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read and heard about game theory. I You were presented with your prize by In conclusion, with your permission,
immediately realized that this was the the king of Sweden. Did you say the I’d like to quote from the beautiful
way to analyze the problem. And from berachah on seeing a king? final paragraphs of the autobiography
then on, I concentrated all my energies that you submitted to the Nobel
on game theory and its applications. I was advised by Rabbi Aharon
Lichtenstein z”l not to say the berachah Foundation:
as he was largely a figurehead. But I
Can you explain game theory very have met King Abdullah of Jordan “For me, life has been – and still
briefly for the layman? several times and the first time I saw is – one tremendous joyride, one
Game theory is the science of the him I did say the berachah. magnificent tapestry. There have been
bad – very bad – times, like when my
interaction between different entities son Shlomo was killed in action and
that strive for different goals. Game Speaking of berachot, do people say
theory has one underlying idea, and the special berachah on seeing an when my first wife Esther died. But
that is incentives. You want to make outstanding scholar when they meet even these somehow integrate into the
other people want to do what it is that you? magnificent tapestry.
you want them to do. “And there have been a lot of very good
It’s true that some people do say the times. The excitement of research, of
ׂ
Your parents were opposed to Zionism. berachah ם ָד ָו ר ָש ָב ְל ֹות ָמ ְכ ָח ֵמ ן ַת ָּנ ֶ ׁש (“who groping in the dark and then hitting
When did you become interested in gives of His wisdom to men of flesh and the light. The satisfaction of teaching,
blood”) when they meet me, but most
making Aliyah? of meeting someone at a party who
people say it without shem u-malchut tells you that the course in complex
In high school in the late 1940s my and I don’t like that. Either say it and variables that he heard from you
older brother and I became fascinated mean it, or don’t say it! twenty-five years ago was the most
with what we heard on the radio and beautiful that he ever heard. The
read in the newspapers about the You’ve used game theory to explain
struggle for the State, and we both some difficult passages in the Gemara. beauty of a walk in the woods with a
became ardent Zionists. He made This must be the ultimate example of four-year-old grandchild, who spots
Aliyah in 1950 but I decided to get my and correctly identifies a tiny wild
doctorate first. My wife and I followed Torah U-Madda. orchid about which you told him
in 1956 and I started work right away at Yes, you could say that. I have last week. Dancing with your wife at
the Hebrew University and continued written about three specific sugyot your child’s wedding. Unraveling an
my research there. in the Gemara, and I have a lecture intricate passage in the Talmud with
on modern economic theory in the your eighteen-year-old granddaughter,
When you came to accept the Nobel Talmud, showing that Chazal were or with a study partner with whom you
Prize, how did it feel to be an observant aware of these notions in one sense have studied for thirty years. Cooking
Jew on the world’s stage? or another. a meal and hearing from a guest that
the soup was the best she ever tasted.
I had to give an after-dinner speech and You are known to hold strong political Raising a beautiful family. And seeing
I started it by saying b’shem u-malchut the flag of Israel fluttering in the wind,
(mentioning G-d’s name) the blessing views. What does Zionism mean to right next to that of Sweden, from the
hatov ve-hametiv, and I specifically spoke you? roof of the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.”
of “the realization of a 2,000-year-old It means to want Eretz Yisrael. We are 55
dream – the return of my people to years after the Six Day War and we still David Olivestone, formerly on the staffs of
Jerusalem, to its homeland.” Later on, have a military government in Judea the British Museum and of the Encyclopaedia
I also had to deliver a lecture to the and Samaria. That means we don’t Judaica, was Director of Communications
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences want it enough. Three times a day we at the Orthodox Union in New York before
in Stockholm, and there I quoted both ask G-d to come back to Jerusalem. In making Aliyah to Jerusalem in 2013.
Pirkei Avot and the prophet Isaiah in order for Him to come back, we first (PHOTO ON FACING PAGE: EINSTEIN INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS,
Hebrew as part of that talk. have to prepare the ground. THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM)

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