Q&A: The Purpose of the Universe
The Purpose of the Universe
Question
Hi Rabbi,
I read your book The First Existent and enjoyed it very much.
You write there (in the fifth part, I think) that since God created the world, it presumably has a purpose.
I agree, but I want to ask: in your view, is there any meaning to the rest of the universe beyond planet Earth? Seemingly, for a purpose connected only to human beings and to Earth, it would have been enough to create just them, and that’s it.
What is the purpose of all the rest of this enormous universe?
Thank you very much
Answer
I have no idea. Why is that important?
Discussion on Answer
With God’s help, the 40th day of the Omer, 5780
To A. — greetings,
Rabbi Yitzhak Shilat wrote, during his months of reserve service in the period after the Yom Kippur War, a booklet of novellae called Be’urin De’Asha on tractate Berakhot, and there, among other things, he expressed his amazement at how close the number of stars counted by the Sages is to the number of stars estimated today by scientists.
Best regards,
Shatz
The question is incomplete.
Those who ask what the purpose of the universe is are usually hiding the second half of the question.
The full version goes something like this:
What is the answer to the question of the purpose of the universe that will both make sense to me and also find favor in my eyes.
And anyone who manages to answer you is a charlatan.
Shatz.
I am amazed by Yitzhak Shilat’s foolishness.
For the megalomania of the Sages, who wrote that God created 10 to the 18th power stars just for the Jewish people [Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 32b].