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Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi B”H D’var Torah on Bereshit
Creationism or Evolution? Judaism.
Yesterday was Simchat Torah, and so today we begin a new cycle in Torah reading. This
week’s portion is Bereshit, the first one in the Torah, beginning with, as you know,
Bereshit bara Elokim et ha-shamayim ve-et haaretz -- In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.
Now, this wording implies that our world had a sharp, a specific beginning. Now, until
1965, scientists supported the steady state theory, which calls for an eternal world,
with no beginning and no end, a universe that has always been here. Then, in 1965, new observations
confirmed that our world had a sharp, specific beginning, which scientists called the “Big
***”. So now science supports the account in the Torah.
Now, science also says that the universe is 14 billion years old. The evidence is the
fossils we find around, the stars far away. We can calculate their distance and find that,
at the speed of light, it takes billions of years for their light to reach us. Now the
resolution of that is that a year is a fluid thing, it is not a fixed thing. In relativity,
we learn that time passes faster when you move. It’s called time dilation. So, it
may have been six days of creation for someone traveling close to the speed of light relative
to the earth. Specifically, the speed of light minus a billion-trillion-trillionth the speed
of light, which is how fast one must travel to make 14 billion years' worth of evolution
pass as six days. So time is flexible.
You may ask: Why was God traveling so fast when He created the world? Well, one can say
that He had other worlds to create, much as a farmer throws seeds and keeps moving.
Interestingly, the Midrash and the Zohar tell us that, before creating our world, God created
many worlds and destroyed them, because He did not like them. So, the sum of the lives
of all these worlds could well be 14 billion years, as scientists tell us. So, again, we
can reconcile the two accounts in that way. Let’s find out exactly what the Midrash
says: Rabbi Tanhuma said: [Ecclesiastes said]: "[God]
has made every thing beautiful in its time (Eccl. 3:11). [This means that] the world
was created when it was due, and the world was not fit to be created earlier. Rabbi Abbahu
said: Hence we learn that the Holy One, blessed be He, went on creating worlds and destroying
them until He created [heaven and earth -- ours], and then He said: 'These please Me; those
did not please Me.'
Rabbi Pinchas said: 'The proof of Rabbi Abbahu's statement is: "And God saw everything that
He has made, and behold, it was very good". (Gen. 1:31).' [that is, God saw ALL that He
has made -- all the worlds, the good and the bad ones - and behold, only THIS world “was
very good”.] [Genesis Rabbah 9:2]
The Midrash also says: Rabbi Abbahu said: Wherever it is written
"ve-eleh" ("and these"), it adds to what was previously said, but wherever it is written
'eleh' ('these [without the ‘and’]'), it disqualifies what was previously said.
For example? In Genesis 2:4, it says: "These (eleh) are the generations of the heaven and
the earth when they were created." What was disqualified there? God created [other] heavens
and earths, but when He looked at them they were not pleasing in His sight, so He changed
them back into waste and void; but when He looked at this heaven and earth, it pleased
Him, and He exclaimed, 'These shall have generations.' [Exodus Rabbah 30:3.]
In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet says: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. [Isaiah 65:17.]
(Again, evidence that other worlds were created.)
In the siddur – in the prayerbook – we call God “Adon Olam”, “Lord of the Universe”.
But we also call Him “Adon ha-olamim”, “Lord of the Worlds [plural]”. So, this
could mean “this world and the next”, but also the destroyed worlds we just talked
about.
Now, how do we know we are not in a world that will be destroyed? Well, up to a few
years ago we thought we were. We thought that there was a Big *** at the beginning, and
then at some point the universe would stop expanding and start imploding (it was called
the Big Crunch) and then disappear into nothingness billions of years from now. Well, actually,
the evidence now shows that the universe is accelerating its expansion, showing no sign
of slowing down, stopping and imploding, so no big crunch is predicted.
Now, one may ask: Why did God destroy these worlds? Well, in the Zohar (Bereshit, Section
1, Page 24b), it says God destroyed these worlds because they would not follow the Torah.
He asked, and no one would. (In our world, only Israel did.) The Torah is necessary to
sustain the world. You probably heard this before: Al shlosha devarim ha-olam omed: al
hattorah, ve-al ha-avodah, ve-al gemilut hassadim -- The world rests on three things: On Torah,
on worship, and on good deeds.
Bereshit also means “Be-reshit” -- 'with reshit', 'with the beginning' (that is, with
the Torah) God created the world.
Bereshit also contains the word brit, “covenant”. So, the teaching from the Zohar is without
the Torah, the world cannot sustain itself, and that is built into fabric of universe.
The Zohar continues: The Torah is the salvation of the world...
It is in this way that [we must understand that] God created worlds and destroyed them:
those who do not keep the precepts of the Law [destroy themselves of their own account];
not that God destroys His own works, as some fancy. For why indeed should He destroy His
sons?
Zohar Hadash, and Or Ha-Hayyim [1:12], say that a thousand worlds were created through
the first letter, aleph. That is why Torah begins with the second letter, bet (“Bereshit”
– bet). And the source is the Song of Songs, where it says:
You may have the thousand, O Solomon. (Song of Songs 8:12)
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, the 18th-century Hassidic sage, insisted that these worlds
still exist, somewhere. “Everything God created exists forever”, he said, “and
never ceases to be.”
Now, let’s move on to the creationists’ arguments. Now, in fairness to them, it is
not an aversion to science that moves the creationists, and it is not displeasure at
descending from apes. Their real problem is their aversion to the notion that the world
is run by survival of the fittest, by the law of the jungle, by might making right.
They ask: What about compassion, mercy, love? We spend a lot of time and money lifting up
the fallen, helping the poor and the weak -- we don't want to abandon them. Can that
really be going against what God intended? That’s what troubles them.
Now, the Zohar, along those lines, says that God intended to create the world purely with
justice. The Torah begins with “Bereshit bara Elokim”. “Elokim” is God’s name
that denotes the attribute of justice. So God intended to create the world purely with
justice, with cold equations, a master plan unfolding, but found that it could not endure,
so He created it with chesed -- with lovingkindness. Earlier worlds were destroyed because the
severe judgment in them was not mitigated by kindness. Tempering judgment with kindness
is the foundation of the Sefirah Rachamim (Mercy), which equates with Emeth (Truth)
– the Zohar says.
Tikkun ha-Olam (the repair of the world) is the pursuit of a balance between kindness
and judgment. The prominent mystical commentator Cordovero adds that this balance must be weighted
slightly towards kindness.
So we conclude: Survival of the fittest is correct, but it’s only part of the story.
Another part is love, kindness, compassion, mercy; and this is not reflected in our physical
theories.
Shabbat shalom.