God, History, and Torah

There is an ongoing tumult occurring in America.   The arguments are on campus too, largely waged between religionists on the right and religionists of the left together with secularists.  The distillation of the argument reached its apex a few years back in a courthouse in Pennsylvania.  The trial in Harrisburg is received a lot of coverage nationwide on CNN, FOX and virtually every newspaper in the nation.  The argument centered on the opening passage of the Torah describing creation.  How should biology –evolution -- be taught (if at all) in our school systems?

     One poll taken cites that 50% of Christian America                   believes the Biblical story of creation in the Bible should be          taken literally.  Various politicians have taken their stance on “intelligent design.”

What does Judaism have to offer on the subject?  In the Middle Ages, Maimonides one of greatest thinkers, teachers and physicians of his era and ours determined that science, by definition, could not be in conflict with religion.  That is, Maimonides believed that truth is not negotiable.  Torah is truth and to the extent that science would come into conflict with Torah, the Writ must not be understood properly.  If science proved something that contradicted Biblical thought, Bible required re-interpretation.    

Rabbi Abraham Kook, the first chief rabbi of Israel, wrote that there is no contradiction between the Torah and evolution.    Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, another Orthodox thinker, wrote that if the theory of evolution proved to be correct, it would be a testimonial to the wisdom of the Creator.

Albert Einstein said that science without religion is lame.  Religion without science is blind.

Jews must not be lame or blind. 

In the first Sidra of the Torah, Beresheet, the Text says, Vayhi ha-adam lnefesh chayah, “Man became a became a living soul.”  What does “living soul” mean?  Rashi, the medieval expositor said it indicates two things; Death and dibbur.  Rashi believed that the gift of God to humanity was that we were endowed with the faculties of reasoning and speech.   To deny these gifts is to deny our destiny.

Kabbalah has long taken that philosophic stance that the Torah is far above the tales we all learned in Religious School.  The Torah is about lofty principles.  It is not a history book; it is a book about God. 

Here is one obvious biblical fact: In its own narrative, Torah depicts light as having preceded the sun.  Two questions should be shouting at the reader: How could there be light without sun? And, how could there be a literal “day” of creation when there was no rotation of the earth around its star?

Our answer is that Torah wishes to say something powerful about humanity, God and, the universe without being reckoned as a textbook.  Truth is always the goal.

Not in Vain

The Talmud records that the entire world once convulsed with such force that it almost split apart as the Holy One uttered, "Thou shalt not take My name in vain."
"Why then?" asks a nameless scholar, "Why was the earth was nearly destroyed then and not at any other part of the Decalogue?" 

Perhaps because all society and civilization unconsciously accepts that it hinges on this one notion.  Without this mitzvah world could not exist.  Let me share how:
When the President of the United States takes office he swears on a Bible to uphold the Constitution.  Why a Bible?  Why not just say, "I'll do my best?"  Or, "I promise?"

When a witness takes the stand in court they also swear to God to "tell the truth."

What is it about taking God's name in vain that is so fearsome that we practice it universally today? 

A point of interest: When a Jew takes the stand they do not "swear" to God because we take the prohibition so seriously that we know, even unwittingly, we will not tell the entire truth so we "affirm" instead of swearing.

By these actions we acknowledge that this particular commandment (mitzvah) is the most powerful statement we can make (I have never heard of an atheist saying that he would not take the vow because it was not meaningful or strong enough). 

I wonder if the psychic underpinning for this is that we do not believe that we really control our lives.  Sure, we govern our day-to-day activities but when it comes to the larger issues like life and death, hope and despair, we feel powerless.

I recall an old Ann Landers column that told of a woman who, when uptight, would sit with her vacuum cleaner and let the wind blow into her face full force.  Her relatives thought she ought to be committed but Landers responded that sitting and hugging the vacuum was a reasonable response when there is no alternative.

Feeling helpless is not unusual or unique to us; it cuts a wide swathe though humanity.

In the Mishna, Rabbi Akiva is quoted as comforting the Jewish nation after the terrible Hurban, devastation of the destroyed Temple, with the words, "Happy are you, Israel, whose Father in Heaven never departs from you."

The faith of Israel is that God is always with us.

A story related by author Herbert Weiner tells of a conductor making his way down the train collecting tickets.  He came to a couple of Hasidim. 

They looked up and asked, "Why don't you ask the people in the engine cab for their tickets?"

"They are driving the train," answered the surprised conductor.

"So are we," said the Hasidim. 

So to keep order in the universe and chaos at bay we hold fast to the integrity and holiness of God's name.  This knowledge reassures and comforts us.  Or as Psalms says, "I will not fear for You are with me."