DRAFT. This edition: January 28, 1998; First edition: September 19, 1997.
In [WRR1], Witztum, Rips and Rosenberg found a surprising correlation between famous rabbis and their dates of birth and death, as they appear as equidistant letter sequences in the Book of Genesis. We make a smaller or equal number of mistakes, and find the same phenomenon in Tolstoy's eternal creation "War and Peace".
Dror Bar-Natan Institute of Mathematics The Hebrew University Giv'at-Ram, Jerusalem 91904 Israel. drorbn@math.huji.ac.il |
Brendan McKay Department of Computer Science Australian National University Canberra, ACT, 0200 Australia. bdm@cs.anu.edu.au |
1. Introduction
1.1. Acknowledgement
2. Their choices, our choices
2.1. Modifications to specific appellations
2.2. Modifications to the list of personalities
2.3. Our list of appellations
3. The Results
4. Bibliography
Our inspiration comes fully from reading the paper [WRR1] by Witztum, Rips and Rosenberg (WRR). The outline of the story in [WRR1] is as follows:
In [WRR1], WRR write:
The list of appellations for each personality was provided by Professor S.Z. Havlin, of the department of bibliography and librarianship at Bar Ilan University, on the basis of a computer search of the "Responsa" database at that university.Contrary to what is suggested by the above quote, many of the appellations WRR do not even appear in the Bar-Ilan Responsa database [Re]. Thus in addition to the Responsa database [Re] we will also refer to the Margalioth Encyclopedia [Marg], used by WRR to select the rabbis, and to the highly-regarded Encyclopedia Hebraica [Heb] used by WRR in several of their other investigations. We (like WRR) also use other sources as needed.
The convergence of ינארט and his date of death, זומת ד"י, in War and Peace. |
We note that there may be a case for removing the name ןידמע altogether, for it is just the name of a town were the Yaabez was briefly a Rabbi, and not his last name. The Yaabez himself wrote in [Ya],
... The busy Yaakov Israel known as Yaabez good omen was never called Yaakov Emdyn (ןידמע) (as has done the honourable in the address on this letter as is the deplorable habit in the tongues of the people). It is known I am not from the people of Emdyn, was not born there, do not expect to see it, but am looking after its welfare and benefit as in the former times when I was under it's load, [and] so also am I now diligent for it's remedy. ...Little did his plea help, and the Yaabez has several common appellations which are variants of the word ןידמע. We keep them in our list.
At this point we got the advice of two wise men. One suggested that we look at [Hei], a book on the Jewish laws in the state of Moravia, where Rabbi Menachem Mendel was the state's Rabbi. From the other wise man we learned to check the citations in the footnotes. One footnote, on page 111 of [Hei], he checked himself. It lead to an article [Marx], that contain a letter written by the son of a nephew of Rabbi Menachem Mendel in the late 17th century, only a few dozen years after Rabbi Menachem Mendel died in 1661. In that letter Rabbi Menachem Mendel's surname is given as לאמחארק. The following day (and a continent away), we checked the footnote on page 102. It lead us to two articles, [Har] and [Ka], devoted to our Rabbi and his descendents. Both articles use the spelling לאמכארק extensively and not just in passing, and the latter one even explains where the name comes from! It relates the name לאמכארק to a certain earlier Dayan, Rabbi Jonah Krochmals in the city of Cracow, where Rabbi Menachem Mendel was born. A transcript of the tombstone of Rabbi Jonah Krochmals is given in [Zo, page 180] and Krochmals is spelled שלאמכארק there. Thus there is no doubt that the original spelling of the name Krochmal is לאמכארק and we remove the appellation למכורק from our list, putting לאמכארק instead.
Note that here we corrected new to old, while in the case of Rabbi II-25, Rabbi Yitshak HaLevi Horowitz we corrected old to new. Whatever inconsistencies WRR have we are allowed to have too.
We also note that once it is clear that לאמכארק is an acceptable spelling for Krochmal, the usage of this spelling is mandatory according to the WRR rules, which state explicitly that Yiddish names are spelled as in the original Yiddish. Recall that לאמכארק is a Yiddish word.
The story doesn't end there. When we tried to find ר"עה ח"א as a signature in Rabbi Ricchi's books, we failed. What we did find was a different permutation of these letters, רח"עהא, which appears with its expansion, יקיר יח לאונמע ריעצה ינא (me the young, Immanuel Hai Ricchi). We note that in Hebrew the latter expansion makes much more sense than the former, and that the dictionary of acronyms [AY] lists the latter acronym but not the former. Including "רח"עהא" as an appellation is senseless for the same reasons as above, but it still makes more sense than including "ר"עה ח"א". So we deleted "ר"עה ח"א" and inserted "רח"עהא".
After the first version of this note was widely circulated, we finally found a single reference to the variation ר"עה ח"א, in [Shi]. That source refers to an acronym that appears as a signature on an addendum, only available in Zurich, to Rabbi Ricchi's book "בשוח השעמ". Neither the original edition of that book, nor any of his other books that we checked, contain that acronym; the original edition of "בשוח השעמ", like many of Rabbi Ricchi's other books, contains רח"עהא. We don't have the resources to check the manuscript in Zurich, so at the moment we don't know if the acronym ר"עה ח"א really appears there or if [Shi] copied it with the ח misplaced. However, we can see two things clearly: if the acronym ר"עה ח"א exists at all it is a signature and not an appellation, and the WRR claim to have admitted only widely used pronounced acronyms is false.
The old and new lists, a comparative table | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
# | Original entry | we remove | we add | new entry |
1 | ,י"בארה ,ד"בארה ,לוכשאה םהרבא יבר ,ד"בא ברה |
ינש ד"באר | ,י"בארה ,ד"בארה ,לוכשאה יבר ,ינש ד"באר ,ד"בא ברה םהרבא |
|
2 | םהרבא יבר ,יקחצי ,םהרבא ערז | םהרבא יבר ,יקחצי ,םהרבא ערז | ||
3 | םהרבא יבר ,ךאלמה | ךאלמה | םהרבא יבר | |
4 | יבר ,רמה רורצ ,עבס םהרבא םהרבא | --- completely removed --- | ||
5 | ןרהא יבר | ןרהא יבר | ||
6 | ה/ו/ה/י ישעמ ,םשה ישעמ | ה/ו/ה/י ישעמ | ישעמ ,'ה ישעמ לעב 'ה |
ישעמ ,'ה ישעמ ,'ה ישעמ לעב םשה |
7 | דוד יבר ,םיהנפוא | םיהנפוא | םייהנפוא | דוד יבר ,םייהנפוא |
8 | דוד יבר ,דיגנה דוד | --- completely removed --- | ||
9 | דוד יבר ,וטינ דוד | דוד יבר ,וטינ דוד | ||
10 | םייח יבר | א"חרהמ ,א"חרהמה | םייח יבר ,א"חרהמ ,א"חרהמה | |
11 | םייח יבר ,תשנבנב | תשנבנב | ,ב"יבחה ברה ,יתשנבנב בר ,ב"יבח ברה ב"יבח |
ברה ,ב"יבחה ברה ,יתשנבנב םייח יבר ,ב"יבח בר ,ב"יבח |
12 | ,יסופכ ,סנ לעב ,סנה לעב םייח יבר |
,סנ לעב ,סנה לעב יסופכ |
יסופאכ | םייח יבר ,יסופאכ |
13 | ,ש"חרהמ ,יתבש םייח ,ש"חרהמה םייח יבר |
,ש"חרהמ ,יתבש םייח ,ש"חרהמה םייח יבר |
||
14 | ריאי תוח | ריאי תוח | ||
15 | הדוהי יבר | ל"גס הדוהי | הדוהי יבר ,ל"גס הדוהי | |
16 | הדוהי יבר ,שאיע י"רהמ | הדוהי יבר ,שאיע י"רהמ | ||
17 | ףסוהי יבר | ףסוהי יבר | ||
18 | עשוהי יבר ,המלש ינגמ | עשוהי יבר ,המלש ינגמ | ||
19 | ,ינארט ,ט"מירהמה ,ט"ירהמה ,ט"מירהמ ,ט"ירהמ ,ינרט ףסוי ףסוי יבר ,ינרטמ ,ינארטמ |
י"רה ,ינארט י"רה ,ינארט י"ר ,ינרט ינרט י"ר |
י"רה ,ט"מירהמה ,ט"ירהמה ,ינארט ,ינרט י"רה ,ינארט ,ט"מירהמ ,ט"ירהמ ,ינרט ףסוי ,ףסוי יבר ,ינרטמ ,ינארטמ ינרט י"ר ,ינארט י"ר |
|
20 | םימואת ,ףסוי יבר ,םידגמ ירפ | --- completely removed --- | ||
21 | י"רהמ ,בריב בקעי ,ר"בירה בקעי יבר ,בריב |
ליגנומימ | י"רהמ ,בריב בקעי ,ר"בירה בקעי יבר ,ליגנומימ ,בריב |
|
22 | זיגאח ,ט"קלה לעב | זיגאח | י"ר ,זיגח י"רהמ זיגח |
י"ר ,זיגח י"רהמ ,ט"קלה לעב זיגח |
23 | בקעי ,יולה בקעי ,ל"ירהמה ,ל"ירהמ ,יולה י"רהמ ,ל"גס בקעי יבר ,ןילומ ,ל"גס י"רהמ |
י"רהמ ,יול בקעי יול |
בקעי ,יולה בקעי ,ל"ירהמה ,יולה י"רהמ ,ל"גס בקעי ,יול י"רהמ ,יול י"רהמ ,ל"ירהמ בקעי יבר ,ןילומ ,ל"גס |
|
24 | ,ןדמע י"רה ,ץ"בעירה ,ץ"בעיה ןידמע ,ןידמע י"רה |
י"רה ,ץ"בעירה ןדמע |
ןידמע י"ר | ,ןידמע ,ןידמע י"רה ,ץ"בעיה ןידמע י"ר |
25 | יבר ,יולה קחצי ,ץיוורוה קחצי |
ץיוורוה | קחצי ,ץיבורוה יול |
קחצי ,יולה קחצי ,ץיבורוה קחצי יבר ,יול |
26 | ,םחנמ יבר ,למכורק ,קדצ חמצ לדנעמ יבר |
למכורק | לאמכארק | ,םחנמ יבר ,לאמכארק ,קדצ חמצ לדנעמ יבר |
27 | ,אתוכז ,ן"לזמה ,ז"מרהמה ,תוכז ם"רהמ ,ז"מרהמ ,ותוכז השמ ,אתוכז השמ ,תוכז השמ השמ יבר ,ז"מרה לוק ,ותוכז |
,ותוכז ,אתוכז השמ ,אתוכז השמ ותוכז |
,ז"מרהמ ,ן"לזמה ,ז"מרהמה לוק ,תוכז השמ ,תוכז ם"רהמ השמ יבר ,ז"מרה |
|
28 | השמ יבר ,השמ ינפ ,תילגרמ | השמ יבר ,השמ ינפ ,תילגרמ | ||
29 | הירזע יבר | הירזע יבר | ||
30 | בבל רשי ,ר"עה ח"א | ר"עה ח"א | רישע ןוה ,רח"עהא | בבל רשי ,רישע ןוה ,רח"עהא |
31 | ,יחרזמ ,ש"שרהמ ,ש"שרהמה םולש רש ,יבערש ,םולש יבר |
,יחרזמ ,ש"שרהמה םולש רש |
יבערש ,םולש יבר ,ש"שרהמ | |
32 | המלש יבר | אמלח המלש ,אמלעח | אמלח המלש ,המלש יבר ,אמלעח | |
33 | --- new Rabbi --- | ,טטשנזייא ,טטשנזיא ,טאטשנזיא ריאמ יבר ,ש"א ם"רהמ |
We have shown our list of appellations to Professor Menachem Cohen, of the Bible Department at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. In reference to our list and to the original WRR-Havlin list he wrote in [Co2]:
... I see no essential difference between the two lists for the purpose of using them for skip experiments in any text.
P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | |
our list on War and Peace | 620 | 19 | 31 | 2 |
our list on Genesis | 201,278 | 13,099 | 294,296 | 9,524 |
the WRR list on Genesis | 453 | 5 | 570 | 4 |
Comparing the first and the last row, we see that our list does as well on War and Peace as the WRR list does on Genesis. Tolstoy would have enjoyed knowing that. Some of the numbers in the middle row are "middle of the way", smallish but not very small. They are "smallish" because our list is still highly correlated with the original WRR list, on which it was based. The fact that they are not very small needs to be explained by WRR, not by us. Why is it that an equally valid list of appellations (our list) does so much worse than their list on Genesis?
Comment: The computations of the significance levels for
our list was carried out using a program WRR gave us,
els2.c
. We modified it to work under Unix and re-wrote
the permutation test part, but made no modifications to the main part
of the code. The text we used was also given to us by WRR, and consists
of the first 78,064 letters (the length of Genesis) of a Hebrew
translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.
© Copyright (1997) Dror Bar-Natan, drorbn@math.huji.ac.il and Brendan McKay, bdm@cs.anu.edu.au.