Q&A: The Age of the Universe and Allegorization
The Age of the Universe and Allegorization
Question
Hello Rabbi.
First, I greatly enjoy and learn a lot from your articles and answers.
Second, I wanted to ask how we deal with archaeological findings and their dating when they seem to contradict the Torah?
In one of your answers you quoted a professor who said: "As a religious person he believes that the world was created six thousand years ago, and as a scientist he believes that the age of the universe is several billion years."
How can those really go together? As far as I understand, either the world was created six thousand years ago or it was created billions of years ago.
With thanks and best regards.
Answer
This is a quotation I remember from Leibowitz, but I have not found it stated explicitly in his writings. By the way, this is not connected to archaeology but to physics and geology. Archaeology deals with human history.
Clearly, taken literally, the two do not go together. Leibowitz's approach is that the Torah does not deal with facts, and therefore the tradition about 6,000 years should not be treated as a fact but as some sort of religious narrative. Just as other events in the Torah are parables as well (Maimonides held this regarding the angels who appeared to Abraham, among other cases).
And yet, even on the factual level there are several ways to reconcile the two: time dilation with the expansion of the universe (the rate at which time flows changes with the density of mass in the universe), the creation of a ready-made world (already 15 billion years old; in the midrash: "they were created in their full stature") six thousand years ago, a "day" in the days of Genesis being a long period, and so on. I have no idea which of these answers is correct, if any, but it does not trouble me so long as there is no contradiction for which no answer is possible.
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Questioner:
Thank you.
Regarding the idea that the Torah does not deal with facts, seemingly there would be no end to that. Maybe the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Mount Sinai are also just some kind of narrative? And perhaps even all the commandments as well. Meaning, the commandment of tefillin does not really mean that one must actually put on tefillin, but that it comes to convey some idea (just as the Holy One, blessed be He, puts on tefillin)?
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Rabbi:
One must distinguish between the question of whether the Torah deals with facts and the question of whether the Torah can be interpreted allegorically. As for the commandments, if you propose a reasonable interpretation, it can be considered. Usually, a good reason is needed to depart from the plain meaning. As for facts and events, see Rabbi Amit Kula's book, Was It or Was It Not, and my review article of it.