Jewish Geometry: Math in the Bible and Talmud

We’ll look at a variety of mathematical and geometrical questions that come up in the Bible, the Talmud, and later rabbinic literature. What is the value of pi? Which direction do we face when we pray toward Jerusalem? How far should one carry objects on Shabbat? And how precise do our answers to these questions need to be? We’ll examine a variety of biblical and rabbinic sources on these questions to try to understand how much math the rabbis knew and what impact this might have on Jewish practice today.

Adam Levine is a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics at Brandeis University, studying knot theory and low-dimensional topology. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 2010 and has studied Talmud in a number of settings, including Yeshivat Hadar in New York. This is his third NHC Summer Institute.