Parameter 137

The course presents 137 as the greatest mystery of modern physics and states that Einstein, Feynman and Pauli are said to have spent their lives trying to understand it.

The course attributes to Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize in Physics) the idea that this number is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of physics, and that understanding it could lead to the origin of life and the universe. Question asked: why 137 and not 136 or 138?

The Rav says he will explain simply, step by step, even for those who never studied physics.

Every object is made of atoms; each atom has a nucleus and electrons orbiting it. The electron never stands still. According to the course, this is why the second letter of בראשית is ר, which means רץ (Ratz) = “he runs.”

According to the course, the hydrogen electron (a single electron) travels at about 2,190 km/s, i.e. 1/137 of the speed of light (300,000 km/s).

The spiritual world is represented by light (300,000 km/s): at that speed one leaves time, space and matter. The material world is represented by the electron (≈ 2,190 km/s), the first brick of matter.

According to the course: spiritual world ÷ material world = 137. Question: how can man, made of matter, reach his spiritual source?

According to the course, G-d gave a tool to bridge this gap: Kabbalah, the esoteric study of the Torah.

Kabbalah is the ladder linking the electron, first rung of the material world, to light, the divine dimension. Its name carries the exact measure of the gap to be bridged.

Abraham had Isaac at 100; Isaac was 37 at the Akedat Yitzchak: 100 + 37 = 137. Abraham was therefore 137 at the tenth and final trial.

“Abraham rose early in the morning” (Genesis 22:3). According to the course, relying on one version in the Talmud, the sacrifice took place on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of Abraham’s 137th birthday.

The course’s message: the ten trials form a spiritual ladder; by agreeing to sacrifice what was dearest to him, Abraham passed from the material world to the spiritual world.

According to the course, each letter takes its meaning from the first Torah word that begins with it: ב = ברא (created), ר = רץ (he runs). The letter ר represents the electron circling the nucleus.

Each element differs from the next by one electron: platinum has 78 electrons, gold 79, mercury 80.

In the first 34 verses of the Torah (the creation account in 7 days), the letter ר appears, according to the course, exactly 137 times.

According to the course: the electron travels at 1/137 of the speed of light; the spiritual-material gap is 137; קבלה = 137; Abraham was 137 at the Akedat Yitzchak; the letter ר appears 137 times in the account.

The Rav asks how this could have been known 3,300 years ago without modern instruments, and concludes that the Torah is of divine origin. What physicists call “the greatest mystery of physics” is, in his view, the Creator’s signature in creation.

“As it is written in the metaphysical world, so it will be in the physical world.”