Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a scientist renowned for uncovering hidden “Bible codes” within the Torah passed away at the age of 75, The New York Times reports.
Rabbi Rips was born on December 12, 1948, in Latvia to parents who survived the Holocaust. A mathematical genius, he began his formal education in mathematics at the University of Latvia when he was just 16 years old.
In 1972, Rips emigrated to Israel and later earned his doctorate from Hebrew University in 1975.
Rabbi Rips gained widespread attention in 1994 when he, along with Yoav Rosenberg and Doron Witztum, published a paper in the journal Statistical Science. The paper claimed to have discovered a hidden code in Sefer Bereishis. Their research introduced a method called equidistant letter sequences, through which they found the names and birthdates of various gedolim who lived centuries after the Torah was written.
The process involved compressing the entire Torah into a single sequence of 304,805 letters. A computer program was then used to search for letters spaced at regular intervals, which the researchers said formed meaningful names and phrases.
This paper sparked significant interest and led to the publication of a book by Michael Drosnin. Drosnin asserted that he had identified predictions of major events within Bereishis and the rest of the Torah using the same method.
In his book, Drosnin said that he had foreseen the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchok Rabin a year before it occurred and had even traveled to Israel to warn him. He also asserted that the method had revealed the assassinations of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
In 1997, Rips, Witztum, Rosenberg, and Drosnin received the Ig Nobel Prize, which is awarded for unusual achievements that “first make people laugh, then make them think.” The award was given in the literature category.
In addition to his work on the Bible code, Rabbi Rips was recognized for his contributions to geometric group theory, notably for developing the Rips Machine, a significant tool in the field.
Rabbi Rips is survived by his wife, Devorah, their five children, and over 30 grandchildren.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}