Astounding Discoveries in War and Peace!

An international team of codes researchers have made a discovery that threatens to forever change mankind's understanding of the universe. Imbedded within the text of Tolstoy's masterpiece, unseen until now, is an incredible message that could not be there by chance. Not only was accidental occurrence impossible, but deliberate design by a normal human was impossible too. Merely to write a great novel containing a hidden text at the same time would require superhuman abilities, but Tolstoy did much more than that. Tolstoy wrote in Russian, in such a way that the hidden message only appeared when it was translated into Hebrew!

No other text, sacred or profane, has ever been found to display such a complex pattern.

The Chanukah Story

Chanukah begins on the 25th of the month of Kislev and ends eight days later on the 2nd of Tevet. This last day of Chanukah is called "Zot Chanukah" and is the day on which the great miracle, the miracle of oil occurred. During the holiday, Jews all over the world light candles and use a special candelabra called a Chanukiya. Children play a game using a top called a dreidel.

The Holiday of Chanukah commemorates two miracles:

• The Hashmonean victory over the Greek army which was greater and mightier. The revolt was started by the high priest Matityahu Hashmonai who lived in the town of Modiin.
• The discovery of just one small pure vessel of olive oil in the Temple which miraculously burned for eight days until new, pure oil could be made.

The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 21) describes the historical background as follows: "When the Greeks entered the Temple they defiled all of the oil. When the Hashmonean Dynasty prevailed over them and were victorious, they searched and found but one vessel of oil bearing the seal of the High Priest containing just enough to burn for one day - but a miracle occured and it burned for eight days. Later on these days were established as a holiday of praise and thanksgiving."

The Rambam, a famous Jewish philosopher and commentator explains that: "During the time of the Second Temple the Greek Kings issued decrees against Israel, forbidding them to engage in the study of Torah and the practice of Mitzvot (Torah commandments). They defiled that which was holy, and caused great anguish to Israel until the God of our Fathers had mercy on them and delivered them from their enemies. Then the Hashmonean priests became powerful, saved Israel, and appointed a king from amongst these priests. Thus the Kingdom of Israel was reestablished for over two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple."

The following passage from the Siddur (prayer-book) is the holiday prayer of thanks repeated every year by the Jews all over the world: "For the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the battles which You performed for our forefathers in those days, at this time. In the days of Mattityahu, the son of Yochanan, the High Priest, the Hashmonai, and his sons (nicknamed Maccabees) - when the wicked Greek kingdom rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and compel them to stray from the statues of Your Will - You in Your great mercy stood up for them in the time of their distress. You took up their grievance, judged their claim, and avenged their wrong. You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the wanton into the hands of the diligent students of your Torah. For Yourself You made a great and holy Name in Your world, and for Your People Israel you worked a great victory and salvation as this very day. Thereafter, Your children came to the Holy of Holies of Your House, cleansed Your Temple, purified Your Sanctuary and kindled lights in the courtyards of Your Sanctuary; and they established these eight days of Chanukah to express thanks and praise to Your great Name."

See it for yourself!

In one short section of the Hebrew translation of War and Peace, there not just a few but at least 59 Chanukah-related words encoded into the text. Not only that, but every single one is either directly in the text (forwards or backwards) or an Equidistant Letter Sequence whose skip distance is minimal over the entire 78064-letter section at the start of the book. This length 78064 has been standard for ELS research ever since some much smaller patterns were discovered in the Book of Genesis.

The probability of all these words appearing with minimal skip in this one section of text by mere chance is

In the table below, you can find the words encoded into War and Peace and the symbol by which the letters have been marked. To see War and Peace with the pattern displayed, click on the table if you dare!

Who discovered these incredible patterns?

As if the 59 Chanukah-related words were not enough, Tolstoy apparently knew the names of the codes researchers who would uncover his secret. You can find them in the picture marked with black squares.

Back to the Mathematical Miracles page

Creator: Brendan McKay, bdm@cs.anu.edu.au.

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