Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Very Strange Movie

I watched a movie recently called "Pi" (1998), an early work by Darren Aronofsky, (better known for the recent mystical sci-fi film "The Fountain.") It's not widely available, but can be found on Netflix.

It is about a brilliant mathematician who is trying to find the 216 number sequence that governs the universe. However, he is also slowly going mad (by implication because of his knowledge of the number) It is rather surreal, and it is never quite clear what is really happening, and what represents his delusions.

At any rate, the reason I mention this on a blog about the Temple is that a strange sub-plot of the movie involves the mathematician being cultivated by a sect of Hasidic kabbalistic Jews who want the same number because it contains the gematria of the "shem ha-meforash" the mystical unspeakable name of God. They want to get it to reopen the link between heaven and earth lost when the Holy of Holies and the Temple were destroyed by the Romans.

Warning: contains some foul language and violence.

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