How Is Your Financial Health?
The Beholder’s Eye by Doug Brook
Sine of the times
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Your Life In Balance.
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It’s the time of year when almost several of you hear the Book of Deuteronomy at Shabbat services every week. If some of this fifth book of the Torah feels redundant and repetitive, its name reveals why. Deuteron is Greek for “second,” alluding to the numerous greatest hits from the Exodus and wilderness that are revisited throughout the book. Hence, Deuteronomy means “the second law.” Deuteronomy was commonly referred to as the Mishneh Torah (“repetition of the Torah”), until Maimonides appropriated the name for his code of Jewish law — which he got away with because on the Sixth Day (and for a long time thereafter) the Big G neglected to Another book of create the Copyright Office. the Torah? Does However, the recently discovered Mishnah tractate Bava Gump the story really makes clear that Deuteronomy was add up? not alone. There was another book, a “third law,” which was ultimately omitted from the Torah and considered to be more complex and incomprehensible than the rest of the Bible. This third book is, of course, the Book of Trigonometry. It’s little wonder that this book once struck a theological chord. After all, it details more fundamentals about the creation and nature of the universe than the first chapter of Genesis. But thousands of years ago, this addition to the Torah was deemed too tangential, which led to a long division among the Sages that continued to multiply until it was resolved by subtracting the book from the canon. As with most questions for which there are two possible answers, the Book of Trigonometry has led to three prevailing rabbinic opinions: Those in favor of it, those opposed to it, and those who do not care to ask. Like most debates, this triangle is inscribed with people on each side whose beliefs come in varying degrees. Naturally, everyone in this debate thinks they have the right angle, which is what makes the discussion so bleak. Some of them are truly obtuse, though one of the younger advocates is a cute one. And, while you might never have heard the Book of Trigonometry discussed, for that great debate I suss a lease on life has been renewed. While its omission indicated that all books are not equal, the book persisted, and many debated how its pure teachings should be applied. The Torah itself deals with topics that some ascribe to mythology, but everyone agrees that the Book of Trigonometry is about mathology. Despite the lack of clarity about its theistic identity, respect for the function of the book was a constant. While some rabbis felt it was highly derivative, many secular scholars thought the inverse — that its teachings were integral to expanding the human mind. Most people today decry any biblical origin for the Book of Trigonometry. But it could account for why so many Jews over the centuries have been accountants.
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August 2013
Southern Jewish Life