A Lesson in Torah – II
Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld is referenced in my
book as one of the people whose insights in Torah I value. Among
his many activities, Rabbi Kornfeld provides analyses of the
Torah on the internet. Some of these writings were published
in book form under the title Torah from the Internet (The
Judaica Press, 1998). Reproduced below, with permission of the
copyright holder, are the first and last (fifth) sections of
Rabbi Kornfeld's commentary on the first sections of the book
of Genesis (Breishis in Hebrew). I chose this material for the
same reasons that I chose to post commentary on Genesis by Rabbi
Leibtag. (see A Lesson In Torah – I). The
material complements what I say in my book. The material was
prepared well before my book was written. And the reader can
get an appreciation of what a Torah lesson is like. I could have
chosen a different section from this fine book. But I wanted
to provide two commentaries on the same parts of the Bible to
show how varied the lessons derived can be.
Parshas Breishis
In this week's Parsha we find a description
of events that took place at the time of the creation of the
universe. Hashem created the universe and all that is in it in
six days and "rested" from creating on the seventh
day – events which we commemorate weekly with our observance
of the Shabbos day. From the chronology given in this Parsha
and following one, it is clear that the creation took place approximately
6000 years ago.
Modern scientists, however, would tell us
quite a different story of the beginning. During recent years,
a mounting body of evidence drawn from such varied disciplines
as astronomy, cosmology, geochronology, paleontology, radiocarbon
dating techniques and dendrochronology (tree-ring analysis),
seems to indicate that the universe is much older than this.
Although all experts essentially agree that civilization as we
know it (i.e., the written word and the appearance of commercial
societies) is about 5500-6500 years old, scientists' picture
of prehistory is not at all similar to the biblical one. Scientists
estimate that the universe has been around for 10-20 "billion"
years; the earth, for 4 billion years; and multicellular life
on earth, for 650 million years.
How can the account of Torah be reconciled
with these scientifically established conclusions? Let us take
a look at some of the approaches that have been suggested to
deal with this problem.
II–III–IV
Rabbi Kornfeld discusses a number of approaches
for resolution of the apparent differences between science and
Torah. Some of these ideas are discussed in my book and some
are not. Having shown that science and Torah can be reconciled
in various ways, Rabbi Kornfeld then proceeds to draw various
lesson from these results.
V
The world around us was intended to encourage
us to analyze the works of Hashem, and to convey to us many moral
lessons. The Gemara (Eruvin 100b) tells us for instance that
we can learn moral conduct from various animals; see also Rambam
Yesodei HaTorah 2:2. If so, nature itself may be seen as a Torah
in its own right, teaching us the will of Hashem. Thus, there
are two guidebooks to the ways of Hashem: the Torah, and the
natural world.
The "book" of nature has a unique
quality, though. Nobody, no matter how ardent an atheist, can
ever claim that nature is a "forgery." Even if someone
refuses to see the hand of Hashem in nature, the lessons that
it teaches us about life and human nature are still there to
appreciate. Perhaps it is for this reason, then, that this "book"
was modeled to present a different story of creation than the
Bible. The two "books" present different pictures of
the world because they were written for different audiences,
as we shall explain.
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 38a) asks why it was
that humans, the crowns of creation, were the very last thing
that G-d created. One of the answers the Gemara gives is that
this was done to ensure that humans would not let their elevated
status in the world go to their head. In the words of the Gemara,
"If a person becomes overly arrogant, he is reminded of
the fact that even the fleas were created before him." Humans
were created last to remind them of their puniness.
The Gemara then poses another answer, however,
that seems to present precisely the opposite theme. When a person
invites a guest home, the Gemara explains, the food is prepared
and the table and chairs set before the guests arrive. Similarly,
Hashem first finished the preparations of all the ingredients
of the universe before His "guests" were brought to
partake of His "feast" in the Garden of Eden. The very
fact that humans were created last thus attests to the human
being's centrality in the scheme of creation.
It may be said that these two answers complement
each other. We find in the Midrash (Breishis Rabba 8:1) that
when someone follows the will of Hashem he is told, "Your
spirit was created even before the angels of the Heavens.";
but if he does not follow the will of Hashem, he is scolded with
the reminder that "even the bodies of the fleas were created
before your body was!" The Midrash means to say that when
one does Hashem's will, one should realize that one ranks even
higher than the angels of Heaven. If, however, one is arrogant
and defies the will of his Creator, one must be humbled by the
knowledge that he is only a tiny part of the cosmos.
The message that a believer learns from the
Torah account of creation 6,000 years ago is the pivotal role
that humans play in this world. If human beings follow the ways
of Hashem and the words of His Torah, they will raise themselves
spiritually and raise all of nature along with them.
However, Hashem knew that there would always
be people who would not accept the veracity of the Torah. For
them He created a universe full of indications of vastness of
forces of nature and humbleness of human's origins. How humbling
it is to ponder the scientific version of where humans came from
– "Even fleas preceded you!" Furthermore, by considering
the long history of extinctions caused by rather sudden changes
in earth's makeup over the ages, humans come to realize that
the universe is not ours to abuse. Humans live in a world which
hangs in very delicate ecological balance. If we do not respect
the rights of other people and creatures to exist, we are liable
to face natural disasters such as those visited upon the earth
in the past. Today's ecological awareness can be directly related
to recent scientific discoveries about the past history of this
planet.
Thus the creation of the word was carried
out on two distinct planes – according to a six-day creation,
to teach people who accept the Torah the centrality of the human
being's role in carrying out Hashem's will in the world, and
according to a 20-billion year apparent creation, to teach those
who do not accept the Torah these humbling lessons in a different
manner.
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