Presence

I received an email last week:

BIBLE CODES: The Hidden Genius of Torah Top mathematicians and computer scientists from the US government and leading universities in the US and Jersusalem have worked together to crack the 3,300 year-old Torah-codes that predict modern events in stunning detail. This presentation shows how the research is done and what the codes say. Tuesday, December 9th- 7:30 PM - FREE TICKETS The New Aish Baltimore Center 11433 Cronridge Dr., Owings Mills (Directions below) For FREE tickets, call 1-888-883-4726 or click graphic below www.discoveryproduction.com Brought to you by AISH BALTIMORE

In case you haven't heard of the Bible Codes, about ten years ago, researchers published a paper claiming that, by dividing the letters of the Torah into Equadistant Letter Sequences, prophetic statements detailing future events (future in terms of when the Bible was authored; from our perspective, these events are in the past) could be found. The original paper was subject to much controversy, inspired a few books, and was refuted in Statistical Science by Brendan McKay. Refutations to the refutations have followed, trenches have been dug, etc. I don't want to go through the whole history here, if you are interested, a simple Google search will turn up lots of good information.

I personally find little value in the Bible Codes. Aside from the fact that equivalent prophecies can be found in War and Peace and Moby Dick, there is an even broader question of halachic appropriateness. Prophecy in the Torah is not meant to tell us what to watch out for in the future, to save us from some future calamity. It is for the purpose of turning us away from the path of destruction. Prophets are sent to rebuke and guide the nation, not reveal to them the secrets of the future. The only time a prophet predicts the future is in his initial prophecy, to establish himself (and he can even get his prophecy wrong, and still be considered a prophet! See Deut 18:16 and the Book of Jeremiah). After that, his job is to legislate to the people in order to save them from themselves. Telling the future, or divination, is, as far as I can tell, considered Avodah Zarah (idol worship).

A further problem with the Bible Codes is the fact that we do not have the Torah in its original form today. Gasp! Apikorsus! Nope, sorry. The Rambam only mandates that we believe that God gave the Torah to Moshe, not that we as a nation were successful in passing it down from generation to generation without error. In fact, numerous sources in the Talmud (Kiddushin 30A comes to mind) and Midrash state that the Torah as they had it (going back as far as the times of Ezra HaSofer) was altered from the original text (in fact, Ezra did the altering himself, on purpose; see Sifrei Devarim 1:1. For those that are skeptical, check out this article from Aish HaTorah. Irony tastes good.). This, of course, invalidates the entire approach taken by proponents of the Bible Codes.

Even if you want to accept the Bible Codes as fact, I have further issues with there being used by a kiruv (outreach) organization. The implication is that they are a proof to the divinity of the Torah. Once the divinity of the Torah is established, it follows logically that a belief in the Torah as binding is imperative. But that is not true. Jewish tradition does treat statements as canonical simply because of divine origin (Tanor Shel Achnayai, yada, yada, yada). To encourage people to accept belief in the Torah based on the Bible Codes is fallacious, outside of Jewish tradition, and raises, in my mind, serious ethical questions. According to Maimonides, there is one reason, and one reason only, to believe in the Torah:

As regards Moses, our teacher: Israel did not trust him because of the miracles he performed. One who trusts based on miracles, his intellect is skeptical; perhaps the miracle was performed through magic or trickery. Rather, all the miracles performed in the desert were done out of necessity, and not to bring as a proof to any prophetic statement. It was necessary to drown the Egyptians, so the waters were split and they were drowned. They needed food, so Manna descended. They were thirsty, so the Rock was split. Korach's assembly rebelled, so the Earth swallowed them. And so to all other miracles.

And in what did they trust in him? In God's standing on Har Sinai. Their eyes saw, not a stranger's. Their ears heard; not another's - the fire and lightning...etc.

And from where do we know that in God's standing on Har Sinai is the sole proof of the truth of Moshe's prophecy? As it says, "Behold, I will come to you in the cloud, so that the nation will hear as I speak to you, and in you they will believe forever" (Ex 19:9). This implies that before this, their trust in Moshe was not of an everlasting nation, but of the kind susceptible to skepticism.

Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah (8:1-3). translation is my own

Belief in the Divine origin of the Torah (according to Rambam, and probably most of Orthodox Judaism as it stands today) is because it is from Moshe, not because it contains retroactive prophetic statements. Even if the Bible Codes are divine in origin, and there to warn us of future doom, we can not base our faith on them. Using them as a tool to convince people to become religious belies an "ends justify the means" approach that, besides its underlying presumptuousness, shows incredible insensitivity to the individuality of others.

At any rate, if you are interested in finding out more about the Bible Codes, check out the presentation.