At 1:50 am +0200 1/2/99, Avinoam Mann wrote:
> This is quite true. The Hebrew word is "einsof", literally meaning "no
> end", and it begins with aleph. Dauben, in his book _Georg Cantor_,
> p.179, argues that Cantor chose Aleph because it is the first letter of
> the Hebrew alphabet. As far as I remember, Prof. A.Fraenkel claimed the
> same, when I learned set theory from him.
Let me add that "einsof" is also one of the Cabbalistic appellations of the
deity, precisely in its aspect of infinitude. Cantor, who was extremely
interested in mysticism, including the Cabbala, may well have been
influenced by this in his choice of notation.
Moshe'
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