IN THE MISHNAH we read: ‘Rabbi Eliezer ben Hisma said: The laws of kinin [bird offerings] and the beginnings of a woman's ritually unclean period are the body of the laws; astronomy and geometry are condiments to wisdom’ [Avot 3: 18].

This same Rabbi Eliezer was one of the greatest astronomers of his time. The Talmud relates that Rabban Gamliel the Prince and Rabbi Joshua were once on a sea voyage, and Rabban Gamliel ran out of food and had to rely on Rabbi Joshua's provisions. Rabban Gamliel asked his friend: ‘How did you know how long our voyage would last, so that you could take along sufficient supplies?’ The latter answered, ‘a certain star rises once in seventy years and leads the sailors astray, and I knew it would rise and lead us astray’. Marvelling at his friend's scientific erudition, Rabban Gamliel the Prince proclaimed: ‘My knowledge is nothing compared to the astronomic teachings of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hisma’ [BT Hor. 10a].

Thus, as we can see, Rabbi Eliezer was considered a major authority on astronomy in his own time. It is particularly notable, then, that he constructed a parallel between astronomic knowledge and the laws of the Oral Torah.

Geometry, like mathematics in general, is one of the greatest of sciences, with its solid grounding in pure truth. That two and two equals four, or that the area of a rectangle may be determined by the measurement of one side in relation to another, these things can hardly be disputed. All other sciences, the so-called ‘higher sciences’ like physics, medicine, or even law, rely essentially on hypotheses. We can see this regularly in life, when one philosopher devotes his whole life to building an entire system, and then along comes a second philosopher and demolishes his work, demonstrating that the hypotheses that underlie it are outdated and false.

Mathematics and geometry have an entirely different status for humanity. They belong to the essential building blocks of every human civilization or world culture. Without them it would be impossible to imagine a world with economy and trade, or with art and science.