To
whit, if there can be established recurring patterns throughout the
five books of the Torah, the case that the work is the product of a
single author is greatly strengthened. If those patterns are
intricate and complex, the case is readily made that the Author
was
divine.
In
part
of the book Dr.
Appleson
illustrates
the problems
of
the Documentary
Hypothesis,
including the elucidation
of the great 19th
century scholar and Gadol
b’Torah
Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann zt”l,
the
rector of the Hildesheimer Seminary in Berlin (and predecessor of my
personal hero, Rabbi Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan zt”l).
Other
mathematicians have tried to demonstrate the intricacies of the
Torah’s patterns via the Bible
Codes. Dr. Appleson
focuses
not on the patterns of letters,
but on patterns of themes.
The
key, to discerning the recurring themes, is an understanding of the
little-studied structure of parshiyos
pesuchos
(sections of Torah that end with a gap from the last letter of the
section until the end of the line of text – with
the next section beginning on the next line)
and parshiyos
situmos
(sections of the Torah that end with a gap of nine letters between
the end of the section and the beginning of the next session –
which thus begins on the same line).
Dr.
Appleson’s
work is an elaboration and expansion of
builds on the work of Rabbi Yehoshua Honigwachs in his 1991 book The
Unity of Torah.
Rabbi
Honigwachs proposed an organizing principle based on five thematic
links within the Ten
Commandments.
Dr.
Appleson
calls these links, which
emerge from the Midrash
Halachah
known as the Mechilta,
“Shared
Principles.”
1.
Respecting creation
2.
Loyalty to primary relationship
3.
Limited access to sanctity/resources
4.
Duties of testimony/community
5.
Accepting one's place/status (with ties to land/future)
Taking
the position that parshiyos pesuchos are
primary sections, while parshiyos situmos
are
subsections, Dr. Appleson demonstrates that the principles
recur in
discernible, consistent
patterns
throughout the Torah.
Dr.
Appleson
tries
to avoid language that would turn off a non-mathematician. At
least in my case, he has not succeeded in the attempt. Those inclined
to think mathematically will enjoy the book and find it stimulating.
For
those inclined to think creatively and unsystematically (like myself)
it is a bit of a slog!
While
Dr. Appleson would be the first to admit that no one approach refutes
the Documentary Hypothesis in and of itself, this book goes far in
highlighting
the unity of the Torah. Indeed,
even were one to just gain the insights into the parshiyos
pesuchos and
situmos
developed in the work, one would emerge greatly edified from the
perusal of ,Patterns
on Parchment – The Structural Unity of The Five Books of Moses.
--
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YGB - יג"ב at 1/22/2018 09:48:00 PM