The Acceptance of Torah

Science’s place within the Torah’s framework

Part four out of five guest posts from our reader דוד . The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Irrationalist Modoxism - Ed.

We’ve already discussed how there is no contradiction between the universe being less than six thousand years old and the seeming findings from science that it is so much older, because by the very definition of Hashem creating a physical world, a history has to be built in since that is what makes our universe physical. It so happens that the physical history is the one discovered by science, no big deal. But why in fact did Hashem create the world with this specific nature? Why didn’t Hashem in fact make the scientific definition simply follow the true essence of reality?

In other words, if scientists had done their experiments and found that Hashem actually created the Earth as a flat disc with a dome on top as the sky, or that gold turned out to be made of gold particles even on a microscopic level, or that a human was distinctly human, sharing no common characteristics with other species and so on, no one would chalilah be second guessing the Torah. But Hashem very much didn’t create the world in the manner we would’ve thought, and it begs the question, why not?

Before we proceed, it is important to acknowledge that the answer to this question is purely speculative (though many of the points throughout are way more than that); we are asking why Hashem did what He did, and who can know the mind of God? I’m sure He has reasons far beyond what we could ever imagine. But I would like to share what I believe to be at least some of God’s genius, for which I have strong foundations in Chazal. But once again, even these are just speculation, and in truth, “For whom is it fitting to utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Only for the One who can declare all His praise!”[1]

That being said, we now need to turn our attention to the other famous (infamous?) Torah/science “contradiction”: ancient science. Until now we were specifically busy with modern science, but now it’s time to understand the Torah’s science and how to deal with the seemingly primitive statements we find in our Torah. Let’s work on accepting the entirety of the Torah as is appropriate for this time of year.

To be perfectly clear, we will not dealing with specifics (other than what is necessary to bring out examples). We are merely giving a structure; the reader, unless the time will be better spent on a Rashba, is encouraged to explore the many questions answered by this layout.

1. Ancient Science

The Torah - and Chazal - had a lot to say about the nature of the world. It seems though, perhaps more often than not, that they simply got it wrong. They believed in spontaneous generation, that the earth was flat and their list of medicines are just completely off. While this is just a small selection from a broader list, the question arises: how do we explain these discrepancies? The common explanation suggests that Chazal relied on the scientific understanding of their era, that they were going  “with the science of their time”. To me this really means that we so generously forgive them for getting it wrong - how could they be expected to know better? Despite these errors, we still adhere to their halachic rulings due to some vague concept of “אלפיים תורה”, suggesting that Hashem guided the decision-making process based on the wisdom of that era. I think that while this explanation is partially correct, it misses the main point, as we will explain.

You’ve likely already deduced that the answer to these questions is based on our very two definitions - ancient science was simply following the functional definition, and very much not the scientific definition, while modern science follows the scientific definition. But let’s explain:

Basically, Hashem created the entire universe for us to serve Him; we are the center of it all. Man arrives at the ‘banquet’ after the entire display is all set up for him - a basic Jewish concept I need not defend in this setting. It follows, therefore, that the eyes that Hashem gave us to gaze around His beautiful creation and take everything in is the true intended perspective of how to understand the world around us. The perception that really matters is human perception. We give things names, words and terms based on our perception and these names specifically describe the functional definition, how everything in the world is of use to us.[2]

In the human-eye-view of the world, everything has deep Godly meaning. Chazal refer to the wisdom of the “speech” of the trees (i.e. how trees “communicate” with humans), astrology (how humans read the stars), palm reading, witchcraft and more. Although nowadays these ideas have been labeled as primitive by those who think they know best, these are actually what the world truly is about. To the small extent that we understand these concepts (which, admittedly, is very, very little), understanding the true reality involves grasping the essential nature of things; the meaning of a tree, rather than just its scientific properties. Every tree, every animal, every grain of sand has a unique purpose and meaning, and each contributes to the world in its own way. Without trees the world would lack the unique flavor they bring. Similarly, every species of tree and even every individual tree has its own unique purpose and meaning, as do every star and every animal. Either call it kabbalah (the understanding of Hashem’s ways, when used for good), or sorcery and witchcraft (the ways of avoda zara, when used for bad), this wisdom was known well in the past. In this context the “functional definition” of everything was its reality.

To requote from Chomsky from the previous post, “The answer depends on choice of perspective and on circumstances…If that thing was designed to be a library and is characteristically used this way while I am gone, then it perhaps it really is a library. It is not a house, contrary of what I thought…There simply is no independent truth of the matter…” Chomsky (well, really Aristotle) got it right - it surely does depend on perspective and circumstance, but alas there is an “independent truth of the matter”, being that there is a Designer who intended it a certain way.

White has a meaning, red has a meaning. We (I speak for myself) may have zero clue what the essence of red is, but it is very real.[3] While scientifically these colors are nothing more than lifeless photon waves interacting with retinas, such a perspective has no deep meaning where we can gain access to understanding Hashem’s relationship with us. The real meaning of red, on the other hand, is deeper than we can imagine, and that is specifically based on red’s functional definition; how we humans see and experience red. Same goes with anything else; its actual essence and its scientific essence are radically different, where the true essence is full of meaning, while the scientific essence is nothing more than its dry mechanics.

Here is the next step: we now have another very important way of describing the two definitions we’ve been discussing up until now. The functional definition is the one filled with the meaning intended by the Designer, while the scientific definition is completely devoid of such meaning, and here is the point, the scientific definition is only perceived from a non-human perspective - the perspective not intended by Hashem.[4]

Let’s develop this using the heliocentric-geocentric debate as an example. If Hashem created the world for us, with our eyesight and perception seeing ourselves as stationary and the sun and planets orbiting around us, this is the perception that is brimming with Hashem’s intended meaning, the functional definition. Again, this is not a primitive or outdated concept, but rather how Hashem created the world. In this view, astrology holds great significance as it captures the uniqueness of each passing day. In contrast to the heliocentric model's orderly nature, the geocentric model portrays a delightful chaos. This is because astrology assigns distinct significance to each day, making it different from the one before it. Each day holds its own interpretation (of Hashem’s relationship with us), dictated by the alignment of the "stars" (namely, the five visible planets)[5]. We, klal yisroel, believe that this model is the authentic one, rather than the gravity-based model, which is but the nature of the “fake” reality. As we say, “עובדי כוכבים ומזלות” - stars were a big deal. The heliocentric model, on the other hand, may be how it works scientifically, but it relies on removing ourselves from the center, from our perception, which is not what Hashem envisioned.[6]

In this world it hardly matters if the earth is round or flat; if the sun goes around the earth or if it’s “actually” vice versa and so on; what matters is how it appears to us. While a “rationalist” might mistakenly identify certain passages in Chazal as being primitive and going with the silly primitive ideas of the time, a more refined person realizes that the science of the time itself was not primitive; it was merely a completely different – and way more sophisticated – system of understanding. Our scientific knowledge is a fake (and, if I may add, human), having to do just with the physicality of nature; they knew the real deal. This is a really important point, so I’ll stress it one more time: the science of the time was very much in line with our version of reality. This completely differentiates our science from theirs. Chazal (or the Rambam for that matter, to some extent) didn’t “follow the science of their times”; they simply agreed with their science because the sciences of the times were in line with the Torah. (The Rambam discussion is a bit more nuanced but really only a bit. For another time.) If we would follow our science, we’d only be led astray from the truth.

Halacha of course follows this true reality, and so we can kill lice on Shabbos because as far as our eyes are concerned, they spontaneously generate. No scientific experimentation can change our eye view. In fact, using experimentation to check what is “really” happening beyond human eye view means looking at a reality which has no Torah meaning. Interestingly, this is what scientists are so very proud of: their ability to look beyond the human eye[7] and use a microscope, telescope, or their most powerful tool yet,  mathematics. But to us they are just losing themselves in the world of illusion.

In short, ancient science wasn’t concerned with scientific experimentation, rather with human eye view. Chazal, and the Torah itself for that matter, goes with this same view. (See Ramchal in footnote 4.)

(As a side, perhaps an important side, scientists laugh at the primitive, ignorant ancients who couldn’t take fifteen minutes to experiment their thoughts. Well, they did. Just not ones that would make a modern scientist smile. When a cup of water was turned into blood; when a cow was slaughtered to control a certain “koach” in the briah, these had very clear verifiable - and falsifiable – results. We just don’t know the nature of the beast and R’L the scientist assumes these results never happened - “I never saw it so it must not be true”.)

2. Ancient Science’s Thorn

The beautiful world that was, however, suffered from a major problem: Avoda Zara. It pays to take a short moment to discuss this. On the one hand, the world was full of real knowledge. At some point, we had actual Neviim walking around! Everyone understood good and well that the scientific nature was a mirage. On every block miracles were performed (at least in theory) and physical science was suspended willy nilly. As much as some rationalists like to believe this not to be the case, they can’t (well, at least shan’t) deny that miracles are simply not a big deal if you know the true nature of reality. That God could, at ease, suspend the oh-so-special scientific constants, is really nothing too extreme for a Torah believing Jew to think. And those who understood Sefer Yetzirah surely had no compunction with the true nature of reality.

But, on the other hand, knowing this reality can also be a great danger. Being able to use this superpower of knowledge can give an evil person the ability to be so much more evil (the root of every fairytale; the villain receiving the [fill-in-the-blank] powers).[8] Avoda Zara was the service of manipulating Hashem’s Middos for one’s own gain, as were using the influences of the Kochos Hatumah, known as Kishuf. We will not bend to modern man who deems these things silly just because we don’t understand them.

To take this a bit further, in the world where everything had a meaning, every distinct creation had a tremendous value toward understanding another layer of depth of Hashem’s ways. Avoda zara thrived on this world of individual details. Every star was a gateway to human control; every offering a manipulation device. (In fact, Avoda zara only worked when dealing with distinct parts[9].) It was a world of people who “knew God” but rebelled because they could. Avoda Zara was the worst imaginable thing possible from the Torah’s perspective because it took Hashem out of the equation and replaced Him with the world’s individual powers, which were originally intended just to manifest Hashem’s powers. The Rambam already points out that the Torah’s primary concern is eradicating this evil, as the purpose of creation is to reveal that all the diversity is really just Hashem’s oneness.

3. The Antidote

What finally did cure us from this disease of Avoda Zara is the greatest cure of all time: stupidity. Well, ignorance is probably a better word, but I use this label for those who deny the existence of the true knowledge. Eventually, there was a point in time when this wisdom was so lost that there no longer was Nevuah; when the Yetzer Hara of avoda zara was “slaughtered”; when the world became one without a representative house of Hashem in our midst. This all occurred by the Churban Bayis Rishon.[10] And ever since, we’ve only been losing our pride more and more, while the world has been losing meaning more and more.[11]

This, however, only created a set of new, very different problems. Suddenly, questions arose that no one had asked before. Everything used to be clear, and we knew what everything was called and what it meant. But now that knowledge was getting lost, people were left wondering "why?" and "what?" in an attempt to make sense of the world again. This gave rise to "philosophy" or figuring things out on our own, with Aristotle leading the way. He was very successful, and a whole new way of examining the world was created. They called this new way “light”; we call it “darkness”.^[12]

This is the historical context of modern science in a nutshell. As the true wisdom diminished, science, the exercise of understanding the empty nature of the world  grew and grew. In a gruelingly long-winded history of this see-saw relationship[13] – the true functional definitions slipping away - the world for what it really is becoming less and less intelligible - as the scientific definitions begin taking their place, giving rise to the majesty of the scientific reality we are so accustomed to.

To skip many years, even centuries, by the time Galileo and later Newton came around, enough time had elapsed for almost all of the old wisdom to have vanished, and now science as we know it was ready to make its big debut. This was the world of Descartes’s mechanical philosophy and pure materialism. (Particularly, the atheistic perspective of biological evolution relies on the complete and utter meaninglessness of everything, where even the design we see is but a meaningless illusion.[14])

But after centuries of mathematical, philosophical and sociological development, it finally began to become clear what the many years of discovery really had accomplished. Newton realized that even though it might seem like a rock is pulled towards the earth by some strange force, while planets orbit the sun due to a completely different unexplainable force, they're actually just different forms of the same idea: gravity. While this might be obvious at first glance, there's a deeper level to this discovery – all the different bodies in the universe, like rocks, planets, and even the sun, are all connected and part of a larger unified system. Before Newton's discoveries, people thought that the earth and sun were totally separate and followed their own set of rules. However, Newton's work showed that everything is interconnected and part of a grander system.

Maxwell's breakthrough in combining electricity and magnetism was a further instance of what appears to be two separate things but are actually just different aspects of the same reality. Similarly, if we must, Darwin's theory of evolution showed us that a banana and an elephant are not so different after all, as they both share about sixty percent (!) of the same DNA. The trend in science was clear - towards a unity. This was demonstrated yet again, perhaps most clearly, in the field of chemistry, where it was discovered that seemingly different substances, such as gold and copper, are actually just different arrangements of the same fundamental building block: the atom. These are just a few examples, but unification is evident across all areas of science.

It wasn't until Einstein came along that we really understood how profound this idea was. In Einsteinian physics, we learn that everything - all matter - is really just different forms of energy. This helps us understand the big bang theory, which suggests that everything we see in the universe is really just the aftermath of a bunch of star explosions. As the famous astronomer Carl Sagan said, we are all made of "stardust." Additionally, time, space, and mass all work together and are interrelated. Now it became clear how every single thing that exists all is actually a part of one actual big, gorgeous system. A lion, a rock, a star, a whatever: everything that we see is just one initial burst of energy configuring itself in every way possible, to give us the entirety of the universe. This, besides the fact that nothing less than time and space themselves are components of a single construct.

Originally, science was just a collection of discrete discoveries, such as understanding why the sky is blue, how trees use photosynthesis to grow fruit or classifying bats as mammals. But now we see that these discoveries provide clues that point toward a grander vision of the universe as a unified organism. The many centuries of scientific inquiry can be seen as leading up to this unification, and while we have yet to fully achieve it, we are steadily progressing towards it. The quantum stuff is looking pretty promising. It will be amazing to watch the final theories unfold; perhaps an Einstein 2.0 will come along and radicalize the way we think about certain forces of nature which will answer the big questions, or most probably the groups of physicists already underway will each take their place in this unification.

4. The Irony!

Here’s what follows: in “real” reality Hashem created everything with a personalized message; distinct and separate; where a lion is most certainly not a rock. But in this new form of unity - in the scientific definition of everything - we see how it is actually all one. This is an unbelievable discovery; originally, Hashem needed (I use that term loosely) to create the world with many different things in order to reveal all the many different facets of Himself. By creating the lion, we now have a fuller picture of the concept of majesty; by creating the ant, we now have a fuller picture of productivity. This is the true essence of things. But, as we said, this creates the dreadful possibility of avoda zara, that the sun is the god of light and the moon is the god of darkness or that the lion is the god of strength and so on. Science, however, teaches us that there absolutely no such thing as a pure “sun” or “lion”. The lion itself is just a manifestation of atoms, as is the sun and every other thing we see. The beauty of science is its harmony.

After this amazing history, when Hashem will return to Tzion and all the old wisdom will become clear again, כי מלאה כל הארץ דעה, there will be no chance for someone to turn to avoda zara! Such evil thrived on the illusion that there is something essential about the power of the sun or whatever. But science has completely done away with that! By demystifying the nature of the world we live in, by unweaving the rainbow, everything has been shown to be but One Power alone.

To expound, kefirah as we know it will automatically disintegrate when true knowledge returns. There is nothing that they have on us except their laughable assumption that we are carrying around a giant fairytale. This is a really, really crucial point, one which I can’t stress enough – we are not bothered by the same questions that they are. The depths of the Torah go far beyond anything they can imagine; beyond anything we can imagine. They think of it all as silly fairytales and are left weighing that against their amazing science. And true - if it boils down to folktales and fantastic legends, science will win. We need not engage with them, because any ‘attack’ they have, exists only because of their shallow understanding of HKBH’s ginormous Torah. Against the vastness and depth of the Torah, a trivial problem such as evolution, ancient civilizations or so called moral dilemmas, which to them is a complete knockout, to us is but a slight grievance, a ha’ara b’alma, which doesn’t deserve too much attention (besides that IMHO these sorts of things aren’t anything too difficult). Those who engage in science and chalilah feel the kefirah tightening in their chests, sucking the life out of them, need just to open up a Ramchal, Kisvei ha’Arizal, Likutei Maharan, Reb Elya Weintraub’s writings, whatever seforim work for you, andהחכמה תחיה בעליה.

We know how the world was created: with Sheimos hakedoshim. In the same way we know how it exists: with these very Sheimos. There are no Sheimos for the existence of a dinosaur. As we get involved in the Torah’s way of the thinking, the Torah culture, science is shown to be the cold חיצוניות that it is, while the true warm depths of HKBH’s lively world are rejuvenated, as we reheat our bath[15].

In the same sense, on a universal scale, all we need to combat the rampant wind of atheism is that the world be filled again with the true wisdom. With this their world falls apart inevitably. This deserves an entire post but meanwhile, if you take nothing else out of this whole series, these last three paragraphs should be it. (And, might I add, the so called ‘rationalists’ who reduce the Torah to their latest whims of the day, be it DNS, Joshua Berman, or any other of these drifters, R’l, are really of no help.) in short, the remedy for our stupidity is כי מלאה כל הארץ דעה.

But, danger alert! When that knowledge returns, what will stop avoda zara from riding once again on its coattails? If the cure was ignorance, the return of knowledge will bring back the very same issues. The answer is, unbelievably… science itself! Science shows us how there is actually but One force alone. The two evils – avoda zara along with the reviled atheism – will actually join together to cancel each other out!

And get this - who glorified these ideas? Unwittingly, Edom himself[16], the anti-God, religion-hating, atheist-est of them all, has become the catalyst to eradicate avoda zara from the world! Edom will hand the Crown of Glory back to Hashem in the most spectacular fashion! In fact, the more militant and confident they are, the more ironic it will be!^[17]

The more we appreciate the history of the scientific enterprise, blended with the tremendous wisdom of old - which seem at first glance to be at complete contradiction - the more amazing we can glimpse into the mind of God in this most beautiful, ironic progression. The fact the universe is actually geocentric, meaning super complex, but at the same time has a such a simple heliocentric scientific reality which accounts for the extreme complexity of the geocentric path as well, is astonishingly more beautiful than just heliocentrism alone. The atheist can never appreciate this because to him design is an illusion; everything is chance and just so happens to be this way. The fact that it looks beautiful and ready for us is all part of this illusion. But in reality, as we know, everything is designed to the maximum; it’s beauty wholly intended, and the scientific simplicity accounts for all of this complexity. And the fact that the atheists are working tirelessly to figure out this unified grand theory of everything, when ultimately every discovery turns out to be another nail in avoda zara’s coffin, and they are actually unsuspecting building their worst nightmare: being מרבה כבוד שמו ית', is yet another layer of ironic genius.

And, parenthetically, when they come for their reward, claiming they were the greatest facilitators for Hashem’s glory, Hashem will respond, “Fools of the world! Are you attempting to deceive Me? Everything that you did, you did for your own needs!”^[18] You atheists, you were working only for yourselves, against me! You get nothing!

I am just hypothesizing here some of Hashem’s gorgeous plan and I know I’m barely beginning to scratch the surface, but suffice it for us now that we have no need to busy our lives with their world; we can spend our time on the words of the Rashba and R’ Akiva Eiger, with Chazal’s “ancient” science - what Hashem wants us to spend our time on, and we can work on our “Y’hei Shmei Raba”, and just watch the scene unfolding so stunningly in front of our eyes.

One thing for sure – we should definitely not join hashkafic forces with the umos ha’olam, like the eruv rav, only to find ourselves on the wrong side of this beautiful history…

אז ימלא שחוק פינו ולשוננו רינה, אז יאמרו בגויים הגדיל הש' לעשות עם אלה!

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[1] Based on Megillah 18b

[2] For the more kabbalah inclined, it is worth taking a moment to delve into this fascinating idea - a “name” and for sure a “שם”, describes the functional reality of the object. For this reason שמותיו של הקב"ה don’t describe עצמותו ית', rather His מדות in which with He deals us. Our entire perception of הקב"ה is His “functional definition” to us! Actually, the true functional definition of everything is how it is מרבה כבוד שמים, hence the צירופי שמות creating reality, וד"ל.

[3] See for example, https://www.sefaria.org/Pardes_Rimonim.10.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

[4] The Ramchal (Adir Bamarom beginning on pg. 235 and beginning on pg. 459) calls the true meaning “פנימיות”, the inner, essential depth, while the depths of understanding its mere physicality he calls “חיצוניות”, the empty outer shell; these sentiments echoed famously by the Gr’a’s dismissal of the Rambam’s opinion in Y’D 179:13 “לא פנימיות של בעלי הפלוסופיא שהם חצוניות”

Let me just quote one line from the Ramchal elsewhere in אדיר במרום:

עמ' רל"ו - ועיקר מה שדיברו בו רז"ל יהיה בפנימיות שלו שזהו ידיעת התורה המקפת כל החכמות כו' כי החיצוניות אין יש בתורה, אלא ענין המצוה והעבודה זהו לבד נקרא תורה, ומה שהוא חוץ מזה אינו תורה, אך הפנימיות, אדרבא, הוא הכל תורה כו' והחכמה אשר לאומות העולם אינה אלא חלק החיצוניות שלה שלא נכלל בתורה כו'. I believe these words are completely in line with, or better, they *are* our approach, in different words.

[5] See this for a animation of the two models:

notice the amount of pemutations possible in which to align the stars, for every second of every minute of every day etc.

[6] To the more astute reader, even this is a poor example; we don’t even really subscribe to the geocentric Ptolemaic model, rather to the Dome model of Chazal, i.e. flat earth. Though we know that the earth is not flat, human perception perceives the sky as a dome over our flat land, but to really get into this is far beyond the scope of our discussion.

[7] Anyone aware of Carl Sagan’s “great demotions” knows what I mean (if you don’t, don’t worry about it; Sagan was basically very good at making kefirah sound smart and humble to people who don’t know how to think.)

[8] (See well Gr’a Mishlei 19:9)

[9] See, for example, Maharal, Gur Aryeh on Rashi by Makkas Kinim, for example.

[10] See B’B 12b (ניטלה נבואה כו'); Gr’a Likut 9 to Safra D’Tzniusa; Yoma 69b (story of slaughtering the יצרא דע"ז); Brachos 8a (מיום שחרב כו') and Eiruvin 65a (יכול אני כו')

[11] This idea could probably use its own few posts. For now, see Ramchal in Da’as Tevunos # 40.

[12] חשך זו יון

[13] Very much in line with the long, sad downfall of the Malchus of Yaakov and the impressive rise of Malchus Edom.

[14] See https://irrationalistmodoxism.substack.com/p/what-we-have-against-evolution

[15] I am referencing Amalek.

[16] Edom is the quintessential חיצוניות - or in our terms, meaningless - of the briah, as Chazal say,עשו – הא שוא שבראתי בעולמי, Eisav is the concept of “שוא”, meaninglessness in creation. This is one of countless מאמרי חז"ל about Eisav’s מדה of nothingness. Incidentally, the חזיר is similar to a kosher animal in its חיצוניות, it is merely missing the פנימיות – something to consider for our discussion, but this is a very long topic, not for now.

[17] See, at great length, Vayikra Rabbah, end of Parshas Shemini. Note what it says: למה נקרא שמו חזיר, שמחזיר עטרה ליושנה; it doesn’t say that the crown will be returned, rather they will be the ones returning the crown…! In general, those Midrashim are Chazal’s guide to the history of this long Galus, culminating with the rampant atheism we see today.

[18] Avoda Zara 2b (ע' חי' הגרי"ז עה"ת ריש הספר בזה)