Ve’Ethchanan: Echad (Gd is One)

א =1

 

Limud is a beautiful Jewish learning event with sessions that come from every dimension.  I have given three sessions. One on the structure of the Talmudic page, combining hypertext and history. A second, more daring session, explored the relationship between  prophecy and artificial intelligence – the issues of information from sources with inexplicable methodologies. Last January, I explored the concepts of ONE (1) – the philosophy and history of the number and its relationship to Judaism. A major, fundamental theme of this week’s parsha is Echad, that Gd id One. The dramatic Shema, the Hebrew pledge of allegiance to (our) Gd is stated. By virtue of its internal text, instructing recitation of “these words” וּֽבְשׇׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃   when you lie down ( in the evening) and when you arise ( in the morning),  the Shema, this paragraph that starts with the declaration that Gd is One is recited every night and every morning. As is the rule for declarations, it is to die for … … (when martyrs die, they try to die with the shema on their lips)but the meaning is obscure.

 

The plain meaning of this statement: Gd is One is exclusivity. There is no other Gd ( that counts, that is real) ,  That idea is explicit in this parsha.

אַתָּה֙ הׇרְאֵ֣תָ לָדַ֔עַת כִּ֥י יְ

ה֣וּא הָאֱ

אֵ֥ין ע֖וֹד מִלְּבַדּֽוֹ׃

 

To thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the Lrd he is Gd; there is none else beside him.

 

There can be no doubt that the shema declares this allegiance to the singular entity which has the god properties.

This parsha is always read on the week of Tisha Ba’Av , the commemoration of Jewish defeat, loss of autonomy and bad luck. We recall the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (and the independent nation that it symbolized), the (consequent) persecutions of the Diaspora (the Roman persecution,  the Crusades, the Holocaust, among them) and express our longing for Zion ( an undefined word). This year, I realized how the loss is made worse by Echad, the One  Gd.   Once you have whittled down the powers that control the world to one, and the One fails to act, does not rescue, you have reached the bottom of bleak. There is no appeal except to the Gd that has rejected you, the Gd who has raised questions about existence. That seems to be part of the plan.

The mathematical meaning of One ( the loneliest number) has evolved. The implications of this most fundamental of numbers were always there, but the implications were discovered as new needs and new ways of looking at the world emerged. The scope of these definitions has been constrained by the association with Gd.

One means unity. Rationality is the most comfortable of contexts. It reflects a pre-Renaissance, trust in the senses worldview. Aleph, א, is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  The Talmud (Sanhedrin 21b) records that the block Hebrew letters we use today were (may have been)  borrowed from the Assyrians.  Nevertheless, these shapes were chosen, and they have lasted.  Consider the aleph as if it were a fraction, turn it on its side.  There is something, maybe a number, maybe not, over the same quantity. Like 10/10 or 7/7.  It is one. No matter the quantity, the same over the same quantity is always one, and one is always a quantity over the same quantity.  The constancy, the independence from circumstance, the fairness of this principle is (or has become) apt for the description of Gd. This is a One that I can hear.

 

The rational understanding of one implies that unity means complete, whole. There is nothing missing, nothing extra. It is an element of perfection, and it may be that perfection that we actually want to attribute to our Gd. One is an important aspect of perfection.  

One is the First (the ordinal property). There is no number representing existence that precedes One. This originator quality is needed for the Prime Mover of Aristotle and Maimonides. The First has a claim of ownership and hence dominion.

 

One implies existence. There is one. For an invisible and intermittent entity, existence is the act of faith. This giant leap into the truth of the imagined catalyzes all progress and makes everything possible.

 

The unique property of Gd has an interesting mathematical representation,  There are (at least) two symbols, based upon the ꓱ, which means “there exists.”

ꓱ! Emphasizes the existence aspect. ꓱ₌₁ emphasizes the Oneness. Mathematics meets monotheism.

 Discoveries of the Renaissance (calculus and statistics) challenged the ordinary reality ( real world truth) of (an approachable but unreachable) One.  Quantum mechanics challenged the meaning of a fixed state and intelligible existence. Current data science brings the comfort of assigning “TRUE” to one, but that may soon be challenged by quantum computing with in-between states.

 

One always has been a matter of faith.

 

A table from my Limud Talk given January 2023

 

period	issue	nature of 1	mathematical	concepts
Torah	nation building	national	whole numbers/fractions	exclusivity
Prophets	relations with empires	imperial	geometry/unit circle/trig	limited spaces
Gaonim	competing failths	Universal?	zero/algebra	existence
Rishonim	exile	philosophical	rationals/pi	1/1,  true lens
Renaissance	science	transcendental	calculus	Approach: delta epsilon
			statistics means can never have 1
Modern	belief	spiritual	(Hilbert-Banach) space	one without deity, ying yang of aleph,
				group of naturals
now	mistrust	comforting	data science	1= true

                                                                                   

 Devarim: large Language models

This parsha is not a memoir. It is an apology. Were it not for the failure of faith in conquering the land, marked by the scouting expedition, the Israelites would have arrived at the Promised Land in 11 days.  Instead it took 38 years, a new generation and a new leadership. 

Moshe explains his failings in that mission.  He recognized that 

וָאֹמַ֣ר אֲלֵכֶ֔ם בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹ֑ר לֹא־אוּכַ֥ל לְבַדִּ֖י שְׂאֵ֥ת אֶתְכֶֽם׃

Thereupon I said to you, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself.

The Sinai experience -when Moses transmitted the Divine Law, when the nation created the golden calf , when Moses broke the tablets, and saved the people by assuaging Gd's anger -    had put a wedge between Moshe's worldview and that of ordinary people.  Moses and the people no longer spoke the same language. The words were shared, the  meanings differed. 

Then came the scouting expedition.  This was a popular idea, a plan that made sense. Moshe thought the people would be encouraged by the evidence of plentitude of the land. He charged the scouts to bring back samples of the fruit. There could be no denial of the potential of the Promised Land. But the spies also said that conquest was impossible.  The current inhabitants were too strong. The new message erased the memories of the miracles that had liberated the Israelites from the oppression of  most powerful  nation on earth. 

Devarim is always read on the Shabbath before Tisha Ba'av.  Tisha Ba'av  is a fast day commemorating tragedies that befell the Israelites and the Jewish people. The mishna enumerates five events: the return of the  above mentioned spies ( which brought the 40 years in the desert); the destruction of the first and second temples; the defeat of Bar Kochba's attempt to re-establish Jewish autonomy; and the plowing over of Jerusalem. These are not random tragedies, they are all political defeats of national autonomy. They all bring exile and alienation. 

The consequences of this exile have been devastating and glorifying. The Jew is an alien everywhere and to everyone. To the powerful, the Jew is a competitor and a potential victim.  To the oppressed, the Jew is and oppressor.  To the Jew, the variations in sect and values create irreconcilable enmities. 

This year, large language model apps have been introduced to the public. These "artificial intelligence " programs communicate in a more natural appearing way. They are tapping into the language usage of millions of people. The information they present is a mixture of common beliefs and whatever happens to be on the internet.  Often this generates statements of what "should" be - a combination of wish and logic. We are repeatedly told that it is flawed, but it makes tasks too easy to set it aside completely. 

Like the intelligence of the spies sent by Moses on Tisha Ba'av, the intelligence of large language models cannot avoid popular prejudice. Those prejudices can mislead to alienation, exile and the wrath of Gd.

The danger of large language models is magnified by its youth. I see my  2 and 3 year old grandchildren develop facility with language.  I see how language is a scaffold upon which  dreams and ideas can be built.  I hear the wildly erroneous first impressions tha language development can create. As the child grows, some errors are corrected, others are adorned and made acceptable by eloquence. I suspecct the same will happen with LLM AI.  Beware of the eloquence. 

Matos-Massei:Chiasmus of closure

 

 This week's double parsha is the end of the narrative.  Yes, there is a fifth book, Devraim - and it will be read over the next two months - but it is a coda, a recap of events that end now. As a literary device, the end often reflects the beginning. 

 

The parsha starts 

אִישׁ֩ כִּֽי־יִדֹּ֨ר נֶ֜דֶר לַֽ  י  אֽוֹ־הִשָּׁ֤בַע שְׁבֻעָה֙ לֶאְסֹ֤ר אִסָּר֙ עַל־נַפְשׁ֔וֹ לֹ֥א יַחֵ֖ל דְּבָר֑וֹ כְּכׇל־הַיֹּצֵ֥א מִפִּ֖יו יַעֲשֶֽׂה׃

 

If a man vow a vow to the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

 

Keeping a pledge has great significance. 

 

When Adam was created, he was instructed not to eat of one tree in the garden. Although his acceptance of this command as a pledge is not stated, it is implied. Adam's violation led to a profanation of his life, a יַחֵ֖ל, (yachail); life became ordinary. 

 

The next section of the parsha deals with the vows of women and the ability of men to annul them. This is a hard section for a modern person. As I mention it, I can feel some of the anger of my wife and daughters and non-male friends. The echo of Eve feeding Adam the forbidden fruit is no comfort - just another misogynous story. The legalistic interpretation that it applies primarily to people we would now consider minors (girls under 12 1/2 years old) and issues that are best negotiated between marital partners generally does not mollify the anger  generated by the stated prejudice against women. I am comfortable that prejudice is a principle that confronts Torah law; the battle is disquieting.

 

 

 

When Adam and Eve are banished from the garden, their longing for return does not need statement. Likewise the Isrealites who have been expelled from everywhere, even their Egyptian slavery, want to settle after their forty year wander. The entry into the land of milk and honey is a return to Eden.

 

But the fruit that brings death to the world has been consumed. The tree of opinions will have its impact. People will be killed by scheme. Others will die by accident. Avengers will make judgements. Justice must be protected. The killer must have a refuge, like Cain after the manslaughter of Abel she must go into exile. The death of the high priest heralds the release from protective custody, as the death of Aaron and the ascent of Elazar presaged the entry into the Promised Land. Don’t forget that the Levites slaughtered their brothers after the incident of the golden calf. They, like Cain, become urban dwellers, exiled from the land.

 

The war against Midian is very troubling:

 

 

נְקֹ֗ם נִקְמַת֙ בְּנֵ֣י , מֵאֵ֖ת הַמִּדְיָנִ֑ים אַחַ֖ר תֵּאָסֵ֥ף אֶל־עַמֶּֽיךָ׃

 

“Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin.”

 

Og and Sichon and brought armies and they were defeated. Their unpromised lands were annexed into the settlement. Midian was a different category. They harbored Billam, the secret weapon of the enemy. Their people tried to seduce the Israelites into a union that offended the Gd that was the foundation of their national identity. Some Midianites were extraordinarily good. Jethro had rescued Moses and Moses had married his daughter. It was while shepherding for Jethro that Moses discovered the burning bush, launching the revolution that liberated Israel.  Moses was warring against his in laws.  And Pinchas, descended from a Midianite mother was the master of war.

 

Beyond the fratricide was the insistence on killing noncombatant women and male children. The insistence on annihilation is like Samuel’s criticism of king Saul for sparing king Agag and the sheep of Amalek. I am sure that this belligerence bothered the generations of commentators living in exiles that victimized Jews.  They saw the provocation in these passages.How does this reflect on the war in Ukraine?

 

War against concepts is common. World war II was a battle with Nazism and Fascism. The cold war enemy was communism. I do not understand Midianism, I do not know its details, but it had become the enemy.

 

I am the heir of a very complex vow made at Sinai. It has elements that I do not understand. I struggle with them. “You will find everything in the struggle.”

 

 

 

 

 

PInchas: Succession

 

PInchas: Succession

 

Succession was an extraordinarily popular television series, ostensibly about the inheritance of a huge media fortune. It explored the fantasies of grandeur of the children of Logan Roy, a shadow of Rupert Murdoch, owner of the News Company, hence Fox News – an entity that advanced the science of propaganda to a new level..  This week’s parsha, Pinchas, is  a root story of succession.

The legacy problem arose two weeks ago, in parshat Chukath. That parsha began with instructions for the red heifer ash water needed to purify those contaminated by exposure to death. The instructions are given to Elazar, Aaron’s son. Aaron has retired; the ashes will soon be used to cleanse those exposed to the corpse tumah ( impurity) that will be generated by Aaron’s death. Elazar is designated as his successor in a ritual of euthanasia that includes the transfer of the priestly vestments.

 

Last week’s parsha ended with Elazar’s son, born to a Midianite woman, Pinchas, killing a prominent member of the Simon tribe, and a Midianite princess for their intimacy. In this week’s parsha, Pinchas’ act of passion is represented as a service to the Israelites.  It has turned away the wrath of Gd from destroying the people.

The story is not a cautionary against intermarriage. Pinchas’ mother and  Moses’ wife are foreign, Midianites. The adoption of new traditions, and the associated gods, is identified as the capital offence.

While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women,

who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. The menfolk partook of them and worshiped that god.

 

It is all in the predicate.

 

Half-breed Pinchas receives the covenant of shalom ( calligraphed in the Torah with a broken vav). [A television western series {1956-1958} about a peace arrangement between the Apache and US Mail was called Broken Arrow]. Pinchas will be the next high priest and his sons will serve after him. He has usurped his brothers’ superior lineage.  He has made his own yichus (pedigree); that is something my mother told me to do.

A descendent of Pinchas, a son of Eli, shared his name. He appears ( with his brother Hofni)  in the story of the birth ( and ascent) of the prophet Samuel.  Father Eli appears to be both the major prophet and high priest.  His sons, including Pinchas II, are unworthy. Rather the foster son, Samuel, a descendant of another revolutionary -Korach- becomes the great prophet. The story turns with the generations; it is a soap opera.

 

The story of the Divine legitimization of Pichas’ primacy is immediately followed by a catalogue of the families that will take possession of the (soon to be conquered) Promised Land. A few (6) women are named as (potential) heirs: the five daughters of Zelophchad and Serach, daughter of Asher.  The daughters of Zelophchad  bring their case for a share in the inheritance (to be distributed to daughters) before Moses. Surprisingly, Moses brings the question to Gd and … the ruling favors the women. ( Ah, the old Supreme Court). [ Don’t worry, their rights will soon be curtailed {temporarily}]. This successful coup for equality  is a lasting encouragement to champion justice. These little surprises are so exciting.

Finally, Moses is confronted with his death.  He asks that a successor be chosen.  The logical candidate would have been  from the numerically dominant tribe of Judah, his brother in law ( Miriam’s husband), Caleb. Caleb preceded Joshua in trying to convince the Israelites to have the confidence to fight against the odds for the Promised Land.  Surprise! Joshua will be the heir.

In stories, merit wins over pedigree. Sometimes that happens in real life. Sometimes merit just gets redefined.