NEWS
Stan and Cynthia have been in Massachusetts since August 2002. Bringing Meru to the East Coast has afforded us the opportunity to work with colleagues whose background is in traditional Jewish learning (which is only rarely available in California). We have now assembled a dedicated core group, and are beginning to examine untranslated Hebrew kabbalistic and philosophical texts, with exciting results. Many of these texts describe, in traditional language, the underlying geometric metaphor that Meru research has found in the Hebrew letter-text of Genesis. Our "Sharon Colloquium" (based in Sharon, Mass. -- approximately mid-way between Boston, MA and Providence, RI) is a promising beginning. We plan to expand our colloquium into the New York metropolitan area later this year. For more information on this ongoing East Coast study group, please contact us at meru1@well.com.

We plan to visit California in 2003; eTORUS subscribers who live in northern California -- or west of the Rockies -- and would like to be in touch with us personally, please email me at meru1@well.com.

PUBLICATION OF MERU RESEARCH
In our last issue, we announced the publication of Stan Tenen's second article for the peer-reviewed Noetic Journal, The Shape of Information: How to Talk to an ET. (Available via Meru Foundation's website at www.meru.org/Noetic/ShapeofInfo2002.html.)

Meru Foundation is now pleased to announce that Stan Tenen's essay, Man Bites Dog, has been accepted for peer-reviewed publication. B'Or HaTorah is the primary professional journal focused on the interface of science and Jewish learning. Man Bites Dog is scheduled to be published in their next issue, due out later this year. (An earlier version of Man Bites Dog was published in Vol. 2 #2 of the Noetic Journal as an appendix to Stan's article, The God of Abraham: A Mathematician's View; you can read it on the Meru website at www.meru.org/manbitesdog.html.)

BOOK CHAPTER ON MERU RESEARCH
We are very pleased that "The Flame-Hand Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet," a full chapter on Meru Foundation's research, is included in New Jersey Institute of Technology mathematician Jay Kappraff's new book, Beyond Measure: A Guided Tour through Nature, Myth, and Number (582 pp., trade paperback). Prof. Kappraff, focusing on earlier aspects of Meru research, provides a readable and enjoyable introduction to some of our basic premises, and relates this research to other fascinating topics in the history of mathematics.

Meru Foundation is pleased to be able to offer this book to our readers, by special arrangement with the publisher, World Scientific. Please purchase Beyond Measure through Meru Foundation's secure-server website, or via our toll-free order number 1-888-422-MERU. Meru Foundation will receive a part of the purchase price of $38, and the book will be shipped directly to you from the publisher.

Book price: $38
Plus $4.00 for UPS ground shipping in the US
Total Cost for Beyond Measure: $42.00 (US)

Overseas and expedited shipping are also available -- see www.meetingtent.com/BeyondMeasure.html for details.

"This new work by Prof. Kappraff (Mathematics, New Jersey Institute of Technology) is a study of how numbers and geometry arise in several ancient cultural contexts and in nature, and how these numbers and number sequences are related to the modern mathematical study of numbers, dynamical systems, chaos, and fractals." (World Scientific editorial abstract)

". . .The book is thus a carefully crafted combination of philosophy, history, biology, geography, philology, geology, and chemistry engagingly woven together by the quadrivium of music, astronomy, geometry and number."
--H S M Coxeter, University of Toronto

". . .From ancient myths, to music, to fractals and consciousness itself, Jay Kappraff ranges far and wide in an exhilarating, challenging, and innovative book sure to stimulate reader's sense of wonder at the incredible vastness of our mathematical universe."
--Clifford A Pickover, T.J. Watson Research Centre, IBM

And here is an excerpt from Prof. Kappraff's Epilogue (p. 560) :

"Part I of the book explored, through number and geometry, man-made systems of language: systems of music, written language, and design as they may have been expressed at the threshold of these momentous changes. It is forever lost to us how ancient civilizations actually conceived of these systems. However, remnants of these creative impulses are to be found in Kepler's attempts to build a planetary system from the "harmony of the spheres", Brunes' recreations of the methods by which ancient temples might have been constructed, Michelangelo's preservation of the principles of an ancient geometry in the pavements of the Laurentian Library, and Tenen's description of the creation of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet."

Stan adds, "I don't think I have ever been mentioned in better company."

Prof. Kappraff's accomplishment has been truly remarkable, and his presentation of a wide range of ideas, from a wide range of important sources, is both truly impressive -- and clear and readable. We plan to review individual chapters in Prof. Kappraff's book in future issues of eTORUS. If you would like to contribute a review, that would be most welcome.

Beyond Measure: A Guided Tour through Nature, Myth, and Number,  by Jay Kappraff, is Volume 28 of General Editor (and Meru Advisory Board member) Prof. Louis Kauffman's mathematics series, Knots & Everything (World Scientific Publishers). You can order it from Meru Foundation's secure-server website at www.meetingtent.com/BeyondMeasure.html.

A reprint of Chapter 12 of Beyond Measure, titled "The Flame-Hand Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet," is available to eTORUS readers at www.meru.org/BeyondMeasure/BeyondMeasure_Ch12.html.


MERU FOUNDATION MEETINGTENT ORDER DESK -- a personal note from Cynthia Tenen
Most of you are familiar with Meru Foundation's secure-server website, www.meetingtent.com, where you can purchase Meru videos, printed materials, and our new music CD, FIRST SOUND(tm): The Music of Genesis. I am pleased to announce that our toll-free (US) number, 1-888-422-MERU, has been upgraded. Our toll-free number now rings directly in my office, where I can take your order personally. Orders placed through www.meetingtent.com also now come directly to me. (A one-minute sample of the ten-minute "Creation Overture" is available at www.meru.org/Newsletter/SpecialNoticeFirstSound.html)

Since I began taking your orders, I have greatly enjoyed speaking personally with those of you who have called. Stan and I appreciate knowing which aspects of our work interest you, and why. We work out of the same office, and when you call, I can refer your more technical questions or comments to Stan for response.

Sales of Meru Foundation products are our primary means of support. Over the years, many have called or written, and asked what they can do to help. One of the best ways -- and one of the most immediately useful -- is to help us to gain publicity about our research.

Grassroots, word-of-mouth advertising has always been our strong suit. Here are a few ways that you can share your interest and enthusiasm about our research with others, and help to support Meru Foundation at the same time:

• Arrange for our tapes to be broadcast on local cable stations, along with a pointer to our website, or a contact number for further information.
• Encourage your friends to order our videos and other products -- particularly if they've been borrowing your copies! <smile>
• Organize "tape-viewing parties" where people can place orders with us afterwards. If you have an Internet connection, set it to www.meetingtent.com and let people order online, or take orders by hand on Meru's behalf (I can provide you with an order form to print out, which will ensure I have all the information I need to process these orders).
• Place notices in a local newsletter, such as your campus newsletters, or newsletters for philosophical and spiritual organizations. Possibly, this could even include reprinting an essay from Meru's website, with prior permission from us.
• Review one of our videotapes for your own e-list or newsletter, or your local newspaper, and include information on how to order.
• Let people know about Meru's research website, www.meru.org. Mention our website whenever you let others know about our work.
• Ask people who may be interested in Meru's work to contact us and subscribe to the eTORUS Newsletter -- and to tell us a bit about their interests, and how they found out about us. Please pass this invitation along to e-lists and chat rooms that you participate in.
• Write a short introduction to our research, and send it out to e-lists you participate in. Include an explanation that Meru is a non-profit organization, and that our work is supported by sales of our products and by individual contributions. Let people know that their purchase of Meru videos directly from us will make a real difference.
• Suggest that your friends and colleagues call us at 1-781-784-8902 to find out more about our work. This is our primary telephone number in Massachusetts, and both Stan and I are usually available.
• We always get a surge of orders when Stan appears on radio or TV, or when he is interviewed for print media. If you have contacts in the media, please encourage them to get in touch with us. We can provide professional references.

Now is an excellent time to introduce your friends to Meru Foundation's research, to order Meru's videotapes or the Meru Special Edition you've been thinking about, or to give our music CD to a friend. I can guide you to the items you'd be most interested in, arrange for expedited shipping, and I can provide you personal service directly from our research office.

NEW PRODUCTS COMING
We are now arranging to make Meru posters, and consumer items such as T-shirts, mugs, and mouse pads with Meru themes, available for purchase. More on this in the next eTORUS.


HELPING MERU FOUNDATION WITH YOUR FEEDBACK
I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter.

We welcome your comments and suggestions, and would like the opportunity to speak with you personally.

If you have comments or questions, please send an email to Cynthia Tenen at meru1@well.com with your phone number and a good time to call -- or, please call us at 781-784-8902 (Boston area). I would like to brainstorm with you.

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Meru Foundation.

You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter, in its entirety, as long as you include this copyright notice and the contact information below. Please send comments and questions to <meru1@well.com>.

Meru Foundation research offices:
  Research Director: Stan Tenen    Secretary-Treasurer: Cynthia Tenen
  PO Box 503
  Sharon, MA 02067 USA
  781-784-8902 Voice    253-663-9273 Fax
  Email:  <meru1@well.com>
  Website: <http://www.meru.org>

How to order Meru Foundation Videos and Products:
  Visit our secure-server website at  <http://www.meetingtent.com>  OR
  Fax your order to 1-253-663-9273   OR
  Email: <meru-custsvc@sprynet.com>

To order by phone:
  In the U.S., call toll-free: 1-888-422-MERU
  Outside the U.S., call 1-781-784-3462

EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
  To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
  Email Ron Engert in Germany at <info@syntropia.de>
  German readers may now also visit Ron Engert's Meru website:
         <www.meru-info.de>