Deciphering The Divine

Rabbi Michael Berger is all for decoding the Bible,
as long as it's done scientifically.

SUSAN TAWIL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

W

/—'

haT's new tHat's evEn
in HeBrew? A bIg- time
BestseLler. ThE book's
Claim: TOrah is De-
signEr-made.
Which book? Take the first "t"
in the paragraph above, and skip
every sixth letter. What you get
is The Bible Code, the current in-
ternational bestseller by Michael
Drosnin.
While this is old news to be-
lieving Jews, the book reveals for
the first time to the general pub-
lic what appears to be scientific
"proof' that the Bible is divine.
How do the codes work? Ob-
viously, the above "code" did not
happen accidentally. But what if
the word "Drosnin" (the book's
author) would also be in this ar-
ticle with equal letter skips, or an
equidistant letter sequence
(ELS), of the word "bestseller?"
That would be clever, but it
would mean nothing, other than
that an inordinate amount of
time was spent contriving codes.
However, what if a story were

found today in a newspaper from
1827 with the words "Drosnin,"
"bestseller" and "Bible code" en-
coded? Hmmm
Now, what if hundreds or
thousands of sets of contempo-
rary related words were found at
ELSs near each other in a docu-
ment thousands of years old?
This, indeed, has reportedly
been found in the Torah.
Rabbi Michael Berger, educa-
tional director of metro Detroit's
Aish HaTorah, studied mathe-
matics at Washington Universi-
ty. In 1980, he went to Jerusalem
to study at Aish HaTorah and
met Dr. Eliyahu Rips and Doron
Witztum, who were conducting
computer code research on the
Torah at the Hebrew University.
Drosnin refers to their research
in his book.
Since then, Rabbi Berger has
been teaching about the codes for
Aish HaTorah and at Discovery
Seminars throughout North
America.
On Thursday, July 31, Rabbi

1E-Z

Berger presehted a lecture on
Bible codes at the Hadassah
House in West Bloomfield. Us-
ing overhead transparencies,
he explained how the codes
work, amazing participants
with displays of Torah text em-
bedded with minimal ELS
word groupings such as "Sa-
dat," "murder," "parade," "8
Tishrei" (the date of Anwar Sa-
dat's assassination), and
"Khaled Islambuli" (the assas-
sin's name).
"So, did it have to happen?"
an audience member asked.
Rabbi Berger explains:
"Everyone has free will, but all
possible futures are foreseen."
Having taught Torah codes
for the past 13 years, Rabbi Rabbi Michael Berger: Predicting is dangerous.
Berger is ambivalent about the
hoopla over The Bible Code. Dros- code study have disassociated ball game in the year 2000! This
is irresponsible and dangerous
nin has created quite a sensation themselves from The Bible Code.
The
main
problem
with
the
—
you could have some nuts read
with his book, with interviews on
"Oprah" and other TV and radio book, according to Rabbi Berger, it and start a Jonestown again.
talk shows, articles in Time mag- is that Drosnin uses the code ef- The codes are real, but they are
azine, the New York Times, all fect to predict the future, some- not for fortune telling. Sensa-
over the Internet, and in numer- thing all serious researchers tionalism destroys their credibil-
agree cannot be done. For in- ity." El
ous other publications.
stance,
Drosnin found an ELS for
Although Rabbi Berger ac-
knowledges that the book has the Hebrew words "Atomic Holo-
Rabbi Berger will speak on
brought public attention to the caust," appearing near the date
the Bible codes at a Discovery
code phenomenon, he feels the 5760 (secular year 2000), trig-
Seminar at 9:30 a.m. Sunday,
book is sensationalized and un- gering doomsday predictions.
"How can he say his interpre-
Sept. 7, at the Maple-Drake
scientific, and notes that Dr. Rips,
tations
are
true?"
said
Rabbi
JCC.
For information, call Aish
Doron Witztum, Aish HaTorah
HaTorah, (248) 737-0400.
and others involved in scientific Berger. "Maybe 'Atomic Holo-
caust' will be the name of a pin-

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