Science Slowly Catches Up With Torah

The following is the first two-thirds of a discussion on the confluence of science with Torah Temima. Science still has a long way to go, but over the last century it has finally dropped most of its false presumptions which have kept mankind in the dark about the physical world since the dawn of history. It is making inroads in catching up with where the Torah always has been, is, and will be. Of course, the Torah describes the blueprint for much more that just the physical world. Yet, a proper discussion of the End of Days cannot be conducted unless we learn a thing or two about the history of the physical world which is completely in line with the Torah's view of the matter.

It is clear to me that there is some resistance in the Torah world to accepting that there is a growing confluence between the Torah’s perfection and wholesomeness with the discoveries of modern science. This may be so because so many modern scientists try to deny the existence of divine providence making their discoveries blasphemous. In reality the discoveries made using the rigors of the scientific method are not blasphemous just the perspective of those making them. On the other hand, to our detriment, there may exist a basic ignorance amongst torah scholars regarding these often highly technical and rigorous discoveries. Or maybe the Torah Giants fully understand these things, but they fear that their students will not understand and will therefore be lead astray.[1] People who spend their lives in the toil of Torah do not all have the time to receive their doctorates in astrophysics, nor should they need to. Yet, without a basic knowledge in the hard sciences we can not openly discuss a growing understanding of how the world works, giving us a greater awe for the One who is pulling all the levers. I suggest that we try and educate ourselves in this true wisdom that exists in the world at large. The Torah tells us that the non-Jewish world will recognize us for our wisdom.[2] Our commentaries tell us that this is in regard to our knowledge in Astronomy, for we know how to calculate the cycles of the moon and how they intertwine with the cycles of the solar seasons.[3] Let me ask how many of us really know the basics of Astronomy. Should we not work on ourselves in this area so that the Torah’s accolade will be true? Secondly, I would politely argue that ignorance of these matters can lead to a tremendous desecration of G-d’s name. Several years ago a well-known Israeli Dairy started putting dinosaurs on the lids of their yogurts when Spielberg’s Jurassic Park started playing in Israeli theatres. A well-known hechsher (kosher certification committee) here promptly removed their certification of the yogurts. This was picked up by every major American media outlet. C.N.N.’s Ted Turner, who delights at the idea of pointing out that G-d fearing people are anachronistic, played the same segment for days on end, a segment that demeaned the Torah and those who uphold it. The entire sorted affair could have been avoided. An open discussion in the yeshiva world about how to properly respond to the large scale existence of dinosaur bones on every major continent of the planet could have prevented this. The Jewish view of evolution as hinted at by the Torah’s use of the word Assah (made) for time dependent processes and Barah (created) for instantaneous ex-nihilo creation can be emphasized from a young age. The important point is that it is G-d doing the making and the creating, and not one molecule of matter is out of place without his consent during any process. Just as the Jewish view of abortion which bans most abortions but allows it under certain circumstances differs from the Fundamentalist Christian view, so does the Jewish view of evolution vary from the Fundamentalist Christian view of this matter too. The above Hillul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s Name) could have been avoided. Let us work together so that it does not happen again.

Secondly, I have a very strong reason for introducing this information now. A portion of my thesis in trying to prove this is the End of Days as prophesized by the Prophets of Israel, a thesis which I hope to develop over the next several essays, is dependent on being educated in these matters. An immediate rejection of the idea that the Earth is 4 billion years older than Adam and Chava (Eve) and that the universe is approximately 11 billion years older than the earth will stifle a full and open discussion of a more urgent matter, preparation for what is upon us already, the Wars of Gog and Magog. Our Sages of the Ages (Chazal) kept those 5 ½ days of creation separate from the generations of Adam for a reason. It does not make me feel any better that the world was created on the 25th of Elul (five days before Rosh Hashana) of the Year Zero than if it were created by the same Infinite Being 15 billion years ago. There is nothing in the Torah that says that you should feel better about it too. We will discuss later in this essay how these 15 billion years in our reference frame condense down to six 24 hour days in G-d’s reference frame. We will demonstrate this using Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

Let us get down to the business of understanding. Let me introduce you to the following which was written by Aryeh Kaplan, one of the Torah geniuses of the last 50 years. I will paraphrase what appeared in O-U magazine, Fall 5752/1991,volume 51 #4. According to the 1st century Tanna (Talmudic scholar before the Oral Torah was written down in the Mishna in 190 c.e.), Rav Nechunya ben HaKanah in his kabbalistic work (Sefer HaT’munah), the history of the universe is composed of sabbatical cycles. Each day of creation, therefore corresponds to a 7000 year sabbatical cycle. Therefore, the six days of creation really lasted 42,000 years. Over 1200 years later, in the thirteen hundreds, Rav Yitzchak of Acco went much further. Here I must quote Rav Kaplan. Hold on to your seat.

“Rabbi Yitzchok of Acco was a sudent and colleague of the Ramban (Nachmanides, remember him from above?). and one of the foremost Kabbalists of his time. Ie is quoted often in Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas’ great mussar classic, Reishit Chochmah (Beginning of Wisdom). He was also contemporary to the publication of the Zohar (Illumination), and is renowned as the individual who investigated (and verified) its authenticity.

“A number of years ago, as part of a research project, I got my hands on a photocopy of one of Rabbi Yitzchok’s important works, Otzar HaChaim, (Lenin State Library, Moscow, Guenzberg Collection #775). This is the only complete copy of the manuscript, which is itself several centuries old, in existence. I was almost overwhelmed when I discovered an entirely new interpretation of the concept of Sabbatical cycles in this manuscript.

“Rabbi Yitzchok writes that since these Sabbatical cycles existed before Adam, their chronology must be measured not in human years, but in divine years. (my emphasis on Rabbi Kaplan’s words) Since, according to many midrashic sources, a Divine day is a thousand earthly years, then a Divine year, consisting of 365 ¼ days, is equal to 365,250 years. Therefore, when the Sefer HaT’munah states that the world is 42,000 years old, it is not speaking of human years, but of Divine years. This will have some startling consequences.

“Thus according to Rabbi Yitzchok of Acco, the universe would be 42,000 x 365,250 years old. This is a highly significant figure. From all calculations based on the expanding universe and other cosmological observation, modern science has concluded that the Big Bang occurred approximately fifteen billion years ago. But here we see the same figure presented in a Torah source written over 700 years ago!!

“I am sure that many will find this highly controversial. However, it is important to know that such a classical opinion exists. One of the most important Kabbalists of seven centuries ago calculated the age of the universe, and came to the same conclusion as modern science.”

For those of you who may not want to do the math, I will do it for you. According to Rav Yitzchok of Acco, who helped bring us the Zohar over 700 years ago, the universe is 15,330,000,000 years old. Now let us look at the work of Dr. Gerald Schroeder.

The difference between Dr. Schroeder’s perspective and Rav Yitzchok’s is obvious. Rav Yitzchok did not come up with a theory to “justify” the Torah’s perspective in front of an audience of Jewish scientists who might otherwise laugh at its claims. His discussion of the age of the universe is not offered to counter the presence of dinosaur bones in Natural History museums which are 100,000,000 years old. It is offered by Rav Yitzchok as Torah for its own sake. Thank G-d Lenin did not have his manuscript burnt, for he had done so, we might never know of its magnificence. Yet, I would argue what Dr. Schroeder has to offer is no less magnificent. For in our generation as we peer through the waste of jackasses as Rav Ezriel Tauber would say it, it is magnificent that we can see some things with clarity. Finally, finally after 3 ½ centuries since the onset of the scientific method by Frances Bacon, various fields in the sciences have finally progressed to the point where the Torah, as it always is and has been, has begun to accept it, that is science, as fingers fit into a well-fitting glove. Gerald Schroeder’s theories, I believe, comprise one of the glove openings for the Torah’s fingers.

I suggest that you read Dr. Schroeder's book, The Science of G-d . He has other books such as Genesis and the Big Bang, but The Science of G-d seems to be the most comprehensive. Keep in mind that the Torah itself does not say that the creation of the universe from the moment of creation of time, space , and matter was only 5765 years ago. What occurred 5764 years ago from last Rosh Hashana was the expulsion of Man with his lofty neshama (Soul made from G-d’s “breath”) from the Garden of Eden. Since Man and Chava (aka. Eve) his wife were expelled on Rosh Hashana[4] in the year One, every year we are rejudged on that date. Everything that is described in the Torah that has occurred from the moment that Adam was thrown out of the Garden has occurred in the ensuing 5765 years of our terrestrial reference frame.

The five days and most of the sixth day (each one a 24 hour day) that preceded the expulsion as described in the Torah did not take place in our reference frame, but in the reference frame of the Creator. The proof of this is that the Earth as a planet was not formed until the 2nd Day. Only matter, space, and time were created out of nothing on Day One (see Nachmanides detailed, accurate, 800 year old explanation.) along with the formation (yetzira) of already existing light. This is why anyone who prays using a Jewish prayerbook knows that G-d “formed light and created darkness.” The light that was formed on the first day is an emanation from the Creator, himself, in his pre-existent eternal universe, Atziluth. Planet Earth and the Sun that it revolves around were formed from existing matter on Day 2. Rashi on the the Talmud in Chagiga 12A discusses how the sun was made (assah) on the second day but did not become visible along with the moon and the stars for determining seasons and festivals until the 4th day. The secret, of course, lies in the third day, when greenery sprouted all over the globe turning a poisonous, translucent atmosphere into an oxygen-rich, transparent one. The hint on Day Two that the kadur ha’aretz, planet Earth, was formed is in the written Torah and can be found in the description of the separation of waters into upper ones and lower ones by a “rakia”. The upper waters are placed above the rakia. This is probably a reference to the interstellar gas clouds composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, the primordial stuff of creation (hyly according to the Ramban). The lower waters were real water where the hydrogen from those same interstellar gas clouds chemically combined with oxygen which had been fused in the bellies of older supergiant stars that had supernovaed, spewing out heavier elements as their intergalactic garbage. This real H2O then covered the entire surface of the earth as the heavier elements and compounds congealed underneath it to form unexposed solid land. In between is the rakia, a Hebrew word composed of two Hebrew words sharing a common consonant. Those two words are Raik Ra (poisonous vacuum, an almost absolute vacuum in which we earthbound creatures cannot breathe.)[5] Later on on Day 4 we are told that the sun and the moon have been placed “in” the rakia between the lower and upper waters. On Day 5 we are told that birds whose nefashot (animal souls) were created ex-nihilo could fly up to (על-פני) but not into the rakia. Flying in outer space would cause a great problem for oxygen breathing birds. From all of the above it is obvious that “spaceship Earth” was molded on the 2nd day of creation.

Therefore we must gain an understanding of what it means that the description of Ma’aseh Bereishit (the Deeds of Creation) and the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden occurred within the reference frame of the Creator. In order to understand what "the reference frame of the Creator" is, one needs a basic introduction to Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity. The gist of the matter is, though, that the Creator's reference frame is, of course, the entire universe. If the name Hashem had been used in the description of the 6 days, one could say that the reference frame of the Creator was fully transcendent to the universe. Yet, since the Torah itself uses the name Elokim, it is more than hinting that the Creator was immersed in the universe that He was molding from the moment that He brought it into being. In Physics this is called the moment of quark confinement when matter comes forth from pure energy. At this point matter, space, and time come forth from nothing. Since the process of conversion of energy into matter itself requires time and space, matter could not have come into being from energy unless time and space had already been created. Contact your local Kabbalist for an explanation of this process called "tsimtsum". Pure energy is timeless since "Ohr" is an emanation of the Creator's pre-existence (for He is Yotzer Ohr but Boreh Choshech. He forms light, but He creates darkness). This is at least a partial source for the concept in Special Relativity that an object traveling nearer and nearer to the speed of light experiences a time span that approaches infinity in the reference frame of another stationary object while it experiences one second in its reference frame. This would explain that if an object of matter could actually reach the speed of light, the passage of time would be infinite taking this matter outside of our universe into the "complete absorption" of YKVK, the name of G-d which means infinity, for only He can exist in an infinite reference frame. Again, consult your local Kabbalist. I think that one may need to study the Baal Tanya (the Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch) for his explanation which I am sure is clearer than mine. Remember physics as opposed to metaphysics can only describe a universe that is. Physics cannot describe a universe that has not yet come into being or one that exists outside the parameters of space, time, and matter. In my best way I hope to explain something that those who are taking third Semester University Physics courses have a difficult time understanding, but here it goes.

Imagine that person A is standing on earth watching person B approach earth in a spaceship with a headlight on the nose of the spaceship. The spaceship is traveling at 10% of the speed of light towards the earth. Person A will insist that light from that spacecraft is reaching him at the speed of light. Person B will insist that the light leaving his spaceship is leaving at the speed of light. The problem is, of course, if person B is traveling at 10% of the speed of light towards earth and if a light beam is leaving his spaceship at the speed of light, then the speed that this light beam as it approaches earth should be 110% of the speed of light. Thus thinks the person on board the spaceship. On earth person A is thinking that since the spaceship is moving toward him at 10% of the speed of light and the light beam is approaching him at the speed of light, surely the light beam is leaving the nose of the spaceship at 90% of the speed of light. You should now be puzzled. HOW CAN THEY BOTH BE RIGHT?! The answer, of course, lies with one of the most spectacular empirically proven postulates of all time, The Basic Postulate of Relative Motion. “The speed of light is the same in all reference frames.” In short H.A. Lorentz and Einstein say yes to person A who insists that the light beam is approaching him at the speed of light and yes to person B who insists that the beam is leaving his craft at the speed of light. The 10% discrepancy you may ask about. There can only be one possible explanation. The passage of time for the person on the spacecraft actually slows down by 10%. (The math for this is more complicated than the explanation, and in reality time dilation at 10% of the speed of light is less than 1%, but I continue with this explanation so that qualitatively one can understand the concept of time dilation. See below.[6]) The interval between a tick and a tock on board his spaceship will, believe it or not, include 1.11 ticks and tocks here on Planet earth. After 10 seconds on board the spaceship, over eleven seconds will have passed on earth. Smoke and mirrors, you say! Impossible! The problem is, though, this effect called “time dilation” has been observed time and again under laboratory conditions, measuring decreases in radioactive decay of higher and higher speed nuclear particles in particle accelerators. It has also been observed with very accurate clocks which tick more slowly on high-speed aircraft than they tick here on earth. Of course as one approaches the speed of light the effect can become breathtakingly drastic. At 90% of the speed of light, someone traveling aboard a spacecraft for 10 years will come back to earth, ten of his years later, and all of his children and his children’s children will be long dead. As amazing as this is, nothing can compare to the ultimate conclusions that one can draw from where Albert Einstein took the world after this. In 1915 he introduced his General Theory of Relativity. Here he left Lorentz and all other contemporary theoreticians in the dust. In order to discuss special relativity one must be talking about the relative motion of two objects. In Special Relativity, the rest of the universe can be ignored. In General Relativity, Gravity not relative velocities is the agent of time dilation. The higher the gravitaitional field, the greater the stretching of light to leave a heavy-duty gravitational field, the slower time passes under the influence of this high gravity field. Again, what is the reference frame of the Creator as He fills the universe with His Glory. His reference frame is the collective gravitational pull of the entire universe. What is our reference frame? Puny planet Earth’s reference frame.
From the reference frame of the collective gravitational pull of all 10 to the 56th power grams of the created universe to our puny low gravity reference frame, time is dilated by a factor of one million million. This is a calculated figure from the equations of General Relativity. If we could somehow exist in a “garden” and experience the reference frame of the Creator of the universe, we would not only smell the roses but between every tick and every tock, the terrestrial low gravity universe outside of this special “garden” would tick one million million times (10 to the 12th times) faster. Inside our “garden” with the Creator we would experience the relative passage of time 10 to the 12th times more slowly. 15 billion years outside our “garden” would pass by in 15x 10 to the 9th / 10 to the 12th years. This equals .015 years. .015 years, of course, is equal to 5 ½ twenty-four hour days!

[1] This is precisely what Gerald Schroeder found out when he was asking Roshei Yeshivot (Jewish Academy heads) here in Israel. They all knew what Nachmanides, 800 years ago, said about Man existing as an animal before G-d gave him his divine soul of transcendent life “nishmat Chaim”, but most of them did not want to open a “Pandora’s box “ of discussing an appropriate Jewish response to random evolution. The Science of G-d, p. 127. The exception to this rule was Rav Aharon Lichtenstein who did not mind discussing it with his students.
[2] Deut. 4:5-6
[3] Midrash Yalkut Shimoni on Deut. 4:6, Va’ethhanan 3:4
[4] the New Year for the Judgment of Man, beginning of sabbatical years and jubilee years and for tithing grains and vegetables
[5] Isaac Mozeson in The Word: The Dictionary That Reveals the Hebrew Source of English, Shapolsky Publishers, 1989 discusses two potential origins of the word rakia. One is from the word reka as in “racking” up a background on which heavenly bodies can be placed. A deeper understanding of the origin of this word comes from his entry under the English word “crack” which he traces back to Qof Resh Ayin, QaRa (ng or ck since gutturals at the end of foreign words are often pronounced that way.) From here he says that the original two word source was raik ריק meaning vacuum or empty space which is formed from tearing (qara קרע) a solid object in two. From earlier on in his book when he discusses the formation of three letter consonantal roots from two two letter roots, one derive from rules that he proposes that the second two letter root is ra(guttural) רע.
[6] The transformation between real time and relativistic time that is being used here is a linear one, corresponding with the following equation. T(rel.) = t(earth) x (1- v/c) where T(rel.) = time aboard spacecraft v= velocity of spacecraft, and c= speed of light. The actual Lorentz transformation equation takes into account that space is curved (or warped) by fast moving spacecraft. A light beam emitted from the nose follows the curvature of that warp even though from earth it looks like a straight line. 110% of the speed of light from the space craft is in part reduced by the space warp and in part reduced by time dilation (time warp) The actual equation for time dilation is :
T(rel.) = t(earth) x sq.rt [1-(v/c)sqared]. Notice that as v approaches c, T(rel.) becomes closer to zero. When v = speed of light, time ceases to flow on board the space craft. Those on board merge with the Infinite.