The Bible Code - Holy or Hole-y

The History Channel recently featured a lengthy program called "The Bible Code." The Bible Code is a computer generated search of the Hebrew Torah Text for "grids" of words that allegedly prophesize some cataclysmic historical event such as Napoleon's conquests, World War II, or 9/11. The Bible Code turns the Torah into a giant word search and purports to describe the past and predict the future - even the End of Days!

According to the Bible Code, the End of Days will be caused by a collision between earth and an asteroid or, wait, in another grid by an atomic explosion, or, check this grid out, "The comet will be crumbled." Choose your doomsday or survival scenario. It's all in the Bible, somehow, somewhere, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, backwards. So many letters. So many possibilities - and no mention at all of the fact that Hebrew is a compact language. A word's meaning can be expressed in 2 or 3 "root" letters. Despite the earnest explanations of "experts," there are holes in the Bible Code theory big enough to pass a stack of Talmudic commentaries through.

For added audience appeal, the program raised the provocative question, "Who wrote the Bible code?" Was it God or possibly extraterrestrials? From the divine to the ridiculous, the Bible Code has it all.

I have three words (that I can use in a "family" blog) for the Bible Code - waste of time!

Instead of embracing an arcane approach to Biblical revelations, one need only go to a synagogue before Shabbat morning services. There, you are likely to find a group intently employing a time-honored method of discovering the meaning of Biblical texts. It's called Torah Study - no computer gimicks or alien wisdom needed!