Thursday, August 03, 2006

Stan Tenen on Carpet Pages in the Leningrad Codex

I asked Stan Tenen to explain the carpet pages in the Leningrad Codex and he was kind enough to let me publish here his most original answer:
It's my theory that the carpet pages of the Leningrad Codex record geometric structures necessary for maintaining the integrity of the letter-text of Torah. They are the earliest source for many Kabbalistic drawings, including the Tree of Life. Some can be pulled up into 3-D, some can be woven or knotted, and some show relationships that are otherwise not easily seen. The scholars are paying little or no attention to the carpet pages, seeing them mostly as nothing but artwork. The scholars, of course, wouldn't recognize a geometric object if it stepped on them, so they are completely unaware of their enormous potential significance. This is a story in itself. If there were a way to interest/entice established scholars into a geometric investigation of these carpet pages, that in itself might lead to major breakthroughs in recovery of understanding of Torah that has been lost in our time. Carpet page 490 Recto of the Leningrad Codex shows what are now called the Borromean Rings -- which are related to non-Euclidean geometries important in modern physics.

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