Q&A: Reciting the Kiddush Verses in Light of Science Saying the World Was Not Created in Six Days
Reciting the Kiddush Verses in Light of Science Saying the World Was Not Created in Six Days
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In Kiddush we say:
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their array.
And God finished on the seventh day His work which He had done, and He ceased on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He ceased from all His work which God had created to do."
Likewise in prayer we say several times that we observe the Sabbath because God rested on it from the creation that lasted six days.
Someone who accepts science and accepts that the world was created through a long evolutionary process, and also believes that the world was created by God, who directed the evolutionary process by creating the laws of nature—how should he interpret the above rulings? How should he explain to himself the idea that he keeps the Sabbath because "God rested on the seventh day after the six days of the world's creation"? After all, he does not accept the idea in its simple literal sense.
Answer
This is ultimately just a simple way to instill in us that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world. They tell us a creation myth and build Jewish laws on it that will internalize that message. I don't see any fundamental problem with that.
Discussion on Answer
What always bothered me more were all the descriptions in the blessings before the Shema.
"Who brings on evenings," "arranges the stars in their watches in the firmament," "rolls light away before darkness and darkness before light, removes day and brings night."
With God's help, 9 Elul 5782
It should be noted that the Torah's description—that on the first day an independent light was created, while the sun and moon were created only on the fourth day to serve as "lamps"—was contrary to every view current in that period. Everyone regarded the sun and the moon, the two great heavenly bodies, as among the highest in the pantheon of gods, and the Torah stripped them of their grandeur and placed them between the plants and the animals. From the foremost gods, the sun and moon became mere "lamps."
The "days" that the Torah describes are stages. First light, which is more spiritual. Then the earth and the waters. Later the plants, which have the unique property of growth. After that the luminaries, which also have the ability to move, but on a fixed path. Then the animals, which have the ability of free movement. And at the end—man, who is in the image of God and is entrusted with managing the whole system. In my view, the "days" are "stages."
Regards, Yaron Fishel Ordner
The physicist Professor Nathan Aviezer (in his book In the Beginning) pointed out the parallel between the creation story and the "Big Bang" theory, in that in both the world begins with light. In his view the days correspond to eras, and he explains them in light of accepted scientific knowledge.
Regards, Menashe Barkai Buch-Trager
To the important rabbis, Rabbi Yaron Fishel Ordner and/or Rabbi Menashe Barkai Buch-Trager, may they live long:
I didn't understand—do the stages go from the spiritual to the material, or the other way around? Because the spiritual light was created in the first stage, the earth in the second, and man in the sixth.
With God's help, 9 Elul 5782
To Chaim the happy mountain man—may his light shine and glow,
Man, who is the pinnacle of creation, combines spirit and matter. As one of the commentators said, the Creator said to His creations, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"—that each one should grant him something of its qualities. He will have the ability to illuminate, the stability of the earth and the flow of the waters, the power of growth and of life. And above all, the image of God, which will enable him to unite all creation.
Regards, A.B.M.
Something like this was written by Radak in the name of his father: "As for His saying, 'Let us make' in the plural, my master my father of blessed memory explained that this refers to the elements… It is as though He said to the elements: let us make, I and you together in partnership, for the body will come from the elements and the spirit from above…"
And something similar was written by Nachmanides: "With man it says, 'Let us make'—that is, I and the earth mentioned shall make man, so that the earth will bring forth the body from its elements… and He, blessed be He, will give the spirit from the mouth of the Most High… for he will resemble both. He will resemble the earth in the structure of his body, since he is taken from it, and he will resemble the higher beings in spirit…"
Regards, M.B.T.
"Let us make man"
Sforno: from what is already prepared before us (a possibility from the ape?)
By the way, in the midrash there is an opinion of one tanna that Adam had something extra (a tail?)
and out of respect for him his appendage was removed.
* something that was removed
Today in prayer you said: "a matter He commanded for a thousand generations."
From Adam to Noah: 10 generations.
From Noah to Abraham: 10 generations.
Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses: 6 generations.
From the giving of the Torah until today: 3,300 years, between 99 and at most 115 generations.
Altogether: fewer than 150 generations.
So how is it 1,000 generations?
Apparently there were many generations before what is called the creation of the world.
And the authors of the Zohar also noticed the issue and wrote on Leviticus 10
that the Holy One, blessed be He, created earlier human beings before Adam the First (the first one created in the divine image?).
In the language of the Sages:
The Torah speaks in human language
(according to what was known at that time)
and not as a truly precise description of what happened in creation.