Q&A: Creation of the World
Creation of the World
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi.
Rabbi Eliezer’s view is that man was created on Rosh Hashanah, and therefore he also concludes that the world was created on the twenty-fifth of Elul of the previous year. That is, he subtracted six days. This seems to imply that he thought the days of creation were days like ours, of 24 hours (including the first ones). Is that correct?
Is the view that the world was created on the twenty-fifth of Elul literally the accepted one among Talmud commentators / medieval authorities (Rishonim) / later authorities (Acharonim)?
Isn’t that a problem for the idea that the world is billions of years old?
Thank you very much.
Answer
Absolutely.
It is indeed a problem. As is well known, back then they did not know that the world is that old.
1. It’s not a problem, but a matter of how you define a “day.” The world was created in six days, but the days of Genesis are not 24-hour days. Today a day is defined as 24 hours, and according to that, 1 Tishrei minus 6 days comes out to the twenty-fifth of Elul. It’s roughly like how 20 years on the Muslim calendar would be shorter by about 200 days than 20 years on the Gregorian calendar.
2. It’s not likely that Rabbi Eliezer knew the age of the world, but it is very likely that he knew it was not created in six calendar days, because of the timing of the creation of the luminaries.