Mathematics in Jewish Sources

Online animation of the calculation of the area of the disc

1. Every [Circle] whose Circumference, Higayon 3 (1995), Department of Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, pp. 103--131. [in Hebrew]
   

2. A Circular Booth, Magal 10 (1994), The Institute for Advanced Torah Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, pp. 117--134.

3. A Circular Booth II, Magal 11 (1995), pp. 127--134. [in Hebrew]
   

4. Caveret (A Beehive), HaMa'ayan 35 (1995), pp. 57--69. [in Hebrew]

5. On the Ratio of the Circumference of a Circle to its Diameter, Sinai 117 (1996), pp. 186--191. [in Hebrew]
   

6. The Sathon Method for Exstracting Square Roots, MacroMathematics 2, pp. 29--34. [in Hebrew]

7. Geometric discussions in Rabbinical writings, Higayon 4 (1998), Department of Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, pp. 4--17. [in Hebrew]

8. On the Rabbinical Approximation of Pi, Historia Mathematica 25 (1998), pp. 75-84. [in English]
   You may also enjoy reading the Texas Mathematics Teacher issue on Pi.

9. A mechanical derivation of the area of the sphere, to appear in The American Mathematical Monthly. [in English]

10. The Proof of Rabbi Abraham Bar Hiya Hanasi, in preparation. [in English].
    Hmmm... about twenty years have passed and we haven't finished that paper. I guess the "in preparation" should thus be judged misleading...

11. A laid down pillar, preprint. [in Hebrew]

12. An early source for a mathematical method appearing in the TASHBETS responsa book, unpublished. [in Hebrew]

13. Mathematical appendix to the TASHBETS responsa, preprint. [in Hebrew]

Short papers in Hebrew

2. The slope of the altar's ramp (?), preprint. [in Hebrew]

3. Pi and a laid down pillar, preprint. [in Hebrew]

Related papers by other authors

Rabbi Daniel Hershkovitz, Mathematical problems in the Halacha and in Jewish sources

Chidushei Tora@NDS: Volumes 5 and 6 of this journal, online.

Edward Shlomo G. Belaga, On the Rabbinical exegesis of an enhanced biblical value of p, available in postscript and pdf formats.

Imber David, A mathematical discussion in Section Succah, available in pdf format.

Michael A. B. Deakin and Hans Lausch, The Bible and Pi, The Mathematical Gazette 82 (1998), 162-166. Available online [pdf].

Binomial coefficients in Ben-Ezra's writings, by Yuval Roichman.

The mathematics of Levi Ben Gershon, The Ralbag, by Shai Simonson.

Book of Numbers: Exploring Jewish Mathematics and Culture at a Jewish High School, by Lawrence Mark Lesser.

Do Scripture and Mathematics Agree on the Number pi?, by Isaac Elishakoff and Elliot Pines, published in B’Or Ha’Torah 17 (2007).

Truth of land: Contains several interesting papers on mathematics and Jewish sources.

More papers