who is a “frum mathematician at Harvard and a Rav” wrote an article against Codes. Curiously, Dr. Simon omitted crucial parts of this story. He deliberately chose not to tell the readers that this mathematician wrote an article for the American Mathematical Society (A.M.S.) explicitly accusing Doron Witztum and Dr. Rips of knowingly perpetrating a “hoax” and a fraud. His assault was nothing less than deliberate character assassination, in public, of two frum ehrlicher Jews whose personal and professional integrity are well known. This professor provided no evidence whatsoever for his charges, and then went on to “shame” - his word - the same four world-class mathematicians that Dr. Simon praises so highly in his article, for having dared to go on record as supporting the quality and value of the Codes research. The just-then incoming editor of A.M.S. was so disturbed by this professor’s attack that he sent a personal letter of apology to Dr. Rips prior to its publication (which he was unable to prevent).

He stated how this professor’s attack “is an embarrassment to him (the professor) and to the American Mathematical Society.”

Dr. Simon recognized that this professor’s public labeling of Witztum and Rips as hoaxers and frauds was appalling and

His assault was nothing less than deliberate character assassination, in public, of two frum ehrlicher Jews whose personal and professional integrity are well known. strongly condemned it himself in a letter he sent to the American Mathematical Society.

Furthermore, on September 14, 1997, in a letter widely distributed on the Internet, Dr. Simon described himself as “aghast” at this professor’s personal attack on the researchers.

Why now, in this forum, in an attempt to sway a frum, but mathematically unsophisticated readership, he would cite this same “frum Mathematician and Rav” at all, let alone without providing the above background, is inexcusable.

Whatever mathematical credentials

possessed by this professor, he has completely discredited himself as a dispassionate critic, so blatant is his personal distaste for the Codes - and for anyone who dares treat the subject with objectivity. In selectively referencing this person in his own attack, Dr. Simon comes close to discrediting himself as well.

False Accusations of Data Manipulation In his article, Dr. Simon cites the foremost “codes busters”, Drs. Dror Bar-Natan and Brendan Mckay. He chose not to mention their colleague and anti-codes coauthor, Dr. Maya Bar-Hillel. It is extremely significant to note the mindset of this “foremost codes critic”. Dr. Bar-Hillel commenced her recent anti-codes presentation to academics and scientists at the Hebrew University with the following remarks: “Regardless of the evidence, the Codes phenomenon obviously cannot be valid because that would mean that G-d wrote the Torah.”

The readers need to recognize that the major codes critics attempt to explain away the successful results of the Codes experiments in the following manner: the data was

preselected a n d deliberately manipulated by the researchers in order to generate the extremely significant 21

results that were obtained.

In other words, after years of attempted refutation, the critics’ arguments all boil down to the following scenario: Mr. Witztum, Dr. Rips, Professor Havelin[9] and others, are all frauds and belong to a fantastic conspiracy to perpetrate a hoax on the unsuspecting public. This scenario is exactly what the major critics are attempting to demonstrate through their fraudulent War and Peace “codes”.[10] However, anyone with an adequate understanding of how the Famous Rabbis’ experiment was conducted - aware therefore of the many constraints deliberately placed upon the selection of data - would realize that it was impossible for any data manipulation to have occurred.

In his article and at the Torah Codes website, Mr. Witztum has dealt with this false accusation and described several ways to demonstrate the validity and integrity of the data selection.

Another one is as follows: Suppose we took exactly the same list of Rabbis’ appellations (alternative names like “Chafetz Chaim” for R’ Yisroel Meir Kagan) as in our “manipulated” Famous Rabbis’ experiment, and paired them not with dates, but with [9]

some entirely different piece of information. For example, what if in place of the Rabbis’ dates of birth and death, we substituted the cities of their birth and death?

If the experiment is repeated using exactly the same mathematical methods as in the original Rabbis’ experiment, there is no reason to expect the new list of cities to now show the same kind of closeness to the Rabbis’ names as did the dates of birth and death since, the critics claim, the list of Rabbis’ names was “manipulated” specifically to work with the dates. This is even more forcefully evident given that the idea of using cities was suggested by Harold Gans, at the time a wholly

very significant results.[11] In a conversation Dr. Simon had with Harold Gans on June 24, 1997, Mr. Gans told Dr. Simon that he had successfully completed the experiment described above, and that the results were indeed highly significant. In a written correspondence immediately after their conversation, Mr. Gans reported that Dr. Simon understood the importance of this experiment, and understood that were it indeed found to be without flaw, it would unequivocally confirm that there could not have been any data manipulation in the Famous Rabbis’ experiment.[12] Dr. Simon’s public attack on this successful Kiruv tool is based precisely on the presumption

Dr. Simon’s public attack on this successful Kiruv tool is based precisely on the presumption that data manipulation must have occurred. independent outside researcher (and at first a critic), years after the Great Rabbis’ experiment was completed and the list of appellations was made public. In fact, Mr. Harold Gans has already performed just this experiment using the cities, and has obtained

that data manipulation must have occurred. But in light of his realization that Mr. Gans’ experiment promises to provide confirmation that any type of data manipulation was not possible, Dr. Simon’s attack is premature and deeply troubling, at best.

Professor Shlomo Zalmen Havelin, of the department of bibliography and librarianship at Bar Ilan University, is a widely known and respected Talmid Chochom. He provided the lists of Rabbis’ appellations used in the Famous Rabbis’ experiment. His recently published Sefer was reviewed in the last edition of Jewish Action.

[10] The issue of the so-called War and Peace “codes” is effectively refuted in Mr. Witztum’s accompanying article and at the Torah Codes website.

[11] Another potential confirmation comes from another independent researcher: Dr. Robert Haralick. He repeated the Great Rabbis’ experiment using a totally different methodology. He, too, obtained very significant results. This is clearly something that Witztum and Rips could have no influence over since Dr. Haralick’s technique was yet to be invented when they performed their original experiment.

The results of this experiment are currently undergoing a rigorous evaluation.

[12] Because of the extraordinary implications of Mr. Gans’ successful cities experiment, Mr. Gans, as well as additional independent experts, are scrutinizing the data and findings rigorously. If the successful results of this experiment survive this rigorous second-level review, then it should silence all claims that the data was fraudulently manipulated or biased to create successful results. The results of that scrutiny will be released shortly.

22

Conclusions

In our opinion, Dr. Simon’s attack was profoundly wrong and irresponsible for the following reasons: First, the essence of this debate is highly technical and requires a serious background in statistics and scientific methodology to begin to truly understand. Dr. Simon’s article does not belong in a popular Jewish magazine such as Jewish Action. Doron Witztum and Dr. Rips’ paper was published after proper peer review by professionals with the proper background in science and statistics. It is disturbing that Dr. Simon chose to bypass scientific protocol and present his arguments to a public that cannot be expected to provide its own critical assessment of the extremely complex scientific issues.

Second, the article is needlessly and unjustifiably damaging to Kiruv Rechokim (outreach).

Anyone who sincerely holds the

entire Kiruv Rechokim effort in high esteem, as Dr. Simon claims he does in his article, would have worked with us - not against us.

The Jewish People are currently experiencing a spiritual Holocaust.

That is why Aish HaTorah stands at the front of the battle against rampant assimilation and intermarriage. We would have hoped that before anyone decided to publically air grievances with such an organization, potentially casting doubt upon the integrity of all their efforts, at least to have discussed their concerns with us privately. We are convinced that all these concerns could have been addressed fully without causing unnecessary damage.

Sadly, Dr. Simon never even made the attempt. Although he mentions meeting with Dr. Rips to discuss his questions, Dr. Rips characterized their meeting as extremely superficial.

He was shocked to read Dr.

Simon’s later intimation that a thorough discussion of the issues had taken place between them.

Dr. Rips later wrote me a letter describing his open-handed offer to Dr. Simon, with whom he proposed “to establish a dialog, and to discuss all questions that he may have in a thorough way, issue by issue, without hurry”. But, unfortunately, “Dr. Simon declined my offer”.

Dr. Simon can now be faithful to the Gemorah he quotes regarding seeking the “Truth”. He knows the appropriate address for his questions and concerns.

If Dr. Simon were to engage his considerable gifts in a serious and responsible investigation of the research, Mr. Witztum and Dr. Rips would then welcome and accept his contribution including the potential discovery of a previously invisible flaw, however painful that may be. But readers should understand that, at present, Dr. Simon is shooting from the hip.

23 2 3

Anger AND WRATH When something happens to us, we know that with respect to each of us individually, and with respect to each of us collectively, there is no other power in the world other than the power of G-d. To think otherwise would be dualistic.

Thus even though we acknowledge that each person has free will, we understand that what happens to us is in essence coming from G-d through the instrument of another person, group, or country, each of which, with respect to us, is serving as a Divine emissary.

Sometimes bad things happen to us. The Torah’s language for a bad thing is evil. Evil, in this sense of the word, is something that we regard as bad for us. If we had to attribute an emotion to a man who acts in a way that intentionally pushes us away and rejects us, abruptly causing troubles and evils to befall us, we would describe the person as being angry and furious.

When we push ourselves away from G-d, when we separate ourselves from G-d, even when we do this without realizing that this is in fact what we are 24

doing, then we might perceive our resulting situation as G-d pushing us away. For when G-d acts in a way consistent with our separating ourselves from G-d, then we say that evil has befallen us. When evil comes, the Torah speaks anthropomorphically of G-d’s anger.

There are many reasons why we, by no choice of our own, must endure and live through the challenges and suffering associated with an evil that befalls us. However, our topic is not about suffering that we think has unjustly come our way. Our topic is to understand what the Torah means when the it attributes anger and wrath to G-d.

Listen to what Moses says to the Israelites before he dies: I know that after I die, you will become corrupt and turn away from the path that I have prescribed to you. You will eventually be beset

with evil, since you will have done evil in G-d’s eyes, angering Him with the work of your hands.

(Deuteronomy 31.29) Moses is teaching a principle of spiritual reciprocity with regard to evil. If you do evil to G-d, you will be eventually beset with evil. The evil that we do comes back to us.

The word the Torah uses here for anger, is from the root ‫כעס‬, which in the Torah is a weaker form of anger.

Listen to what the Torah says using the stronger terms ‫אף וחמה‬, meaning anger and wrath.

A future generation, consisting of your descendants, who shall rise up after you, along with the stranger who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses that the Lord has laid upon it; that the whole land is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that nothing can be planted and nothing can grow -- not even any grass can grow on it.

It is like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath. All nations shall say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?

Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord G-d of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; For

they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, something that was not their portion. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath, ‫באף‬ ‫ובחמה‬, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

The Biblical Hebrew word ‫אף‬ carries the meaning of anger on the one hand and nose on the other. Its syntactic plural ‫ אפים‬not only means nose, but also means face and does not carry the notion of a plural anger. There is a reason that Biblical Hebrew has the same word for nose and anger: when a person is angry, the person “fumes through the nose”.

The Biblical Hebrew word ‫חמה‬ also carries dual meanings. Hot and warm on the one hand and fury, wrath, rage or blazing anger on the other. The phrase ‫אף וחמה‬ is typically translated as anger and wrath or anger and fury.

There are many instances in which the Torah anthropomorphically associates the phrase ‫ אף וחמה‬to G-d. We know that any anthropomorphic terms that may be associated with G-d must not be taken as literally applying to Him. We must understand them in the sense that the Torah speaks the language of the ordinary man.

The emotion of anger when lived through and expressed by an ordinary man, is an existential rejection of and pushing away of that which the anger is against.

We push away G-d when we do not love Him with all our heart and soul, and our whole being.

And if we love G-d, then we will

The emotion of anger when lived through and expressed by an ordinary man, is an existential rejection of and pushing away of that which the anger is against. think, speak and act in accordance with the Torah that He gave us as a guide for living.

If we do not think, speak and act in accordance with the Torah way, then we push G-d away, separating ourselves from G-d. The worst way to reject G-d is to act in a way that worships idols. Idols are anything that we put as our top priority - ahead of G-d. Idols can be the idols of various foreign deities, but they can also be the idols of pride and haughtiness, the idol of lust for money or power etc.

Our rejection of G-d inevitably causes what we perceive as G-d’s rejection of us. That rejection we understand as G-d’s anger and wrath, which the Zohar tells us are the names for the klipot (evil forces) of Gevurah (Judgment) and Tiferet (Harmony).

Speaking to Ezekiel about the Israelites G-d says: Because you readied yourselves [for sin] more than the nations around you -- you did not follow My decrees, you did not fulfill My Laws; did not even act according to the laws of the nations around you, ... A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with

famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword around you; and I will scatter a third part to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I relieve my fury upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in my zeal, when I have spent my fury in them. And I will make you a desolation, and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by. And it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment to the nations that are around you, when I shall execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken it. (Ezekiel 5:6 -14) When something happens to us, we know that in respect to each of us individually and to each of us collectively, there is no other power in the world other than the power of G-d.

To think otherwise would be dualistic. Thus even though we personally understand that every person has a free will, we understand that what happens to us is in essence coming from G-d through another person, group, or country, each of which, is serving as G-d’s agents.

When speaking to the prophet Micha, G-d refers to the nation: Your carved idols also I will cut off, and your pillars from your midst; and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands.

And I will pluck up your Asherim from your midst; and I will destroy your cities. And I will execute vengeance in anger and in fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard. (Micha 5: 9-14.)

25

World War I W

orld War I, also known as WWI, the First World War, the Great War, and “The War to End All Wars,” was a global military conflict and certainly a tragedy and an evil upon the world. It took place primarily in Europe between 1914 and 1918. More than nine million soldiers died and millions more civilians perished. The conflict had a decisive impact on the history of the 20th century.

We pair the Hebrew term for World War with the phrase The Anger and the Wrath. The smallest area table containing an ELS of each of these key words is shown above. The probability that a text

from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table with as small an area as this one is 2.5/1000.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 2839 columns.

The probability that a monkey

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson 26

text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 2.5/1000.

The verse containing the ELS phrase Anger and Wrath is particularly instructive. Moses received the first tablets. Some of the Israelites had made a golden calf.

Moses comes down Mount Sinai and breaks the tablets. He summarizes this incident as he reviews their history in the desert and says: I dreaded the anger and wrath that G-d was directing at you to destroy you.

(Deuteronomy 9:19) The following is an excerpt

published in the Daily Mirror August 4, 1914.

Great Britain is in a state of war with Germany. It was officially stated at the Foreign Office last night that Great Britain declared war against Germany at 7pm. The British Ambassador in Berlin has been handed his passport.

War was Germany’s reply to our request that she should respect the neutrality of Belgium, whose

territories we were bound in honor and by treaty obligations to maintain inviolate.

A communication from Sir Edward Grey of the British Foreign Office to the German Ambassador on August 4, 1914.

Your Excellency, The result of the communication made at Berlin having been that His Majesty’s Ambassador has had to ask for his passports, I have the honor to inform your Excellency that in accordance with the

terms of the notification made to the German Government today His Majesty’s Government consider that a state of war e x i s t s between the two countries as from to-day at 11 o’clock P.M. I have the honor to enclose passports for your Excellency, your Excellency’s family and staff.

August 4, 1914 corresponds to the 12th of Av. Remarkably, an ELS for this date occurs in the table.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 40. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 2839 columns.

The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 1.5/10,000.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson and Professor Haralick 27

Auschwitz, Hitler, and Final Soloution

28 2 8

When tragedy happens and innocent people suffer and die, we wonder why. If we look for ordinary answers, we cannot find them. If we look toward G-d, we cannot understand. And yet the Torah tells us repeatedly that the cause is people not living in accordance with the principles of the Torah.

When this happens, evil comes into existence. And the Torah tells us that this is the Anger and Fury of G-d. The Zohar tells us that Anger and Fury are the klipot (evil forces) of Gevurah (Judgment) and Tiferet (Harmony).

It is amazing that running down the middle of the Hitler Auschwitz table is an ELS of the words ‫אף‬ ‫וחמה‬, Anger and Fury.

Sometimes the verses through which the ELSs run are related to the key words of the ELSs. This happens in this table. Beginning at the top of the table is the verse:

On this verse Rabbi Hirsch writes: Be no longer obstinate, submit yourselves to G-d; free yourself from all stubbornness and self-will.

Taken together: Place yourself with all your mind and will in the service

of G-d, and do not allow yourselves to be detracted from the service by any uncontrolled thinking or willing and by no stubbornness and selfwilled obstinacy. The Pentateuch, Devarim, Vol 5, Judaica Press, Gateshead 1989, p 176.

~» ~ Ì À ~ ~

~

·¸ ¸ ~ ~

~³ w~

°~ ~ ÌÃ

° È ~

For G-d is your G-d: He is the Judge of Judges, the Master of Masters, the great mighty, and awesome G-d who does not show favor and who does not accept a bribe. (Deuteronomy 10:17) Why does the Torah relate that G-d is acting as a Judge here? The verse before provides the answer.

The verse before tells us.

You shall cut away the barrier of your heart and no longer stiffen your neck. (Deuteronomy 10:16)

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson 29

Anger AND FURY T

he Prophets tell us: Because of all your sins these things have come upon

you!

The Torah and the Prophets speak of calamities that come (or threaten to come) as divine consequences.

Maimonides exhorts us to search our deed and repent our failing ways when tragedy strikes.

So from this point of view we seek to understand what our sins were for which the Holocaust

came upon us.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last rebbe of Chabad writes: The destruction of six million Jews in such a horrific manner that surpassed the cruelty of all previous generations, could not possibly be because of a punishment for sins.

What greater conceit and what greater heartlessness can there be than to give a ‘reason’ for the death and torture of millions of innocent men, women and children? Can

we presume to assume that an explanation small enough to fit inside the finite bounds of human reason can explain a horror of such magnitude?

Nevertheless, we look and seek some explanation, not so much to explain the past, but to guide our future and to help us understand how we have to live. And although our influence on others may not be so significant, shortcomings of others are also shortcomings in us, each in its own way, at its own level.

The shortcoming suggested in the next table is desecration.

Our shortcoming is the small and the large, the conscious and unconscious desecration of what is holy. This is what we have to work on.

The Auschwitz table with the additional a priori key word meaning desecration.

The probabilty that a text from the ELS random placement monkey text population would produce a table as small as the one produced by the Torah text is 27/100,000.

Anger And Fury

Finding by Professor Rips 30

After Professor Rips, added the key word ‫חלול‬, desecration, to the key words Hitler and Auschwitz and found it had an ELS in the original table, he examined the table. He found that a skip -1 ELS of the key word ‫ חלול‬appears right in the middle of the table, where the ‫ ל‬of ‫ חלול‬is in common with the ‫ ל‬of Hitler. Furthermore, it has a skip -1 extension: the word ‫משום‬, meaning on account of or because of. Sharing the ‫ ש‬of ‫משום‬ is a skip -12 ELS of the word ‫השבת‬ The Sabbath. In the table is also a second occurrence of a skip -12 ELS of ‫ השבת‬with its ‫ ש‬being shared with the ‫ ש‬of Auschwitz.

How can this association help

us live in the better way the Torah teaches us to live? Perhaps we might put more effort in spending the Shabbat joyously.

**** The serpent was craftier than any beast of the field that G-d had made. (Genesis 3:1) On this verse, the commentary of Rabbi Ashlag on the Zohar brings: Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Serpent is the evil inclination, which incites one to sin. Rabbi Yehuda said, It is a real Serpent.

They approached Rabbi Shimon, who said: Both interpretations are correct. It was the angel Samael and he was seen riding on the Serpent. The image of the Serpent is Satan, namely the evil inclination that incites humans to sin and then ascends to demand punishment above. They are both the same. You can say that the serpent is the evil inclination and is a real serpent.

As it says in the Zohar of Parashah Va’era, the angel associated with death and destruction is Satan.

When Judgment hangs over the world, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sits upon the Throne of Judgment, then the Satan, who accuses above and below, comes to destroy the world and snatch away the souls of human beings, because the Satan is also the angel of death.

We conclude that the angel associated with death and destruction is Satan, ‫שטן‬. And the animal associated with Satan is the snake, ‫נחש‬. It is interesting that both are found in the Auschwitz Hitler table. In addition, the ELS for the key word Hitler has a prefix extension: the initial ‫א‬, standing for Hitler’s first name Adolf.

The developed table.

Finding by Professor Rips

Another development of the Auschwitz table.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson 31 31

The Holocaust Birkenau Crematorium: where the corpses were burned

T

here is a skip 50 ELS of the key word ‫שואה‬, holocaust, that occurs within a set of relevant verses. The skip of the ELS is also relevant. The skip 50 ELS parallels the fifty levels of impurity.

The fiftieth level of impurity is the level that maintains that G-d is not the G-d who created the universe - space and time. It also insists that G-d is not the G-d of the Torah, that G-d is not the G-d who redeemed the Israelites from Egypt and who gave the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Never, at any time in THe Jewish history, did any part of the Jewish community adopt such ideas that G-d is not the G-d of the Torah,

nor the G-d who redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, that the crossing of the Reed sea was a myth etc. Until the nineteenth and early twentieth century the “enlightenment” in secular studies and philosophies had never infected the Jewish people.

German Jews, in particular, were affected and swayed by the enlightenment, only to be followed by the greatest number of conversions out of Judaism.

The enlightenment brought widespread cultural assimilation in its wake. Those Jews who participated in the enlightenment began in varying degrees to participate in the cultural practices

of the surrounding gentile population. The birth of the Reform movement, whose founding rabbis rejected the continuing observance of those aspects of Jewish law which they classified as ritual, as opposed to moral, came as a result of the enlightenment.

This enlightenment became the foreign gods of many in the European Jewish community.

Let us see what the Torah says: These verses in the Torah are when G-d appears to Moses and tells him what the Israelites will do in the future and what the results will be. History has played itself out at more than one time and at more than one place.

This people will rise up and play harlot after the foreign gods of the land. (Deuteronomy 31:16) Finding by Yitzchak Herman 32

Then on that day my anger will be kindled against them and I will forsake them and hide my face from them.

(Deuteronomy 31:17) Finding by Yitzchak Herman

Because of all the evil that she did, for she had turned to other gods.

(Deuteronomy 31:18)

Finding by Yitzchak Herman

d

It is interesting that the Hitler Auschwitz table has within it ELSs that relate to fire and the burning of the Jews.

The Hitler Auschwitz table developed with the ELSs for Time when fire trapped (them) and Fire will spread out on the Jews.

Finding by Professor Rips

33

One of only three photographs ever taken by prisoners at Birkenau and successfully smuggled out. This was taken in 1944 by a camp inmate assigned to one of the special prisoner teams (sonderkommando) who were forced to work in the gas chamber/crematoria. This photo shows prisoners burning naked corpses freshly removed from the gassing facility at Crematorium-V. These “burning pits” were used mainly in the summer of 1944, when the extermination was going at such a rate that the furnaces could not handle the number of corpses.

34

The Twin Towers On Tuesday, September 11,

2001,

extremist

Islamic Alqaeda,

hijacked four planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers killing over 2,000 innocent people.

Photo by Anne Baffel

This article will discuss two of the hijacked planes.

At 8:46 AM EST the hijacked American Airlines plane, Flight 77, carrying 92 people from Boston to Los Angeles, was flown into the north tower of the Twin Towers.

At 9:02 AM EST the hijacked United Airlines plane, Flight 175, carrying 65 people from Boston to Los Angeles, was flown into the South Tower. The jet tanks of both planes were full and the crash into the Twin Towers caused an

Photo by Sara Schwittek

enormous explosion and fireball.

The fire was so hot that it weakened the building’s steel beams.

By 10:29AM, both towers had collapsed, killing all those in the planes plus thousands of people in the towers.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 20. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 36 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 30.5/1,000.

Finding by Professor Haralick

It is not unusual for there to be secondary encodings of the same key words or where one key word is of slightly different form than in the first encoding. This Twin Towers table is an example of such an effect. Here we take for our main key words Twin Towers and for our complementary key word Wrath of Anger.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 100. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 611 columns.

The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 48.5/1,000.

Finding by Professor Rips and Rabbi Glazerson

36

It is interesting that the Twin of Twin Towers lines up with Wrath of Anger to make an ELS phrase. It is even more interesting that this ELS phrase has an extension: Shock.

Photo by Steve McMillan

The extension table.

Finding by Professor Rips and Rabbi Glazerson

37 7

New Orleans: Katrina Katrina was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest hurricane on record that made landfall in the United States. Katrina formed on August 23 during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. On Saturday, August 27, 2005 Governor Blanco of Louisiana asked President Bush to Declare a State of Emergency in Louisiana.

Governor Blanco said: I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is

Flooded residential neighborhood in New Orleans.

38

beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.

On Sunday August 28, when it became clear that Hurricane Katrina was going to score a direct hit on the city, Mayor Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans, ordered the first time ever evacuation of the city.

On Monday, August 29, the category 4 hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

The danger of a hurricane in New Orleans was very real because much of New Orleans is below sea level. The city is crisscrossed by canals connecting Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The levees were built around the canals to protect the city from flooding when surrounding water levels would rise as they would when hurricane winds would stir up the water.

On Monday, the worst catastrophe for New Orleans occured: water overflowed the levees.

By Monday night, some levees had already been broken through and about 80 percent of the city was flooded with water up to 20 feet deep after two of the levees collapsed.

A search was made with key words New Orleans and Anger and Wrath. The results were not statistically significant. Anger and Wrath was altered to Wrath of Anger. The results were significant. The smallest area table is shown below.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 40.

The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 2525 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have

Finding by Professor Haralick

as small a table as this one is 9.5/1,000.

Then Professor Haralick tried adding the key word Katrina with the spelling ‫ קתרנא‬. The results were more significant. Later, Rabbi Glazerson related that the spelling of Katrina with a ‫ ק‬instead of a ‫ כ‬is the

way the Israeli newspapers spelled it. But they use a ‫ ה‬rather than an ‫ א‬for the last letter. He said that there is a precedent for using the ‫ א‬as the last letter since Germany is spelled both with an ‫ א‬and with a ‫ ה‬as the last letter, although with the ‫ ה‬is the common spelling.

Professor Haralick made a note to try the alternate spellings after he finished his experiments.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 40. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 1259 columns.

The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 11.5/10,000.

Finding by Professor Haralick 39

On Monday,

•

August 23rd, 2005, catastrophe struck in New Orleans: water overflowed By Monday night, some levees had been broken through.

Then the date of August 29 - 24th of Av - was added as a key word. This was the date that hurricane Katrina made landfall as a category 4 hurricane. The resulting table was not significant.

But because there were important related events that had occured some days earlier, August 28, the 23 of Av was tried.

This was the date that Mayor Nagin issued the first ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.

This result of this table was not too significant.

Then August 27, the 22 of Av was tried - this was the date that Governor Blanco asked President Bush to declare a federal state of emergency in

Louisiana. The resulting table was statistically significant. This is the table we show here. The probability that a monkey text from the ELS random placement population would have a table as small as the one produced by the Torah text is 3.5/10,000.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 40.

The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 1259 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 3.5/10,000. Because of the 5 trials before this one, the effective p-level is about 21/10,000.

Finding by Professor Haralick 40

Tsunami Anger O

n December 26, 2004 a great undersea earthquake occurred at the magnitude of 9.1, in the Indian Ocean.

The epicentre was off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing large numbers of people and inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia, including parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Analysis compiled by the United Nations lists a total of 229,866 people lost. The catastrophe was one of the deadliest disasters in modern history and is known in Asia and in the international media as the Asian Tsunami.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 50. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 765 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 29.5/1,000.

Finding by Professor Haralick

Photos by Sarvodaya.org

41

The Bird Flu A

n d r e w C. von Eschenbach, M.D., US Commissioner of Food and Drugs, says that Avian Influenza, commonly known as bird flu, is one of the most significant public health issues the world faces.

The most virulent form of the avian influenza is known as the H5N1 virus. It is a type of influenza A virus commonly found in birds. In humans, H5N1 causes pneumonia and multi-organ failure and is far more severe than the ordinary flu.

Almost 300 people worldwide have been infected with this virus since 2003 and more than half of them have died.

To date, the H5N1 influenza has remained primarily an animal disease. However, should the virus acquire the ability for sustained transmission among humans, people will have little immunity.

It would cause much sickness. In an H5N1 world-wide pandemic, it is estimated that between 10,000,000 and 150,000,000 people would die.

We put together for our key words, Bird Flu, Sickness, and the phrase the Anger and the Wrath. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small area table as that produced by the Torah text is 42

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

8.5/1,000,000.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 30. The r e s u l ti n g table is on

a cylinder size of 13 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 8.5/1,000,000.

Bush, Olmert, and Abbas at Annapolis

Annapolis W

hen civilized countries of the world must deal with a country whose religious ideal is that the entire world should be under Islamic rule, under Sharia law, under one caliphate and the Moslems of this country are willing to die to help achieve this goal, then there is no possibility of any lasting agreement, treaty, or peace. If there is a stop in the violence and/or armed conflict, this is only temporary, because the longer range Islam goal of world domination has not faded and is still desired.

The Arab culture, whether it be religious or secular, has within it an ideal of Moslem domination over the entire Middle East. Therefore, the very existence of Israel, a state in which Moslems are not the rulers and a state which is not aligned with Islam, is an anathma, an accursed state consigned for destruction. Just on this basis alone, it is easy to see that there is no possibility of agreements for peace.

The Annapolis conference is bound to fail and the local specific reasons are clear. From a political point of view, Israel insists that Israel be recognized as a state for the Jewish people. This is inconsistent with the Palestinian demand that the descendants of

the 1947 Palestinian refugees be allowed entry into Israel and become citizens of Israel. For then Israel would not longer be a state with a Jewish majority.

If there is not a Jewish majority, then it cannot be a Jewish state. If it cannot be a Jewish state, then its Jewish citizens would have no safety, exactly like it is in all the other Mideastern countries where the Jews are constantly oppressed and persecuted.

It is further argued that before the end of days, all of Israel must return to God, by accepting and living in accordance with Torah. It appears that the way this will happen is for Israel to be threatened with annihilation until its people lose all hope that its very existence can be saved by its own means.

Then Israel will cry out and return to G-d, and G-d will defeat all the forces whose goal had been its annihilation.

From this perspective, the first set of key words that one would consider using relative to the Annapolis Conference is: Annapolis, Conference, and will fail. The resulting smallest area table is shown as follows. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as the one produced by the Torah text is 5.5/10,000.

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Finding by Professor Rips

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The cylinder size is 215. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as the one produced by the Torah text is 5.5/10,000.

The principal parties of the conference were the U.S., Israel, and Philistia. It is significant that the table above has ELSs for each of these principal parties. The type of conference is a Peace conference. An ELS of Peace also occurs in the above table. Furthermore,

our perspective is that the orchestrator for nearly all the major events that are occuring relative to the Middle East that involve Israel, is the messenger of G-d, the evil angel Samael. And an ELS of The Samael also occurs in this table.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The cylinder size is 108. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would have as small an area table as the one produced by the Torah text is smaller than 1/100,000

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

44 4 4

Let us read the verses that go through the last two rows of the table.

Amalek dwells in the area of the south; the Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Emorite dwell on the mountain; and the Canaanite dwells by the Sea and on the bank fo the Jordan. (Numbers 13:29) But the men who ascended with him said, We cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us. (Numbers 13:31) These verses refer to the incident of spying out the land. The spies came back with a report stating that the children of Israel would not be able to conquer the inhabitants of the land that God is giving to the children of Israel. The spies said that the dwellers in the land were too strong for the children of Israel.

This is essentially the government political position in Israel today, Israel is too weak to stand in its current position. And it will trade more land for a so-called peace. It will even divide Jerusalem.

Only after all this happens with terrorists at home on land close to the populated centers of Israel, will the Arabs terrorists attempt to finish off Israel by a coordinated attack. From Lebanon and Syria in the north and Gaza in the south-west. Only when such a war is brought into Israel itself and all those who pushed the government to be weak are attacked, their dwelling places blown up, will they lose all hope and then they will cry out to God and return.

Website content by: Rabbi Mattisyahu Glazerson and Proffessor Robert M. Haralick

Abu Mazen Snooping the area in and around the table we notice a verse that has the phrase in His anger and in His wrath.

The expanded table is shown below.

The verse containing in His anger and in His wrath is in the same area as ELSs of the key words Abu Mazen, Enemy, Amalek, and Dog.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson 45 4 5

The Disengagement

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T

he Disengagement, ‫הנתקות‬, was an action taken by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to remove all permanent Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank (Samaria). It was adopted by the Israeli government and enacted in August 2005.

Soldiers and police had to physically drag the Israelis from their homes, evicting them by force. Some Israelis barricaded themselves into synagogues, standing on rooftops hurling abuse, flour and paint at soldiers. Others were reluctantly wrenched from their homes, acompanied by bewildered toddlers and screaming teenagers. By August 15, 2005, the residential buildings were all demolished. August 15, 2005 is the 10th of Av.

Finding by Professor Rips and Rabbi Glazerson

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10.

The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 297 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is It is interesting to note that 4/10,000. the people who were evicted We read in Midrash Rabbah, Rabbi Simeon Bar Yochai from the Gaza, belonged taught: If you behold cities uprooted from their site in predominately to the Mafdal the land of Israel, know that the inhabitants failed to pay political party. the fees of the instructors in Bible and Mishnah; as it is said, Wherefore is the land perished?... And the Lord said, Because they have forsaken My law.(Jeremiah 9:11) It is interesting to note that the people who were evicted from the Gaza, belonged predominately to the Mafdal political party. It was this party, under the leadership of Afi Etam, who provided support for the Shinui party to become part of the government. It was Lapid, the head of the Shinui party, who drafted legislation that cut the government funding for Rabbis, Torah learning etc. throughout Israel.

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Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 75 columns.

The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 6.5/1,000.

In the Israeli election of January 2003, the secular centrist Shinui party increased its number of seats to 15, making it the third largest party in the Knessest.

With the support of the Mafdal party for Shinui, Shinui had to be included in the government. Tommy

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Lapid, the head of the Shinui party, stated the key policies of the party were reducing the influence of the Jewish right in Israeli society, cutting welfare payments to ultra-orthodox Jewish families, and withdrawing Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip.

There is an extension for the ELS phrase will evacuate the Gush, of the previous table The extensions is with Lapid. We aslo see that the text of verse within the table specifies the houses of the villages in the Gush.

The table is on a cylinder size of 297 columns.

Had the key words been a priori, with an expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that

as small a table would have arisen from the ELS random placement monkey text population is less than 1/1,000,000.

Finding by Professor Rips and Rabbi Glazerson

Anguish of the Israelis who banded together on the roof of a synagague.

Photo by Uriel Sinai

An Israeli house in the Gaza strip being torn down by Israeli demolition.

Unknown photographer

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Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

This table was found by using the interactive question method of Dr. Schwartzman. The main key word was When will he evacuate the Gush. The secondary key words were the date, 10th of Av, and the person primarily responsible for the evacuation: Ariel Sharon.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10.

The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 6262 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is less than 1/10,000.

Two months before the August 15, 2005 date, there was an intense debate within Israel about whether the government would actually carry out the evacuation on August 15th. In the Israeli newspaper Arba Kanfot Rabbi Glazerson publicly stated that the evacuation would indeed take place and offered some relevant Torah code tables.

A translation of this article appears below.

Those who are familiar with the science of the

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codes in the Torah have found many indications this week to the different developments of the topic of the disengagement. It is found mainly in the Torah portions that are read in the period of the three weeks (between 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av) a time in which the government wanted to do the evacuation appeared.

Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, one of the experts of the wisdom of the Torah codes, who has authored many books on this topic, found in the portions of Mattos and Masei - which deal with the dividing of the land of Israel to the tribes - a minimal skip ELS (of the key word, in the year 5765 ‫)בתשסה‬, appears in that text. Along side it is an ELS (of the key word) the 12th of Adar, the date on which the government accepted the resolution of this evacuation. Next to it appears the ELS of the (key word) government adjoined to the key word phrase asserting: the land will be divided, and an additional ELS of Sharon will divide the Land.

There are more indications related to this difficult

Newspaper article in which Rabbi Glazerson states two months before it happened that the evacuation of the land will indeed take place on the 10th of Av.

reality. Rabbi Glazerson found that according to the Vilna Gaon in the book of Deuteronomy, this is related to the 6th millennium, an ELS (of the key word phrase) dividing the land in the portion of Ki

Tavo, where the 98 curses appears. It is clear that Sharon himself does not rely on the dates that appear in the Torah codes. The key word Holocaust also appears in the same place.

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The cylinder size is 80 columns.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

It is interesting that in this table there are further ELSs of related key words. Rabbi Glazerson calls

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our attention to Deported Families, Government, Evacuate, Group and an ominous War.

The cylinder size is 39 columns.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

The Golden Calf Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the two tablets of commandments and he stayed there and learned for 40 days.

The Israelites miscalculated and thought that Moses was taking too long a time to come down from the mountain.

They gathered around Aaron and said to him, Make us an oracle to lead us. We have no idea what happened to Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt.

Take the rings off the ears of your wives and children replied Aaron. Bring them to me.

All the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He received from their hands and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf. And they said, These are your gods O Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

(Exodus 32:1-4) When Moses approached the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Moses displayed anger and threw down the tables that were in his hand, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. (Exodus 32:19) The sin of the golden calf was considered a very grave sin. G-d was with anger and wrath and Moses pleaded with G-d not to destroy the Israelites.

(Exodus 32:11) 53

We first pair the keywords Calf with Anger and Wrath and obtain the smallest area table in the Torah as shown below. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 244/10,000.

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 238 columns. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 244/10,000.

The verse in which the skip 1 ELS for calf appears is the verse about the Golden Calf. It is interesting that two verses later the Torah speaks directly about G-d’s anger. This is an instance of a phenomenon where a verse near the ELS has a word that is the same as a word in the ELS. The table on this page was found by accident.

Rabbi Glazerson related to Professor Haralick about the previous table with the Golden Calf and the phrase Anger and Wrath. Professor Haralick looked for this table but with two inadvertent changes.

Whereas the table that Rabbi Glazerson had found just had Calf, Professor Haralick set for the key word Golden Calf.

And instead of the phrase Anger and Wrath that Rabbi Glazerson had intended, Professor Haralick took the phrase The Anger, The Wrath. It was not until Professor Haralick showed the resulting table to Rabbi Glazerson that it was realized that the table found

by Professor Haralick was not the on one intended

by Rabbi Glazerson. Thus Professor Haralick’s table shown below qualifies as an a priori table and although it is a larger area table, it is a statistically stronger table than the one found by Rabbi Glazerson. The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 24/10,000.

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Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

The golden calf verse.

Finding by Rabbi Glazerson

The expected number of ELSs is set to 10. The resulting table is on a cylinder size of 1033 columns.

The probability that a monkey text in the ELS random placement text population would have as small a table as this one is 24/10,000.

Finding by Professor Haralick 55

One of the best proofs to the validity and significance of the Torah Codes beside statistics, is the connection of the Codes and the place where they were found of the Torah. The appearance of “Anger and Wrath” is one of the most prominent.

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