This unique slide-illustrated discussion considers how -- from symbols in visual art to the intensity of mysticism--numbers, across the millennia and across the planet, have been perceived and used as key: to understanding both how our world works, and to connect to the world beyond our own that every religious tradition considers the source of our existence.

 

Words and images -- the first made up of letters understood to have numerical values; the second, whether abstract or figurative, often marked by numerological symbolism (from triangles to squares to the five doorways into a cathedral)--have served as unique human-contrived instruments for coming to know why we are here and how we might assure a positive existence, whether in the here and now or in some hereafter.

 

 

 

Known as Davinci Code's real life 'Robert Langdon', Ori teaches theology, philosophy, politics and art history at Georgetown University. For seven years, Ori was Director and Chief Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, where he curated over 80 exhibitions focusing on aspects of history, ethnography and contemporary art.

 

He has also curated diverse contemporary and historical exhibits at other sites, nationally and internationally. He is the author of sixteen books, including “Untangling the Web: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Why the Middle East is a Mess and Always has been.”