5

According to some online sources, if you take every 50th letter of the first two books of the Torah, you'll end up with a repetition of the word "Torah". And the same applies but backwards for the 4th and 5th books.

And the same counting in the 3rd book will give G-d's Name.

Is this true?

MrD
  • 177
  • 1
  • 1
  • 7
  • 9
    Did you try counting? – Double AA Jul 24 '16 at 02:50
  • 1
    It would help a lot if you could cite the online source you think you saw this. Did you try a web search to locate the source? If nothnig appears, then, apparently, there is NO online source, right? – DanF Jul 24 '16 at 03:04
  • 1
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because because the answer can be found without knowledge. It is as is it true that all 50 days the sun is not shine – kouty Jul 24 '16 at 03:46
  • @DanF Apparently they found it here: http://www.bereanpublishers.com/a-hidden-torah-secret/ – Mithical Jul 24 '16 at 07:25
  • @kouty where did you get you guidelines for what is on topic? – mevaqesh Jul 24 '16 at 23:30
  • As an aside: why is it relevant if this word is spelt out every 50 letters – bondonk Jul 26 '16 at 19:25
  • See also https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/95443/170 – msh210 Sep 16 '18 at 04:27

5 Answers5

15

The effect was among many found by Rabbi Dov Weismandel (originally from Prague) in the 1950s in New York. It was his discoveries that motivated all the Torah Code stuff, but he made no claims about finding meaning from these patterns; at least not beyond finding them an indication of Divine Authorship.

Anyway, start with the "ת" at the end of the word "בראשית", so the first letter of the pattern is the 6th letter of the Torah. Now, skip ahead 49 letters to get to the "ו" of "תהום", then another 49 -- the "ר" of "וירא", and finally the "ה" of "א-להים". Similarly in Shemos, start with the first "ת", ie one in the title word, count ahead 49, etc... (That's intervals of 49, ie the 50th letter.) Bamidbar spells "הרות" (Torah backwords) and Vayiqra only shows the effect on the 49th letter (invervals of 48) and only when starting from a later "ה", in verse 5. As for Vayiqra, R' Weismandel found Hashem's name starting from the first "י" and counting 8s. And so on...

So, if we change "every 50th letter of the first two books of the Torah, you'll end up with a repetition of the word 'Torah'" to doing it once from the first "ת" in each book, the emended claim would be true.

Micha Berger
  • 9,648
  • 33
  • 41
  • It did Not take place in Prague. – Dr. Shmuel Feb 26 '18 at 20:03
  • Indeed he moved to the NY area after the war and established a yeshiva there. If the date is correct then the place cannot be – mbloch Sep 16 '18 at 03:45
  • 1
    Nearly 4 years later, emmended. – Micha Berger Jul 14 '23 at 18:04
  • @MichaBerger i attempted to do this on my own here https://github.com/alilland/bible-code/blob/main/src/index.ts, i grabbed a copy of the westminster leningrad text because i had heard it was the oldest. is it known what manuscript to start with? – alilland Jul 18 '23 at 05:18
  • These things are usually done with the halachically accepted Mesoretic text. Whether or not someone would make it an article of faith that the halachic text is the most like the original, it is the text that the Author of history expects us to be using at a time when we have the kinds of tools that make such searches manageable. – Micha Berger Jul 20 '23 at 22:06
  • 1
    Rav Weismandel was born (4 Cheshvan 5664) in Debreczyn – Imanonov Feb 06 '24 at 19:49
6

The question as asked is not factually true. However, if you start from the first Taf, ת, and count fifty letters, then it does work out.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_code

Nic
  • 3,705
  • 13
  • 26
5

This is factually untrue. You only need to get 50 letters into the first book of the Torah to discover the letter Lamed, ל, in Bereishit 1:2. Likewise in the book of Shemot, the 50th letter is a Shin, ש, in Shemot 1:2.

The 50th, 100th and 150th letters of the book of Vayikra are א, then ר and מ respectively.

Note that this answers the actual question, and does not address the patterns mentioned in the comments.

Whoever thought that one up really didn't think it through at all.

Community
  • 1
Chaim
  • 4,349
  • 15
  • 29
1

Rav Weismandel zl describes it here in his Sefer Toras Chemed תורת חמ"ד. I'm surprised nobody mentioned that towards the end of each ספר (besides ויקרא), it also spells תורה backwards, as described in the above ספר. His pupil Rav Ezriel Tauber zl used to tell over that later in Rav Weissmandel's life he discovered that also in the middle of ספר ויקרא, from the first י in פרשת קדושים, he found the שם הויה with a gap of 49 letters! The amazing thing is that he discovered all this long before the existence of computers!

Imanonov
  • 1,291
  • 7
  • 7
0

As the 50th letter of B'reishit is a Lamed, ל, (which makes a 'L' sound) not a Taf, ת, {which makes a 'T' sound), I think that that can prove that this is not true.

Mithical
  • 773
  • 6
  • 23