Q&A: The Atbash Method
The Atbash Method
Question
Hello Michael, how can phenomena that seem unlikely be explained, like this phenomenon that the days of Passover correspond to other dates on the calendar?
More specifically: the letter aleph corresponds to tav, so the weekday on which the first day of Passover falls corresponds to the weekday on which the Ninth of Av falls.
Bet corresponds to shin—the second day of Passover falls on the same weekday as Shavuot.
Gimel corresponds to resh—Rosh Hashanah, and so on…
Is there some probabilistic calculation for this? Is it just a trick that looks unlikely but is actually very likely? Is it really unlikely, but unlikely things happen too? Is it from Heaven? What is your explanation for phenomena like these in general, and for this phenomenon in particular?
Answer
I don’t think it’s all that unlikely. There are tons of concepts and combinations in the whole body of Torah and Jewish law, so they found one combination here that works this way. I don’t see anything special in it. Especially since it’s possible that these names were chosen from the outset to fit this structure. These names were given by the Torah / the Holy One, blessed be He, and were not just assigned at random.