Just wondering if there’s a definition of “spacetime” anywhere. Removing the space between two words is intended to show that there is a new reality there somehow composed of the two words that were previously there. So what is “spacetime”?
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Outside the box:
Bold is what's in the original text:
Rav Nahman said that a Sage taught in the Tosefta: And the Rabbis say that the Ark of the Covenant was buried in the Chamber of the Woodshed. Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: We, too, have learned in a mishna: There was an incident involving a certain priest who was occupied with various matters, and he saw a floor tile in the woodshed that was different from the others. One of the marble floor tiles was higher than the rest, suggesting it had been lifted out and replaced. He came and informed his friend of the uneven tile, but was unable to finish his report and provide the exact location of the tile before his soul departed from his body. And consequently they knew definitively that the Ark was buried there, but its location was meant to be kept secret.
The Gemara asks: What was he doing, that priest who noticed the misplaced tile? Rabbi Helbo said: He was occupied with his axe, i.e., he was banging the floor with his axe. He thereby discovered an empty space under a tile, which he guessed was the opening of a tunnel. The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Two blemished priests were sorting wormy wood when the axe of one of them dropped and fell there, into the hole in the floor. Blemished priests were appointed to inspect the wood for worms, as these logs were unfit for use on the altar. And fire burst out and consumed that priest, so the exact location remains unknown.
The word for a floor/tile [רִצְפָּה] is more like a continuum:
https://www.pealim.com/dict/3224-ritzpa/
The same root can be seen on the Hebrew side of the Wikipedia Spacetime page:
spacetime: merchav-zman [מרחב-זמן]
spacetime continuum: retzef merchav-zman [רצף מרחב-זמן]
There's a good run-down in Klein's Etymology here, for a general sense.
and he saw a ritzpa [that was] different from the others
x, y, z, and... t
I really think the key here is that they had been taken to the woodshed.
The first letters of the words of the phrase "space-time continuum" spell remez [רמז], hint.
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You make a very good point about spacetime not having a space in there. Taking that over to the Hebrew, and removing the "space" while leaving the space (because this is really fun),
רצף זמן
= "time sequence"
...leaves the initials as [ר״ז] to spell raz [רז], a mystery
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Just because I mess around, doesn't mean I mess around. I'm as serious as a heart attack, which is why I take this stuff at a leisurely pace.
Ohr (Hebrew: אור, romanized: ʾor, lit. 'Light', plural: אורות ʾoroṯ) is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical divine emanations. Shefa "flow" (שפע) and its derivative, hashpoah "influence" השפעה), are sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah, a term also used in Medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour Ohr because its numerical value equals ר״ז, a homonym for רז rāz "mystery".[1] It is one of the two main metaphors in Kabbalah for understanding God, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the sefirot.[2]
It's like Christmas light strings, isn't it though? Once out, they can never be put back into the box.
Thank the Chinese.