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