Ignoring any historical tradition, the Gemara(Rosh HaShanah 10b-11a) brings a debate as to the date of creation of the universe. Rabbi Eliezer holds that the world was created on the first of Tishrei while, Rabbi Yehoshua holds it was created on the first of Nisan. A theological proof based on nature is brought. Nissan is at the start of spring. That is the time dry trees start to grow and produce fruit. This mimics creation from nothing, therefore nature testifies that the world was created in Nissan. Rabbi Eliezer rejects this analysis and says that God creates things in their state of perfection and a tree only achieves perfection when it has fruit. This occurs in the fall, which begins with Tishre.
Rabbi Eliezer's position is the one that is accepted and the date of Rosh Hashanah is the first of Tishrei. Three times in the liturgy, typically sung, it is stated, "today the world was born", (הַיּוֹם הֲרַת עוֹלָם). The word הֲרַת is a form of the word "pregnant" and a more precise translation would be "delivered". Man was created in the afternoon of the sixth day of creation. This is the birthday of the world, before that is reckoned as pregnancy. Some say the start was forty days before on the fifteenth of Av. Others say there were 974 generations before creation (see Gemara Chagiga 13b-14a). The proofs teach lessons, can be fanciful, and may even describe what actually happened.
There is a hint of evolution in Rabbi Yehoshua's position because an inert tree comes to life, develops, and changes. Some Kabalists have a similar idea in that light becomes gas which becomes water which becomes earth. Others start the process with thought. However, thought evolving into light or anything physical is not scientific. There is a legend that only the boulder in the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, known as the foundation stone, was created from nothing. From it spread out Mount Zion, then Jerusalem, then Israel, then the whole world.
The big bang theory, popular today, revolves around evolution. It basically says the first thing in the universe was hydrogen ions, because of all atoms this is the simplest. They combined into chemicals then into stars, planets, plants, and man. The idea is of something simple evolving into something complex. Atom is a derivative of the Greek word for uncuttable meaning that this was the smallest and simplest building block, thus uncuttable. Rocks, trees, and animals are much more complex than atoms. The problem is atoms are infinitely complex. Another problem is that no matter how small something is there is always something smaller and that also is very complex. In other words smallness is infinite. It also hints that at the end of the chain of smallness is HaKadosh baruch Hu.
Another difficulty of the big bang is that it is logical to ask what happened before the big bang. One answer is that the universe alternately expands into the cosmos and contracts into a dot and this cycle has always been going on. In other words the universe is eternal. People often don't like that idea and when pressed will sheepishly say something like blessed is He, who spoke, and there was a world. One can ask, where did God come from. The answer is that He is supernatural, transcends time, and we really don't understand Him.
It is reasonable to ask if God created trees perfectly why didn't He create man perfectly? After all war and disease seem to be obvious imperfections. In addition places like deserts and smelly swamps, where man is absent, also seem to be very imperfect. The answer is that man was in fact created in a state of perfection. This included the ability to shirk his duty to properly take care of the world and to be generally rebellious. The consequences of such a course, though, may be extremely painful.
Man also has the ability to learn what is the proper way and correct his errors. The lesson of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the last 5780 years is that bad ideas should be rejected both in practice and intellectually, as well. The lesson of Rosh Hashanah is to remember our deeds and the deeds of our fathers until the year zero. With this we should cling to the good and reject the bad whether they happened today or thousands of years ago. These are other lessons of the holiday such as there is a creator who runs the world; the Torah is His revealed will; and he speaks to every individual through his environment and his soul. Finally we should celebrate this with songs, festive meals, and by loudly sounding the shofar.
לע"נ האמא מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז ניסן תשנ"ח
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