Howard Barry Schatz is a retired computer specialist, classically trained composer, jazz musician, archaeomusicologist, teacher, author, and lecturer. He has spent the last 45 years deciphering and authenticating monotheism’s most ancient and sacred text, called the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation). These are the only writings attributed to the great patriarch Abraham by many within the Chasidic Jewish community, and within that community they are the seminal writings on monotheism and Kabbalah. History’s greatest Jewish scholars have tried and failed to interpret the Book of Creation correctly, including: R. Saadia Gaon, Abraham Abulafia, R. Eleazar of Worms, R. Moses Cordovero, R. Isaac Luria, etc. so what would make Howard believe that he succeeded where so many renowned Jewish scholars have failed? Here is an excerpt from his third, soon to be published book:
“There are two important Jewish scholars, Leo Baeck (1873-1956) and Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), who were both convinced that the Book of Creation could only be deciphered by applying the Greek Pythagorean tradition better known as the “Harmony of the Spheres.” Unfortunately, neither Baeck nor Scholem knew enough of these mathematical details to support their theory. None of the great scholars who have written commentaries on this ancient and sacred text have ever realized that it is actually a Base 60 mathematical treatise on ancient string theory, whereas my own education has uniquely prepared me to recognize an ancient Pythagorean mathematical treatise when I see one. Baeck and Scholem were absolutely right, but no one in the rabbinical community can fathom that this ancient Greek Pythagorean mathematical/musical tradition could possibly reveal what Maimonides called the “Secrets of the Law.” What I have discovered is that Pythagoras studied Old Babylonian mathematics (i.e., Abrahamic string theory) borrowed by Egypt, so the rabbinical community’s political concerns that only the ancient Greeks understood the key to Kabbalah. This so-called “Pythagorean” tradition commonly known as the “Harmony of the Spheres” actually derives from Old Babylonian cuneiform mathematical tablets, like YBC 7289 and Plimpton 322. Abraham inherited the great texts within the Third Dynasty of Ur, because he was born to Semitic Amorite parents, and the Amorites took over as rulers of Ur after the fall of Ur III.
While still an undergraduate student at Brooklyn College, I had the good fortune to study independently with Dr. Ernest McClain, who taught me how the so-called Pythagorean tradition was the key to understanding Plato’s Dialogues. During my two years of study with McClain, I also managed to audit courses at a Chasidic Yeshiva in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. To my surprise and delight I discovered that the underlying mathematical structure of Plato’s writings also appeared in two sacred Jewish texts: Abraham’s Book of Creation and an 18th century Kabbalistic text known The Tanya. The Tanya could be summarized as a verbal description of the Book of Creations mathematics and physics. In 1976, I brought these two texts to Dr. McClain, and my findings were published in his first book, The Myth of Invariance: the Origin of the Gods, Mathematics and Music from the RG Veda to Plato.
After graduating from college, McClain and I lost touch with one another, but we both spent the next 30 years trying to decipher the Book of Creation completely unaware of the other’s efforts. By 2006, I was able to complete a draft of my first book in which I deciphered all of the text’s mathematical riddles and managed to unravel how they were encrypted within יהוה. I then applied this mathematical יהוה template to the textual exegesis of all ancient religious creation allegories. rld’s inability to ever link the two texts together, it turns out that they are tightly coupled. Key passages of Biblical allegory are embroidered around this lost Abrahamic mathematics. I discovered that יהוה is effectively the owner’s manual for the Hebrew Bible. I also discovered that the 231 Gates “God Table” can also be applied to the textual exegesis and hermeneutics of all historical creation allegories, including the writings of Sumer, pre-Dynastic Egypt, Harappa, Assyria, Babylonia, pre-Biblical Ugarit, and even the carvings and architecture of Göbekli Tepe (ca. 12,000 BP), the world’s oldest religious temple. My newest paper tightly couples the legendary “Pillars of Enoch” to the pillars and architecture of Göbekli Tepe.
In 2006, I completed a draft of my first book, The Lost Word of God. After reconnecting with my 88-year-old mentor, McClain admitted to me that I had been his only student in Pythagorean studies throughout his long teaching career. He was thrilled that I “stayed with it.” After reading it, he graciously offered to write my Foreword. He then gave a copy to his mentor, Siegmund Levarie. After Dr. Levarie read my book he invited me to his brownstone in Brooklyn. Not being one for small talk, he peered down at me over his half-frame reading glasses, and in his thick Viennese accent said, “You know son, you’re the only living person to have figured out the Sefer Yetzirah.” Knowing that history’s greatest religious scholars were unable to correctly decipher Abraham’s Book of Creation, I was highly skeptical and responded: “What do you mean the only living person?” With that, Levarie waived for me to follow him upstairs to his library. He took down a large leather-bound book from the shelves and laid it out on his desk. It was a German text called Harmonikale Symbolik des Alterthum (The Harmonic Symbolism of Antiquity), and it was written in 1868 by a German judge and member of the Prussian Reichstag named Albert von Thimus. Levarie said it took him 35 years just to find a copy of this rare and arcane text. As we leafed through its pages together, he turned to a page that spoke about the Sefer Yetzirah and then he turned to the 231 Gates “God Table.” As of this writing, the von Thimus’ text still has not been translated into English, so it is difficult for me to assess whether von Thimus was also able to tightly couple this mathematics to Biblical allegory. What I took away from this remarkable day with Professor Levarie, is that I might not have been the first to decipher the Sefer Yetzirah, but by showing me the von Thimus text, Levarie and von Thimus had effectively corroborated my work.
