TORAH CODE BASICS: Matrices, Axis Term, Row Split, Word Frequency, Matrix Size, Spelling, and Wrapped Matrices
The Original Torah Code Hypothesis. The Torah Codes Hypothesis states that historically related words can be found at an Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) deliberately encoded together in Torah matrices that are smaller (more compact) than similar matrices found in non-religious texts. I have modified this hypothesis somewhat in a manner discussed at Talmud & Names to account for the fact that most names requiring more than 8 Hebrew letters will not be found in the Torah Code.
While there is a rabbinical tradition to support such encoding in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible), there is no such tradition for the rest of the Bible. Although many hope to use the Torah Codes as a kind of crystal ball, it’s difficult to make predictions because you can not know ahead of time which words or names will be key terms to search for. For this reason, many researchers have limited their searches to events that have already occurred. However, once an individual accepts such non-predictive search limitations, their positive findings of proven past events become clouded by the issue of what they searched for and did not find or report. If we see only their successes, it will look very impressive. If we also see their failures, then the value of the successes can be more precisely appraised. As will be seen below, with respect to Ark Code research, this site discusses statistical significance. But in the end, success is judged by very clear predictive criteria: Do the maps found encoded eventually lead to recovery of the Ark of the Covenant in the area of 31o9’ North, 33o4’ East on the Bardawil or Zuqba Peninsula of Northern Egypt
Matrix
A matrix shows a portion of the cylinder’s surface area around the axis term which occurs at an ELS (Equidistant Letter Sequence). A matrix holds a-priori terms found near an axis term and a-posteriori terms noticed after the matrix was produced. A-priori terms are terms believed related to the axis term. They are sought before being found. Probabilities can be calculated for them. A-posteriori terms are noticed after the matrix was produced. Probabilities are usually inappropriate.
1. ELS. What is really meant by ELS? Bible Code search programs like CodeFinder can be used to find words in Biblical text that have an equal number of letters between each letter of a word. So In the sentence, “The Man walkEd out thE door inTo the stAnds thaT seated 8,000 fans,” there are some people who would say that "Meet at 8" encoded at an ELS interval of 7. However, this is only true if the sentence author deliberately wrote the sentence to hide this statement. It might well be true that these words were found by a program or researcher looking for letters (and numbers) at an ELS that happened to make a phrase or sentence. In this case, we are simply looking at a random product due to chance alone. And how can we distinguish what is due to deliberate encoding from what is due to chance? Unfortunately, in the case of most Bible ELS terms, we are often left to statistical analysis and a rigorous examination of procedures used by the ELS term finder. A key point about any matrix is that the first ELS found (the axis term) is portrayed with the interval or ELS being equal to the number of letters shown on each line, unless a “row skip” (explained below) is used. Note that the spaces between words are removed. So the example of an ELS above would appear in a “matrix’ as follows:M | A | N | W | A | L | K |
| E | D | O | U | T | T | H |
| E | D | O | O | R | I | N |
| T | O | T | H | E | S | T |
| A | N | D | S | T | H | A |
| T | S | E | A | T | E | D |
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | F | A | N |
| S |
| |||||
Axis Term
The first term sought is the “axis term.” The axis term appears vertically. Hebrew is normally read right to left. The code is really based on a spiraling cylinder. The ELS or “skip” of the axis term = the number of letters on each line. In general, the minimum length of an axis term should be at least 6 letters. Most often it is difficult to find axis terms longer than 8 letters unless one uses a wrapped search making more than one pass through the Torah.
Row Split
If a term like Ark of the Covenant has a skip or Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) of 306 letters, then the computer will place 306 letters on each line. When the second letter of the term arises, (without a row split) it will appear directly below or above the first letter. However, if a row split of 2 is used, the computer will only place half of the 306 (153) letters on each line and there will be an extra row between each of the letters of the axis term. If a row split of 3 is used, there will be two extra rows between each letter of the axis term. The larger the row split, the more terms you can match with an axis term, but it is also true that as row split increases, matrix significance generally decreases.
Word Frequency
Just as in English, some words are very high frequency (like THE or AND), in Hebrew two or three letter words are extremely high in frequency unless they are composed of somewhat rare letters. The higher the frequency of a word in the open text or at an ELS, the lower the significance of its match with an axis term.
Matrix Size
The bigger the matrix, the more likely it is that short or moderate length ELSs (up to 6 letters) will be found somewhere on the matrix. This is like looking in a phone book. If you rip a page out at random, and look for a single last name, it probably will not be there. But if you use the entire phone book, the chances to find it are greatly improved.
Spelling
Even within the Torah, there are multiple spellings of the same word. Code adversary Dr. Brendan McKay points out that the Rabbi Abulafia synagogue in Tiberias, Israel has the rabbi's name spelled four different ways on the same building. The more spellings one can use to find a match, the less signiificant the match will be. Such multiple spellings must be factored in to any probability calculation describing the significance of a matrix.
Wrapped Matrices
The best Torah Codes programs allow for the computer to make more than one pass through the 304,805 letters of Torah to find a term at an ELS. In general, this practice is most legitimate in search for axis terms that are 8 or more letters long because many terms this long can only be found with more than one Torah pass. The wrapped matrix mimics Jews reading the Torah. They finish reading the last word in Deuteronomy each Simchat Torah holiday, and then immediately begin reading at the first word in Genesis again.