The "Great" Geometry Gematria

If Torah is Min Hashmayim -
Then is PI from the Sky?

Courtesy of Guest Blogger Rav Dov Fischer:

How to teach M'lakhim Geometrically speaking
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Don't forget to teach them "The Great Geometry Gematria" in [M'lakhim] Perek 7.  It is a powerful tool, fascinating as can be, and helps people understand better why we preserve "misspellings" — i.e., why we carefully guard the k'tiv and the k'ri alongside each other.

The text of I M'lakhim 7:23, describing the cast-metal tank, seems technically mistaken, saying that the the tank's diameter was 10 amot from "rim to rim" (mi-s'fato ad s'fato), completely round ('agol saviv), 5 amot high, and 30 amot in circumference (v'kav shloshim ba-amah).

But in geometry,  C = "pi" x D.  If D here = 10, then C = 10 x 3.14 – 31.4 amot.  But the text says the "kav" was "30 amot."  Technically, the text should say it was 31.4 amot.

Sure, of course, the rejoinder is that we do not expect the Tanakh text to break measurements down in decimals.     But . . . oh, yeah?

Look more carefully at the pasuk.  It is the k'ri that says the "kav" (the circumference) was 30.  "Kav" is spelled in the k'ri as:  koof-vav.

However, the k'tiv has one of those "annoying misspellings," spelling the word instead with a third letter: koof-vav-hei.

Let's just assume there is a hidden meaning in the k'tiv.  But what could that meaning be?  Can it be that the text is trying to tell the math geeks of frumkeit that the "thirty" — the shloshim amot — is a bit more than exactly 30?  Let's see:

The gematria of only the two letters (here, the k'ri) — koof-vav — is 106.  So a word for "circumference" that has a numerical value of 106 defines the circumference of the cast-metal tank as 30.

Meanwhile, the gematria of the k'tiv — koof-vav-hei — is 111.  So a word for "circumference" that is trying to push numerically a bit higher has a numerical value of 111, defining the circumference of the cast-metal tank as . . . — well, let's see:.We represent the equation as follows:   106:30 = 111:x.

In case (i) you forgot your high school geometry, and (ii) you have no kid at home to help you with that stuff . . . we first multiply 111 x 30 = 3,330.

Then we divide 3,330 by 106.

Ask everyone in your Navi class to come that night with their own respective hand calculators.  The look on their faces when the math equation is resolved: priceless.

— Dov
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Hafach Bah!
Hain Hain Gufay Gematriyah!

Shalom and Regards,
RRW