• The Mystery of the Aleph

  • Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity
  • By: Amir D. Aczel
  • Narrated by: Henry Leyva
  • Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (483 ratings)

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The Mystery of the Aleph  By  cover art

The Mystery of the Aleph

By: Amir D. Aczel
Narrated by: Henry Leyva
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Publisher's summary

"An engaging, pellucid explanation of the mathematical understanding of infinity, enlivened by a historical gloss on age-old affinities..." - Washington Post Book World

Toward the end of the 19th century, one of the most brilliant mathematicians in history languished in an asylum. His greatest accomplishment, the result of a series of extraordinary leaps of insight, was his pioneering understanding of the nature of infinity.

From the acclaimed author of God's Equation comes The Mystery of the Aleph, the story of Georg Cantor: how he came to his theories and the reverberations of his pioneering work, the consequences of which will shape our world for the foreseeable future. The mindtwisting, deeply philosophical work of Cantor has its roots in ancient Greek mathematics and Jewish numerology as found in the mystical work known as the Kabbalah. Cantor's theory of the infinite is famous for its many seeming contradictions; for example, we can prove that in all time there are as many years as days, that there are as many points on a one-inch line as on a one-mile line.

While the inspiration for Cantor's mind-twisting genius lies in the very origins of mathematics, its meaning is still being interpreted. Only in 1947 did Kurt Godel prove that Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis is independent of the rest of mathematics - and that the foundations of mathematics itself are therefore shaky.

©2001 by Amir D. Aczel (P)2001 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Mr. Aczel is very good at portraying the essences of the thoughts and lives of that quirky class of geniuses known as mathematicians". (The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Mystery of the Aleph

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

beauty in numbers

I was unaware of the two egregious mispronunciations, so they did not distract from my enjoyment of the book. That said, this book does a very good job of palpably relating the fascinating nature of the underlying structures upon which modern mathematics in based and the thinking that went into their construction. I find numbers and their properties fascinating, but it usually takes lots of mental labor before the beauty reveals itself; it's like climbing and climbing and finally coming up over the top of a mountain and suddenly you perceive the wondrous landscape stretched out before you. This author has the ability to evoke that sense of wonder and fascination that comes from understanding the big (mathematical) picture.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

See previous review of this book by me

I forgot something. I know some may feel my review is just nit picking, but as this book relates, mathematics is poetry. If it's read incorrectly it just simply spoils it, in an important way. Especially when the author mispronounces the MAIN CHARACTER's historical name. Well, I forgot something. The MAIN POINT of this book is something called aleph null. That's written as the hebrew letter with a "0" subscript. But the author pronounces this "aleph zero" about 200 times. That's just unforgiveably slopppy, to not know the proper way to describe the central point of the book you're paid to read.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Mystery of the Aleph

This is a wonderful listen. You don't have to be a mathematician (which I am not) to enjoy this interesting trip in time the author has so seamlessly created. I highly recommend this program to folks who have an interest in the history of man's insatiable quest for the elusive infinity.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, interesting and accessible

I have enjoyed several of Aczel's books, and this one is especially interesting. He constructs a compelling narrative and explains complicated concepts in a way that I (not a mathemetician) could easily understand. The only downside to this book is that the narrator drives me crazy. I wish audible would stop using him as a narrator. If you can get past his irritating voice and bizarre inflections (he emphasizes words that can detract from the power of a sentence) then you will enjoy this book. I am currently listening to Entanglement, again by Aczel and narrated by the same guy (Leyva) and can't believe i didn't check to see who narrated it. Anyway, this book is really good and I would give it 6 stars if it weren't for Leyva's insane reading style.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Excellent, with reservations.

The book is an excellent exposition and reflection on important mathematical principles and theorems, presented in a compelling manner. My only reservation is that the narrator had difficulty pronouncing "Georg", instead pronouncing it "Gerreg" or something like that. Just a minor thing, but since much of the text concerns the mathematical genius of Georg Cantor, it is troublesome that neither the narrator nor someone who perhaps "edits" the narration sought to correct this error. Nevertheless, it is well worth a listen, maybe even several.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing lack of depth, OK review of theory

What would have made The Mystery of the Aleph better?

Drop all the Kabbalah nonsense. The author attempted to make a connection between the work of mathematicians Cantor and Godel (with their unfortunate demise into insanity) and the creators of the Kabbalah in Spain, who claimed that their contemplation of the infinite drove them insane. The tepid similarity was not convincing. A better explanation would be that a high fraction of mathematicians may suffer from manic depressive disorder or at least an OCD condition. These conditions provide the kind of intense focus this kind of work requires. In the end I felt like I was listening to a UFO "documentary" on cable.

I did enjoy the portions of the books that reviewed an interesting mathematical subject.

Would you ever listen to anything by Amir D. Aczel again?

Probably no.

What does Henry Leyva bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He was fine.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Nice review of the work of Godel and Cantor.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Solid Amir

Amir D. Aczel is an excellent writer on scientific and mathematical topics. I have come to expect readable and understandable expositions, and The Mystery of the Aleph is no exception.

The highest tribute that I can confer upon this work is that I found it helpful in contemplating some issues of Physics and Math that I have been exploring recently.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Not a light listen but good

I am not a mathematician by any means; I consider myself numerically challenged. And, there were some challenging parts to this book; I had to rewind and re-listen to parts several times. But, I found it fascinating and worth the effort. The book discusses how the concept of infinity developed, and works it into certain religious concepts. While I doubt I "got it" all, I did get some of it, and learned about math history on the way.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing

This is an amazing account of how Mathematics and Mathematicians work and how it all relates to the creation of Space and Time and making order out of Chaos...
The reader was excellent as well...

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Too dull

It was a disappointment for me, although I think that your satisfaction might depend on your expectations. I was expecting this to be centered on the philosophical and mathematical problem of infinity but the bulk of it is about the people involved. There was still some interesting material for me but it was just too few and buried too deep within all the "filler" (for me of course, you might find the rest interesting). I had to force myself not to give up on it many times so it wasn't a pleasant experience.

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3 people found this helpful