If you are open-minded and
striving to reveal the truth
this book is for you!
Interview with author
Having been a dedicated student of mathematics, Torah, Talmud and Kabalah, Rabbi Gershon Kantorovich, a former immigrant from Russia who now resides in Israel, has been teaching Jewish literacy for 22 years. Rabbi Kantorovich graduated from Moscow State University with a M.Sc in Mathematics. He later worked for the Moscow Academic Institute of Mechanics and Computer technique.
Even in Moscow, he was fluent in Hebrew, which he learned in underground courses. There, he started to explore the classical Jewish texts. In Israel, he became a student in the Shvut Ami Yeshiva in Jerusalem. While studying the Kabalistic books, Zohar and Sefer Yezira (Book of Creation), he discovered a correlation between religion and modern science.
In his 17 years at the Yeshiva, he learned a broad perception of Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah studies. He received the official Rabbinical certificate from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, now deceased, r. Yitzhak Kolitz.
During these Yeshiva years, he would teach new immigrants about Jewish Literacy, but he never forgot about mathematics. In realizing that there was a serious lack of special literature that could suit the intellectuals of the 21st Century, he compiled his own book which he has worked on for more than seven years. Just a few months ago the 1st volume of "Ken Torah" was published.
Correspondent: Gershon, please tell our readers what is this book about? Why do you believe that it would attract the modern reader who knows only a little about Jewish Tradition?
Gershon: The book serves as a window to a universe, where divine aspects intersect with physical phenomena. A person who opens the Torah for the first time in his life might consider the text as a novel, or sometimes as a boring set of laws and judgments. It is possible to think that Torah and our physical world exist in parallel planes, however I attempted to prove that these planes intersect in many places.
Correspondent: Maybe you are just trying to be popular? It is not a secret that today's world is crazy about Kabalah and perhaps you hope that readers will be attracted by using this term?
Gershon: According to my approach, Kabalah and science are equal means for the unique perception of the Universe. I never "play" with the Kabalah terminology, like other authors used to do. Instead I introduce it when necessary, and only in those cases, when they can really assist in solving serious problems. It is worthwhile to remember that Kabalah is only a method in order to explain the universe phenomena, although it's not always comprehended by the public. While it sounds trivial, I would like to confirm that there is only one universe. Religion and science describe it, possibly, from different points of view and using different languages. However, I believe that if each one of them will be comprehended, we can move toward the unique universe perception. I tried my best in order to make the first step to reach this objective in my book.
Correspondent: I have read separate chapters of your book. You touch on a wide subject area: from time definition and time leaps during the Great Flood to the explanation of recently revealed the modern genetics laws. What are the intrinsic logics of your narrative?
Gershon: In my mind, there is currently a deep lack of appropriate literature which presents Judaism on a systematic basis beginning from its basics and assisting a reader to comprehend its most significant problems. I, as a person who got secular education based on traditional methods of lectures and textbooks, always felt a lack of this systematic approach. That is why while writing this book, I made it in a textbook form using a progression from simple issues to complicated issues. I tried to explain the most complicated issues from the means of the full spectrum of my knowledge. Thus, this is how the chapters on the Great Flood and genetics were composed.
Correspondent: But do you think that your suggestion regarding the revealing of the Bermuda triangle mystery using Kabalistic teachings does not sound a bit pretentious?
Gershon: Certainly, I do not pretend to have unequivocally solved
the problem. However, an explanation of a number and structure of huge oceanic streams incidentally led me to a possible reason of the Bermuda anomaly. The point is, that while moving, mainly, along a closed circle for centuries, all oceanic streams have their own source, which they flow out as from a huge funnel, and further move as a gigantic flow for thousands of kilometers. A source for the Gulf Stream is one of these sucking-in water injecting funnels, which is situated in the Sargasso Sea where the Bermuda Triangle is also located.
Correspondent: Gershon, you are a mathematician. So where does your aspiration to learn the basics of anthropology and genetics come from? Where did you get your knowledge of these areas?
Gershon: Based on the system of spiritual worlds and functions of angels at different levels learned from Kabalah, discussed in the book, I suddenly came to the conclusion that it is a copy of a cell structure with its 24-th chromosome of the human body. By reading many monographs on genetics and thoroughly learning materials on the Web, I was able to provide not only an explanation on the chromosome's structure and the cell division process, but also to the origin and roots of various genetic diseases. The book contains an exciting trip to a world of cells narrated in a simple language, and at the same time professionals can be content with its exact and detailed data on malignant blood diseases and the so-called Jewish genetic diseases accompanied with their classification and explanation of their spiritual nature. Using medical statistics made it possible to explain how during reincarnations souls are cut off on a genetic level due to some of the most-widespread sins described in Torah. I was lead toward anthropology by the spatial structure of space, which I still don't fully understand. It can amazingly increase and reduce objects in each of the dimensions, irrespective of each other. Since measure units in Judaism are separate parts of a human body, for example an elbow and a palm, Talmud and Rabbinical literature of the Middle Ages provide an immense "database" on this area. It was not easy to understand contradictions between measuring procedures made during several epochs and in different regions, but as a result a scientifically proved systematization of human body size changes, beginning in the Talmudic time (2 CE) till the present, was carried out.
Correspondent: But why were you, a Russian speaking Jew, so interested in the topic of Qumran scrolls?
Gershon: It happened due to a sudden discovery that a boom followed by the distribution of Christianity took place in the year when daily sacrifices in the Temple were stopped. This somehow reduced the influence of Judaism and gave an opportunity to other believes. It turned out that this phenomena future implementation of the bible providence was foretold in the Book of Daniel. A chronological correspondence between these events is based on the chronicles of that epoch, especially in "The Annals" of Tacitus. However, the most interesting fact was that two men with a name of Jesus (Yeshua) existed. The well known one lived not long before the Second Temple was destroyed, and the second one with the same name lived about one hundred years earlier. He was mentioned both in Jewish and early Christian sources. However, the most important fact is that he is a key person in the scrolls found in Qumran. Thus, the laws of the Qumran community were similar to the Christian laws. Vatican even discussed a possibility for including the Qumran scrolls into the canonic Christian books. It was further strengthened by the fact that the founder of the Qumran community had the same name as Yeshua. A reader of my book will learn regarding these people identification and their impact on the world history.
Correspondent: Gershon, your affirmation that knowledge of ancient Egyptians significantly exceeds the Greeks' conception on the universe, seems to me to be a quite doubtful issue. Could you explain what do you mean?
Gershon: I am not going to discuss this in details, but it is well known that the founders of the Greek philosophy, especially Plato, went to learn from Egyptian priests who were keepers of the Egyptian knowledge on the universe. However, even after the training, the priests talked about them indulgently as they would about children, who were not able to learn the Egyptian wisdom. To be honest, I am still under the influence of the culture of ancient Egypt, which in many aspects remains to be a puzzle for humanity. With my Kabalistic knowledge I tried to set this curtain ajar. Using ancient papyruses and "The book of Dead" made it possible to learn about ancient Egyptian concepts regarding Heaven and to explain the meaning of funeral laws: mummification, coffins' numbers in a tomb, and etc. The book contains parallels with Jewish concepts of life after death (based on Zohar, the fundamental book of Kabbalah). It also explains a hidden meaning of the Exodus from Egypt, Holy Providence and ten plagues, which were inflicted prior to it. However, besides the explanations of esoteric customs and their concepts on after death life, the book contains multiple illustrations, including portraits of ancient Egyptians, whose spiritual and intellectual strength are amazing. The Greek masterpieces look like stone "babushkas" in comparison with them.
Correspondent: Let's talk about problems related to our close relatives and neighbors, sons of Ishmael, in other words, Arabs. As far as I know, your book also includes an analysis of the roots of the conflict between Arabs and Israelis. How did you get to this, and what were the results?
Gershon: I already mentioned, that my book "dictated" me the topics in the process of writing it. Taking into account that Ishmael's mother, the ancestor of Arabs, was an Egyptian, while understanding at the same time the controversy of the Abraham-Egyptian parenting couple, it is simple to determine the national character of Arabs. During the peak of the last Intifada of 2000-2003, when heart of the every single jew tore at notice of daily terror attacks, I started a search on its reasons and consequences. The book contains the detailed information on this topic. I would like to mention that using sad statistics on more than one thousand victims it was possible to prove the existence of Holy Providence. The groups of people with increased chances to get into this or that terror act were defined. Though, of course, this theory has a nature of probability and does not deal directly with each individual. The book has the theory's grounds accompanied with numbers.
Correspondent: A rather large part of the book is dedicated to the explanation of Jewish laws. Did you manage to inform a reader on something innovative?
Gershon: The book indeed contains explanations on many Torah laws, for example, Sukkah laws and the meaning of actions made with "four species" (Arba Minim), which are obligatory for this Holiday. Explanations are taken from Kabalah, but I tried to "translate" them to the language understandable for contemporary people. From my point of view, a reader will learn a lot about Jewish providence from the chapters dedicated to Chanukah and Purim. Among other information the book analyzes in detail, the laws on writing Jewish letters in Jewish Sacred Texts which shows a reason why, for example, it is so important to have at home a Kosher Mezuzah. There are explanations of the Jewish Tradition Rules based on Kabalah regarding the separate reincarnation for women and men in order to provide their further improvement. But the essence of the book is the ways how one has to avoid further improvements upon the complete fulfillment of one's role on Earth. Here, a mystery curtain over the Existence laws is set ajar, and there are explanations on how to build lives in order to prevent being lonely at the end of the day, without a family with children.
Correspondent: Please tell me, Gershon, why did you, a person who was raised and educated in the Russian speaking environment, write your first book in Hebrew?
Gershon: Initially, by writing this book my major goal was to present materials in an easy and understandable language. I already get the public opinions that I have succeeded. The book indeed includes many quotations from Zohar, Talmud and Tanakh (the Bible), but I always tried to accompany it with simple Hebrew translations and text explanations. Let us return to the issue - why the book was written in Hebrew? It is necessary to notice that first of all I apply to the Hebrew speaking readers and those who are acquainted with Jewish Tradition and are, consequently, close to the topics discussed in the book. Furthermore, Hebrew is a language which provides an appropriate reflection of all Judaism and Kabalistic terminology, and it is not necessary to search on how to translate various terms into Russian while they belong neither to Russian language nor to Russian culture.
Correspondent: Gershon, do you plan to translate your book into other languages, such as English and Russian?
Gershon: Yes, of course, according to my mentality and education I continue to be "an FSU immigrant". Furthermore, I think that this book must be interesting to a large group of secular readers in Israel, Russia, and USA. It was evident when my wife lectured to the seminar participants in Dnepropetrovsk. Using the ideas of the book she told them about Purim events' mystery, and, though, these events were described in the advanced chapters of the book, full of the Kabalistic perception this lecture raised a true interest among the participants. Then, she was invited with this lecture to other cities, including Moscow, Minsk, Birobidzhan. That is why it is obvious that the book has to be translated. The only problem is how to find a financial support.
Correspondent: Gershon, thank you very much for this interview. I wish you success in distribution of your innovative ideas discussed in this - by the way - perfectly published book. In conclusion, I would like to add that the name of the book is "Ken Torah" (The Nest of Torah). This name is not only similar to the surname of its author but also is a landing space for Torah in our, full of modern realities world.
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