The Old Data Miner

Jacob Lazerson is a retired mathematics professor and Orthodox Jew whose self-appointed mission in the last years of his life is to reconcile mathematics and science with codes hidden in the text of the Hebrew Bible. From the impoverished apartment he shares with his supportive wife, Sarah, in a tightly knit Chassidic community located in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Montreal, Jacob runs an elaborate computer program that he has invented to unravel the key to life itself. This key, he’s certain, is contained in the form of DNA codes originally encoded in God’s blueprint for the physical universe, the Hebrew Bible. He is equally sure that his efforts will be rewarded with no less than the onset of the Messianic Age: a time when peace and love will banish evil from the entire human family. When the Covid-19 pandemic brings suffering and death to the world, and into Jacob’s own house, his mission becomes more urgent.