J6: Codes

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Why 50, 7, 49 ? A Jewish Interpretation

50 is an important number for the Torah. According
to the Bible, the Torah was given to the Jewish
people on Mount Sinai 50 days after they had left Egypt. The festival of Shavuot is still celebrated on this day.

7 is also an important Jewish number. According to Genesis, G-d rested on the 7th day after creation and this is still the holy Sabbath day. Can you think of any other Biblical sevens?

Why do we only skip 49 spaces in Deuteronomy?

Deuteronomy is the book where Moses repeats and teaches the Torah to the people of Israel. For example, the Ten Commandments first occur in Exodus 20 but are then repeated in Deuteronomy 5. In Jewish tradition, there are 50 gates of wisdom and Moses achieved a very high level of wisdom, reaching the 49th gate. Deuteronomy is therefore Moses' repetition of the Torah and because of the level of his wisdom, there are 49 and not 50 gaps as we saw in the other books.

Looking at the Torah in this coded way, we can therefore see the name of G-d in the centre with the Torah facing it from both sides.

These interpretations have very little to do with mathematics or statistics and are all based on Jewish tradition. Do you like these interpretations ? Can you make your own ? What do you think are the values and dangers of interpreting codes ? We will need to consider this seriously.

Example 2

Text G: Exodus 11:9 - 12:3

This example is fascinating as it encodes information about the life of a Jewish sage who lived in the 12th century. Remember that the earliest original copies that we have of the Torah are from the Qumran scrolls which are dated from at least the 1st century BCE. Even if one does not accept that the Torah dates from the time of Moses, it dates at least from this time, more than 1200 years before Maimonides (1135 - 1204) lived.

Maimonides, or Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, was the head physician to the sultan of Egypt. He was also the chief rabbi of the Egyptian Jewish community. Highly regarded by both the Jewish and Muslim community, Maimonides produced the first code of Jewish Law which he called the Mishneh Torah or 'Repetition of the Torah'.

Using the first 4 letters of his name in Hebrew, Maimonides is known by the acronym Rambam. This acronym is found in the first letters of the phrase in Exodus 11:9 "Rabot Moftai Be'eretz Mitzrayim " meaning "My miracles will be multiplied in Egypt". This is the only occurrence of the code Resh Mem Bet Mem in the entire Torah. (Encircled on your example). Encoded in the same chapter of Exodus is the name of the Book of Law written by Maimonides, the Mishneh Torah. (The triangles on your example). Each of these two words appear at 50 letter intervals with a gap of 613 letters in between the two words.

What is so remarkable about this?

Jews have always spoken of the similarities between the original Moses and Moses Maimonides. At Maimonides' death it was publicly announced that "from Moses to Moses (Maimonides) there has been no one like Moses". Both lived in Egypt and achieved fame there: Moses as leader and liberator of the enslaved Jews and Maimonides as the chief physician of the sultan of Egypt. Mishneh Torah means "a second Torah" - Moses repeated the Torah in Deuteronomy and Maimonides classified the laws of the Torah in his book Mishneh Torah.

The 50 letter distances are significant to the giving of the Torah 50 days after leaving Egypt. The 613 letter gap between the two words are of course equal to the 613 laws contained in the Torah of which Maimonides made a list in his Mishneh Torah!

The statistical chances of finding these words in close proximity with such significant distances between them are again 1 in 3 million.

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