Q&A: Rabbi Yaniv’s Books
Rabbi Yaniv’s Books
Question
Hello.
I saw an article (in Makor Rishon) about Rabbi Shmuel Yaniv and his approach. I assume the Rabbi is familiar with his method. He shows, through various kinds of skip-code methods in the Torah, that codes are embedded in it, and by means of this he proves its divine origin. It is interesting that he cites an ongoing debate among statisticians regarding these proofs. There he claims that Professor Doron Witztum wrote an article in a scientific journal, and after researchers argued that there was nothing to what he said, he offered a million dollars to anyone who could refute his claims. Is the Rabbi familiar with the topic? Does the Rabbi have anything to add on the matter?
Best regards, Asaf Nashri
Answer
I know it well, and I’m not very impressed. Rabbi Yaniv, with all due respect (he was my yeshiva teacher in sixth year), understands nothing about this and has no mathematical education. More than once I heard from him about astonishing mathematical wonders and innovations in the Torah that any kindergarten child could explain.
Regarding Witztum and his colleagues (such as Eliyahu Rips), some of them are very serious mathematicians, but the matter is still disputed among experts. From what I’ve seen, it seems dubious to me. Beyond that, even a review committee established by the Hebrew University to examine the matter, which included Aumann and Furstenberg, two truly great mathematicians, concluded that there is no clear evidence there.
An offer of a million dollars doesn’t mean much as long as you don’t specify who the committee will be that checks those refutations, since many have refuted it and Witztum and Rips simply do not accept their arguments. All the more so since this is mere posturing.