Signed letter from Prof. Albert Einstein to Professor David Bohm, Princeton, New Jersey. 1954.

Specifications: [1] pages. Letterhead. 28x21 cm. The letter is typewritten. One word was edited in Einstein's handwriting and the letter was signed by Einstein at its conclusion. Einstein's address is embossed at the top of the leaf.

Content: Einstein notes that he is happy to hear about developments in Bohm's affairs and offers to help him however he can. He also writes that he is happy that Bohm is searching for an objective description of the phenomena and that he concludes that the issue is much more complicated than he had previously thought. He notes that one should not be depressed by the magnitude of the problem: "If God has created the world his primary worry was certainly not to make its understanding easy for us. I feel it strongly since fifty years."

Condition: Fine. Creases and aging stains.

Signed letter from Prof. Albert Einstein to Prof. David Bohm. Princeton, New Jersey 1953.

Specifications: [1] page, paper. 27x21 cm. The letter is typewritten and signed by Prof. Einstein. Einstein's address is embossed at the top of the page.

Background: Einstein writes that Mr. Niemeyer's remark is characteristic of the present mood in the country (the United States), and it reminds him of Germany during the reign of German Emperor Wilhelm II.
He also notes that he recently published comments regarding the interpretation of theory in a volume published in Paris in honor of de Broglie's sixtieth birthday, and in a number of leaves in the Born volume, a copy of which he sent to Bohm a week earlier.

Condition: Fine. Minimal aging stains.

* Copy of a letter from Prof. Albert Einstein to Prof. Max Born, Princeton, New Jersey. September 7, 1944.

Specifications: [2] pages, paper. 25x20 cm. Typewritten letter, not signed. A number of corrections, apparently in the professor's handwriting.

Content: Einstein reminisces with Born about their trip 25 years ago on a tramcar to the Reichstag, convinced that they could turn the German lawmakers into honest Democrats. He can only laugh about their naiveté back then! "We both did not realize how much more sits in the spinal cord than in the cerebrum, and how much tighter it sits." They should remember this lesson in order to prevent a repetition of the tragedies that occurred. It's not surprising that (most) scientists are no exception; the exceptions don't operate through their special intellectual powers, but through their humanity, such as Laue [Max von] [who publicly opposed the Nazi policies]. Einstein notes that it was interesting to watch his sense of justice lead him to step by step detach himself from the influence of the crowd, due to his strong sense of justice. Men of medicine have no success adopting their "ethical code" and the chance of ethical conduct amongst scientists is even smaller, due to their mechanized and specialized way of thinking.

Understandings about right and wrong, develop and die, like a tree, without much influence from the fertilization they receive. The only thing an individual can do is serve as a clean personal example, courageous enough to advocate seriously his ethical convictions in the society of cynics. Einstein testifies that he himself tried to act in this manner for a long time (with changing success).

He is not overly excited by Born's feelings that he is too old; he knows these feelings. He notes that one can confidently let nature turn him slowly into dust, unless she prefers a faster process. Einstein expresses his confidence that it is impossible to destroy "Jewish Physics."

Einstein concludes with the fact that they both moved to radically opposing positions in regards to their scientific expectations. "You believe in the dice-throwing G-d and I believe in complete order in a world of objective existence which I am trying to catch in a wildly speculative way." The monumental initial success of the quantum theory could not persuade him to believe "in the fundamental dice playing."

Background: Prof. Max Born (1882-1970) was a Jewish, German-born physicist. He earned his doctorate from the University of Gottingen. He taught in the universities of Berlin and Frankfurt and in the new Institute for Theoretical Physics in Gottingen. After the Nazi rise to power, he moved to England and taught in Cambridge and Edinburgh. He returned to Germany in 1953, and received the Nobel Prize for physics a year later.

* Letter from Prof. Albert Einstein to Prof. David Bohm. Princeton, New Jersey. October 28, 1954.

Specifications: [1] page, letterhead. 27x21 cm. Typewritten letter, signed by Prof. Einstein. The signature became wet and blurred.

Content: Einstein expresses his opposition to the reprinting of his scientific writings, as new advancements in science nullified their significance.

"You know very well that even those publications which had value at the time of their appearance have lost to later progress of science their actual interest."

He is very happy to hear about Bohm's good health and scientific success. He notes that recently a number of experiments were attempted to complete the quantum theory, but he thinks that they are still far from a satisfying solution. He himself tried to solve the problem by generalizing the law of gravitation. But, he has to admit that he still hasn't found an explanation for the atomistic character of nature, and he has "not the slightest idea what kind of elementary concepts could be used in such a theory."

* Letter from Prof. Albert Einstein to Prof. David Bohm. Princeton, New Jersey. November 24, 1954.

Specifications: [1] page, letterhead. 27x21 cm. Letter typewritten and signed by Prof. Einstein. The signature was wet and has blurred.

Content: Prof. Einstein instinctively opposes the approach of Bohm and many of the physicists of his time, even though they successfully supported their theory with an impressive series of empirical findings. He does not believe in micro-and-macro-laws, but only in laws of general vigorous validity."I believe that these laws are logically simple, and that reliance on this logical simplicity is our best guide." It would be sufficient to start with a small number of facts. If nature is not arranged accordingly, then there is very little hope of understanding it more deeply.
Einstein presents the difficulty with the using logical simplicity as a guide and he admits to the limitations of the mathematical methods existent at the time which prevent empirically-testable conclusions based on his scientific experiments.
Einstein isn't trying to convince Bohm, but only to explain how he reached his own scientific attitude. He notes "that by using a semi-empirical method, one would never have arrived at the gravitational equations of empty space."

Condition: Fine. Rubbed ink stains.

Letter signed by Prof. Wolfgang Pauli sent to Prof. David Bohm, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, 1951.

Specifications: [1] leaf, letterhead. 29x21 cm. The letter was typewritten on both sides of the leaf and was signed by Prof. Pauli with supplements in his handwriting.

Content: The letter is a response to Prof. Bohm and relates to his theories in physics regarding wave mechanics, quantum potential energy, the significance of linear equations in regards to the Schrödinger function and more.

Background: Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (1900-1958) was an Austrian physicist who won the Nobel Prize. After earning his Doctorate from the Munich University, he started doing research at the University of Gottingen and the University of Cophenhagen. He also lectured at the University of Hamburg. In 1940, he moved to the United States and served as Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton University. In 1945, he received the Nobel Prize for the "exclusion principle" also known by his name, the "Pauli Principle." Though he did not publish many studies, and though many of his conclusions were never published, he significantly contributed to the study of quantum mechanics and shared his insights in letters to his colleagues - as he does in this letter.

Condition: Fine. Fold marks and tiny tears in the folds, not affecting text. Minimal stains.

Background: The Great Revolt (66-70 CE) was the first of the three large Jewish revolts against the Roman empire. It had many causes – the cruelty of the Roman regime, disputes between Jews and non-Jews, despair following the death of King Agrippa I of Judea, as well as internal tension between the Sadducees and Pharisees. After the rebels’ initial successes, Vespasian and his son Titus were sent to suppress the rebellion. The battles reached their peak with the capture of the city and the destruction of the Temple by Titus, but it took three more years until all the rebels were defeated.

The revolt failed, and its leaders were killed or captured. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, taken captive, exiled or sold into slavery.

With the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, production of the Tyrian silver shekel in Jerusalem ceased, and they began to mint an independent currency, with a similar form to the Tyrian shekel, as an act of defiance against Rome (as the minting of coins symbolized sovereignty and independence). The minting of independent coins provided them with means to circulate military slogans and messages to the Jewish public. The slogans expressed the Jewish people’s longing for victory (for example, ‘Free Zion’), their faith in victory with the help of G-d (‘For the Redemption of Zion’) and mention Jerusalem (‘Jerusalem the Holy’). The symbols which appear on the coins represent the abundant produce of the Land of Israel (a pomegranate branch, a vine leaf, a date tree) and vessels identified as the Temple vessels (the Omer goblet, wine libation vessels).
Although Ktav Ashuri was the script commonly used at the time, the writing on the coins is in an ancient Hebrew script – as a way of connecting to the sources from the time of the First Temple and to the monarchy of King David.

The second and third years of the revolt (67-68) were the high point of the rebels’ strength and their activities in Jerusalem and the Temple; however, these coins were only in use for a short period of time, as with the failure of the revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, they were no longer used, and many of them became raw materials for the creation of new coins.

The Bar Kochva Revolt broke out some 60 years later (132-135 CE), during which new coins were minted with similar symbols and writing to the decorations on the coins from the Great Revolt. The revolt had tragic consequences, and Bar Kochva’s (lit. son of a star) name was subsequently changed to Bar Koziva (lit. son of a lie), as an expression of despair and disappointment. Selah coins from the Bar Kochva revolt were mainly minted onto coins from Syria from the period the Emperor Trajan’s rule.

Over recent years, it is becoming increasingly popular to collect coins from the periods of the revolts, due to the Jews’ deep sentiments toward their glorious past in the Land of Israel. As a result, the price of such coins is increasing, making them, beyond their collector's value, a worthwhile investment channel.

The coins are sold under License to Trade in Antiquities no. 318; an original permit is enclosed with each coin.

Description: 14.17 grams, 21 mm. axis 12. Within a NGC company holder, graded AU.

Obv.: Cup with rim of eleven pellets, surrounded by Paleo-Hebrew inscription (shekel of Israel). Above the cup, the date (abbreviation of year three (of the rebellion)). Rev.: Stem with three pomegranates surrounded by the inscription (Jerusalem the Holy).