Nadene Goldfoot
Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson" Born and educated in Israel, receiving a rigorous traditional Yeshiva education that provided profound textual skills in Hebrew and rabbinic literature. 1964: A Move to South Africa Johannesburg Relocated to Johannesburg, where he established and served as the head of the Yeshivah Torat Emet, demonstrating early leadership in Jewish education. When I moved to Israel in 1980, this rabbi in 1980 also returned to Israel: He returned as a Prolific Author , returning to Israel and began a prolific period of teaching and writing, authoring over 30 books and a weekly newspaper column applying his methods to current events.
Above the Zodiac: Astrology in Jewish Thought uncovers the profound connection between Jewish mysticism and classic astrology by citing the many references scattered throughout Jewish literature to the influence of the stars on human destiny. Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson gives a month-by-month rendering of Jewish astrology according to kabbalah, summarizing the complex system of elements in Jewish thought that correlates to each astrological sign. His book also explains the unique relationship the Jewish people have to astrology, and under what circumstances astrological consultations are permitted to individuals."
Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS)
The core modern technique. The Torah text is viewed as a single, continuous string of letters. A computer searches for words by starting at a letter and skipping an equal number of letters. When related terms are found in close proximity, it is presented as a statistically unlikely, and therefore divinely intended, encoded message.
With the expectation that we are living in "the end of times"," the bible code" has again come into focus. What does Dr. Eliyahu Rips say about Matityahu Glazerson's bible coding translating or understanding? They each take quite a different approach from each other.
Born in Latvia to Holocaust survivors in 1948, Rips moved to Israel in 1972; his research led to Michael Drosnin’s debunked bestseller ‘The Bible Code’
Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a mathematician known for his work on the Torah codes, distanced himself from sensational and predictive interpretations of the codes, which have been a hallmark of Matityahu Glazerson's work. Rips and his colleagues conducted statistical research on equidistant letter sequences (ELS) in the Book of Genesis, but rejected the use of these codes for specific, real-world predictions. No, Dr. Eliyahu Rips was not a Rabbi; he was a mathematician known for his research in geometric group theory and his work on the Bible code. While he was an Israeli mathematician and a professor at Hebrew University, his public recognition stemmed from his controversial claims about finding coded messages in the Torah, not from rabbinical studies or ordination. He died at age 75.
| Aspect | Dr. Eliyahu Rips (and colleagues) | Matityahu Glazerson |
|---|---|---|
| Focus of the work | Statistical research to see if meaningful ELS appeared more often than would be expected by chance. He initially focused on finding the names and dates of famous rabbis in Genesis. | Interpretation of specific tables and encoded words to offer prophecies and insights into current events. |
| View on predictions | Categorically stated that the codes cannot be used for predictions. In 1997, he denounced Michael Drosnin's predictive work in the book The Bible Code as being "on very shaky ground, and is of no value". | Has used the codes to interpret and predict events, such as linking codes to the events of 2012. This is a key difference in their approaches. |
| Scientific validity | Rips's own 1994 paper was later rebutted in the same journal, Statistical Science, by other statisticians who found his methodology fatally defective. However, Rips maintained faith in his own work while rejecting the later, more sensationalist approaches. | Glazerson is part of a wave of "Bible code-breakers" whose methods and conclusions Rips came to reject as unscientific and unreliable for predictive purposes. |
| Distance from interpreters | Following the publication of Drosnin's book, Rips actively distanced himself and his work from those who used the codes for predictive purposes. He even held a press conference to denounce the practice. | While Glazerson is a prominent figure in the Torah codes world, he continued with his interpretative and predictive work, putting him at odds with Rips's public stance. |
