Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Rosh Hashana רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה – Today the World was Born

The Jews celebrate Rosh Hashana as the birthday of the world. The idea is multifaceted and the expressions can be refined even though they all amount to the same thing. For example the refrain after sounding the shofar in the Additional Service for the holiday (Musaf) is “today the world was conceived” (הַיּוֹם הֲרַת עוֹלָם). In fact according to Jewish religious thought the world was conceived on forty days before on the 15 of Av and was not completed until the sixth day of creation when man as we know him came into being. Man was the object of the creation therefore everything that preceded him is reckoned as preparation.

The Chumash then gives an account of the creation that seems to be in three parts. The first part is creation ex nihilo of the heavens and the earth. This is followed desolation and chaos which is rectified by six days basically of sorting and extracting. For example light is separated from darkness. The sky separates the water below from the water above. Water is gathered together so the dry land can appear. Plants sprout from the earth. Fish swarm from the sea. Animals come out of the earth.

The second part to a large extent disregards all of this. It says were no plants. There was only a mist rising out of the earth to water the soil. Once man was created everything sprung up. After that, the animals were brought before him. The Chumash explains that the parade of animals was so that man should be given a helper that would be close to him. It mentions incidentally that man named the animals. This introduces the third part of the story of creation which is the creation of women.

There are inherent difficulties with the text. For example the commentaries wrestle with the idea of how can something be created when it does not come into physical existence. There is also a contradiction in that the man by himself, alone, does meaningful work, but is he a complete creation without the woman?

To add to the difficulties there is the light of day and the darkness of night, as well as evening and morning before the sun is created on the fourth day. Plants also come into creation before the sun. The commentaries give various explanations about this too.

One can ask what difference does it all make anyway? The Torah is coming to teach us how to be good people. That a person should not lie or steal, respect his parents, and not work on Shabbos makes him into a better person. However, even to the Torah there can be objections. It is forbidden to curse a deaf man even though he doesn’t hear it nor does anybody else. Intuitively, though, it seems like this sort of mischief really is malevolent.

It is possible to go to a university Jewish studies program and find a kind Jew that studies Torah. However, there is no comparison between a person who studies Torah and believes that there is a G-d in heaven running the world and a person who does not. They are very different and it shows up on the look on their face, the tone of their voice, and the life that they lead. Therefore we see that there is a difference between someone who believes in G-d, believes that He created of the world, and believes that He created it the six days.

The Rambam opens his major work, The Mishna Torah (Book of Knowledge, laws of concerning the Foundations of Torah), by declaring that the, “Foundation of Foundations and the pillar or all wisdom is to know that there is something that is found first and from it everything else is derived. Everything in the heavens on earth and in between only exists by the fact of His existence”. This idea is developed in his smaller work, Guided for the Perplexed”. Much of the second of the books three sections deals with philosophical and scientific analysis of the idea that G-d created the universe. There is an extensive analysis of astronomy. His conclusion is that either the universe has always existed or that it was created by an outside all powerful force, G-d. He says that neither one is can be firmly proved but belief in G-d is superior while the idea of the eternity of the universe raises difficulties.

The Rambam explains that to have a genuine intellectual foundation for belief in the creation of the world one must be very truthful and impartial. The searcher must know his strong and weak points. Next he must acquire a strong knowledge of the natural sciences to the extent that he can know what is doubtful and what is true. Finally he must be of high character. This is because character failings will cause him to go in the direction that he finds pleasing and in the end will cause him to stumble.

The basic idea of the story of creation in the Chumash is that one can see the presence of G-d in the sciences. However to be success at this one must overcome many difficulties among them intellectual, social, and personal. The Chumash though tells us the answer in order to guide us in the proper direction. It is similar to the stories of the patriarchs in that G-d is revealed through the actions of the righteous. The purpose of the Torah is not to teach us history or science; it is to teach us how to be good human beings. At times the precepts of the Torah can be difficult to understand. The lesson is that just like we can find truth in science if we sincerely search for it, a similar search will reveal to us the righteousness and benevolence of the mitzvahs.





לע"נ, הדוד ,שמואל בן נח ז"ל נלב"ע ט"ו אב תשס"ט,
Acknowledgements to websites: תורת אמת, וויקיטקסט, http://dictionary.reference.com/, http://hebrewbooks.org/,
וגם בדואר אלקטרוני  ניתן באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il




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