October 30, 1997 The Bible Codes A Caltech mathematician and a
leading Orthodox educational institution teamed up recently to
turn up the heat on a simmering controversy over what they say
is a scientifically and religiously suspect tool used by Jewish
outreach organizations -- the Bible codes. Aish HaTorah, a
Jerusalem-based outreach organization with offices and branches
worldwide, stands by its use of the codes, saying that while
some have been found to be insignificant, other key codes
withstand scientific scrutiny. Popularized a few years ago by
the publication of Michael Drosnin's "The Bible Codes" and
utilized for years by Aish HaTorah, the codes are purported to
uncover encrypted messages in the Bible that allude to
historical events thousands of years before they happen. By
counting letters at specific intervals, researchers claim to
have found a divinely encoded subtext in the Hebrew Bible on
such subjects as the Holocaust and modern Jewish thinkers. Aish
HaTorah's Discovery Seminars, one- or two-da