It is true that there is no specific ancient Jewish wisdom on how The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind effectively ended the era of black-and-white movies when they were released in 1939. But the Torah does teach the permanent principles of color. It even teaches why different colors impact us in different ways and why red is on the top curve of the rainbow and blue on the bottom.
Furthermore, in the Lord’s language, Hebrew, the words for the main colors matches their intrinsic characteristics. What do I mean by this? Imagine I was teaching someone English. Pointing to a yellow crayon, I carefully enunciate YEL-LOW. Then, holding up the red crayon, I say the word RED. My foreign student would nod happily because he now knew the English words for two colors.
Now imagine that I perversely reversed the words, cruelly instructing my student that the English word for the color yellow is actually RED and the way we describe red in English is with this word—YELLOW. No matter how smart and worldly my student might be, there is nothing that would alert him to my mischief.
However, Hebrew is quite different. A scientist who knew that each Hebrew letter represents a numerical value wouldn’t be bamboozled by my playful prank. The moment I reversed the Hebrew words for RED and YELLOW, he would say, ‘Just a moment, those words you’ve just told me don’t make sense. They ought to be reversed.’ Here is how he would have known.
Let’s examine four Biblical colors:
RED is found in Genesis 25:30. In Hebrew, ADoM, it has a numerical equivalent calculated by adding the value of each of its three letters: alef (1) + dalet (4) + mem (40) = 45.
What our scientist knew and which I shall now tell you is that light rays are really electromagnetic vibrations. Different colors vibrate at different frequencies. A good estimate for the vibration of red light is about 470 trillion times a second. So let’s remember that the key numbers for RED are a numerical equivalent of 45, and a frequency of 470 (approximately).
Moving on to YELLOW, or TZaHoV, that we encounter in the Bible in Leviticus 13:30. Its numerical equivalent is tzadi (90) + hay (5) + vet (2) = 97. Its frequency (in trillions of times a second) is about 510.
Green, YeRaKON, is used as a color in Jeremiah 30:8 “…and all faces have turned green.” Even today we talk of someone looking a bit green meaning sickly or uneasy. (Genesis 1:30 uses the word YeReK to mean ‘greens’ or herbs.)
YeRaKON has a numerical value of yud (10) + resh (200) + kuf (100) + vav (6) + nun (50) equaling 366. It has a vibrating frequency of about 565.
Finally, blue, TeCHeLeT, seen in Exodus 25:4 has a numerical value of tav(400) + chaf (20) + lamed (30) + tav (400) for a total of 850. Electromagnetic frequency tables inform us that blue’s rate of vibration is about 650 trillion times each second.
To summarize:
When charted on a graph, it looks something like this. Other Biblical colors can be added in. Astoundingly, we get a straight line with about 95% accuracy.
Trying this with the English names for the colors yields a meaningless muddle. In Hebrew the result is nothing short of amazing. As Israeli scholar Chayim Shorr suggests, we see a strong link between the Hebrew names of colors and their real word physical characteristics.
The Lord’s language and ancient Jewish wisdom do indeed provide accurate guidance to how the world REALLY works. My mission is to make this information available to all. Many people have told me how the four programs comprising our Genesis Journeys Set helped them move closer to God and His vision for their lives. Like so many companies and ministries around the country, our costs are climbing alarmingly. We will reluctantly have little option but to increase prices soon. We’ve slashed the price on Genesis Journeys Set this week. Please seize this opportunity to get this and other resources you need.
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This week’s Susan’s Musings: Here’s to the Future, Baby!
When outsiders peek into the world of Torah observance, they often see a long list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” To those who try to immerse themselves in the system, details that can seem persnickety instead reveal how to live successfully. The rules we try our best to follow align our actions with God’s deep understanding of human nature.
An opportunity that the Torah urges us to grab…READ MORE
Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here
I would like some clarification of the last paragraph in your answer to Carla F. when she asked what to do about her 17-year-old son who is hostile to religion. Unlike her situation… my (almost) 17 year-old is not hostile but he absolutely hates going to church. He would do anything to keep from going but is not rebellious or anything. I think he is just bored and would rather stay home and watch TV or play video games. He doesn’t seem to have problems with God in general, just church.
My initial idea was to make him go until he turned 18 but I wonder now if that is the right thing to do. I know parents need to make children do certain things that the child doesn’t want to do but at what age does this end? I’m starting to wonder what difference one more year would make other than making him run as far away from church as he can when he finally does get to make his own decision.
Should we force the issue? Thanks,
Marcus W.
Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE
