An Exposition of the First Parsha of Breishis

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The Creation Saga
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Being a proposed synthesis of Torah sources and current scientific knowledge

Rabbi Shlomo Cohen
אב תשפ”ג

August 2023 First draft
Second draft sept. ‘23

Before we begin, this is an attempt to elucidate the most abstruse Perek in the entire Torah. In fact, this Perek is on par with, if it doesn’t exceed, the difficulty of Ma’aseh Merkava!  

In general, three groups have had their say on the biblical account of creation: atheists, agnostics, and believers.

Atheists, as the name connotes, either just don’t believe in any God, or else, believe that God doesn’t exist. While they make the claim that God’s existence can’t be proven (although it can be, they just don’t accept the proofs), they have a very real dilemma in that they cannot prove God doesn’t exist. You can’t prove a negative.

Here’s something you won’t see too often.

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently, assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning – the Christian meaning, they insisted – of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

―Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means (1894 – 1963)

Wow!!! This has to be the most selfish, ego-centric, hubristic, self-serving, amoral statement imaginable. We wonder how many atheists share this abominable sentiment. Herein lies the problem with subjective morality!  

“Our faith in the doctrine of evolution depends on our reluctance to accept the antagonistic doctrine of special creation” (The Dogma of Evolution, L.T. More)

So, they replaced God with a tenacious belief in evolution replacing religion with science. Are they not aware that there really are limits on human knowledge?

ואמתת הדבר אין דעתו של אדם מבין ולא יכולה להשיגו ולחקרו,

רמב”ם הלכות יסודי התורה פרק א הלכה ט

It requires unbelievable arrogance for anyone to think they understand God and His workings. Moreover, their beliefs are based on many unproven and unprovable theoretical hypotheses, suppositions, conjectures, and assumptions. Shakey ground on which to base a weltanschauung indeed.

For example, how do they answer the following?

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY

The irreducible complexity of a cell, or its structures, forces a conclusion that these structures could not have possibly existed in a simpler form. Hence, they either never evolved or came into being as fully completed workable units.

Irreducible complexity is impossible to avoid. Many complex structures require all of their parts. The well-known example of a mousetrap illustrates this point very well. Take away any single part and the device simply won’t work. An automobile, on the other hand, has many parts that can be removed without affecting the car’s ability to get from A to B. Many living systems do have parts that can be removed. For example, we can trim branches off a tree or remove a person’s tonsils or appendix. In both cases that which can be removed without killing the tree or the person will be very limited. We will elucidate this point further on.

Frank B. Salisbury, in American Biology Teacher, concludes that the odds of the chance evolution of a medium sized protein of 300 amino acids was about one in 10⁶⁰⁰ – a number completely beyond our comprehension. Scientists generally rule out of consideration any event that has less than one chance in 10⁵⁰ of occurring. (Quoted in The Neck of the Giraffe pg. 66, 67)

“In 1966 there was an inconclusive and often ill-tempered two day symposium at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution” Here it became clear that doubts among biologists were doubled and redoubled by physicists, mathematicians and engineers, some of whom were openly incredulous at the lack of a testable scientific basis for evolutionary theory. Few biologists expressed any uncertainty, on this occasion, about natural selection being the supreme explanatory law…  Computer scientists, especially, were baffled as to how random mutations alone could possibly enrich the library of genetic information. A mutation, they repeatedly pointed out, is a mistake — the equivalent of a copying error. And how could copying mistakes build up into a new body of complicated and ordered information?” (The Neck of the Giraffe Francis Hitching, pg. 82)

10 with 50 zeros after it. Lotto has much better odds. That’s just one protein. Professional scientists and mathematicians were challenging the evolutionists’ conclusions. That alone should give you pause. How does one ignore such problems?

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Another major enigma necessitating an explanation has to do with cause and effect. There cannot be an effect without a cause. Science has not provided any reasonable primary cause kickstarting the universe. Everything after that is explained in evolutionary terms with gargantuan missing pieces! It takes a greater leap of faith to be an atheist than to be a believer.

Agnostic, from Ancient Greek (a-) ‘without’, and (gnōsis) (‘knowledge’), was used by Thomas Henry Huxley (Aldous Huxley’s grandfather) in a speech in 1869 to describe his philosophy, which rejects all claims of spiritual or mystical knowledge.

So, they just don’t know or aren’t sure. On what kind of facts do they base their rejections? What would it take to convince them? Perhaps they don’t even care. Oh well, you can’t make people understand what they don’t want to understand.

This theory is non-observable, non-reproducible and thus, by their own definition, non-scientific or, more to the point, not science. “Despite the fact that Darwin’s theory of evolution has won wide acceptance, it is nevertheless not experimentally demonstrable, and it is impossible to verify it in the laboratory” (In The Midst Of The Scientific Revolution pg. 134, Prof. Aharon Katzir.)

Believers, of course, accept the text, often literally and unquestioningly.

All three groups are generally guilty of trying to use the text as is, with no attempt to fathom the esoteric language and meaning, which goes way, way beyond the simple translation of the words. In fact, the translations are often either erroneous or misleading, leaving the unsuspecting reader to think they understand something about which they haven’t a clue.

SOURCES

Chumash is explained through the lens of פרדס –P’shat, Remez, Drush and Sod. Few of the traditional Meforshim venture into the realm of Sod, and if they do, they will only vaguely hint.

The Gemora תלמוד בבלי מסכת חגיגה דף יא עמוד ב states:

/משנה/. אין דורשין בעריות בשלשה, ולא במעשה בראשית בשנים, ולא במרכבה ביחיד, אלא אם כן היה חכם ומבין מדעתו. כל המסתכל בארבעה דברים ראוי לו כאילו לא בא לעולם: מה למעלה, מה למטה, מה לפנים, ומה לאחור. וכל שלא חס על כבוד קונו – ראוי לו שלא בא לעולם.

גמרא. אמרת ברישא ולא במרכבה ביחיד והדר אמרת: אלא אם כן היה חכם ומבין מדעתו! – הכי קאמר: אין דורשין בעריות לשלשה, ולא במעשה בראשית לשנים, ולא במרכבה ליחיד, אלא אם כן היה חכם ומבין מדעתו.

ולא במעשה בראשית בשנים מנא הני מילי? דתנו רבנן: כי שאל נא לימים ראשנים – יחיד שואל, ואין שנים שואלין. יכול ישאל אדם קודם שנברא העולם – תלמוד לומר למן היום אשר ברא אלקים אדם על הארץ. יכול לא ישאל אדם מששת ימי בראשית – תלמוד לומר לימים ראשנים אשר היו לפניך. יכול ישאל אדם מה למעלה ומה למטה, מה לפנים ומה לאחור – תלמוד לומר ולמקצה השמים ועד קצה השמים – מלמקצה השמים ועד קצה השמים אתה שואל, ואין אתה שואל מה למעלה מה למטה, מה לפנים מה לאחור.

We are warned not to expound on the creation saga before two people. Right off the bat we see that there is a far deeper meaning to these verses, so much so that the Gemora warns those who are uninitiated to avoid discussions about these cryptic, impenetrable, esoteric mysteries.

We are going to attempt to delve into Creation by synthesizing prescient statements made by Chazal, long before the questions they answered were even asked, with scientific evidence. We will be careful to avoid statements which Chazal found untenable. We will not claim allegory to explain away difficulties nor is this an exercise in apologetics. We will attempt to be logical and avoid radical contradictions to our Heilige Mesorah. We are not going to engage in Apikorsis or wish to be labeled Minim.

SIX DAYS

Perhaps the single, greatest objection is the question of the 6 days of 24 hours duration. Science now claims billions of years. Can we resolve this issue?

–The Ari z’l (Rav Yitzchak ben Shlomo Luria d.1572) speaks of long periods of time during the six days of creation. The MaHarShach (Rav Shmuel Saton HaCohain d.1719), on this Ari z’l says, “the nights were not as our nights, the days were not as our days, the years not as our years” and he further quotes the Pirush Yonasan (Breishis Perek 1 Pasuk 16) referring to great amounts of time during the first six days of creation.

Breishis Rabba Perek I sif 4 states

ששה דברים קדמו לבריאת העולם, יש מהן שנבראו, ויש מהן שעלו במחשבה להבראות, “Six things preceded the creation of the world. There were those that were created in deed, and those created in thought.” The Ran on Nedarim 39 states that the world would be impossible without them.

The Rambam discusses this issue several times in Moreh Nevuchim, as does the Ramban as well as many others.

The very topic of time is contentious on many levels. Just what exactly is time? How is it measured? Has it always operated the exact same way as we understand it today? Certainly, we view time now far differently than the way it was viewed in the past. In fact, we can measure it far more accurately than ever before.

Okay. Let us assume that there may have been, probably, great amounts of time involved and brush aside the Emunah P’shuta folks as well as the Christian fundamentalists who are stuck on 6 days of 24 hours. There are, of course, many Meforshim who adamantly insisted on 6 days of 24 hours. These Meforshim will generally explain this in all sorts of ways, some very inventive. Time was compressed, time was measured using a very different scale, events occurred unbound by the laws of physics, everything was a miracle, etc.

Moreover, most of the earlier Meforshim had very little knowledge of modern science. Early scientists were called philosophers. It is they who birthed atheism.

While much of modern science is in a constant state of exploration and experimentation, which is exactly how scientific research progresses, and, whilst many of its theories are in a state of flux, and there have been many fraudulent claims and erroneous theories, we may utilize the current state of scientific knowledge much as previous generations relied upon the science of their day keeping in mind that a great deal of science is merely theory, unproven and unprovable, thus, as scientists define science, not science.

Much of the physics of the early universe is based on mathematical models that are all extrapolated from current conditions, which may or may not be applicable. Even so, they readily admit that the very first moments of Big Bang are outside the realm of current understanding.

We place our reliance upon the giant shoulders of:

The Rambam (1135 – 1204). He indicates that Chazal got at least some of their information from outside sources.

ספר מורה הנבוכים חלק ג פרק יד

ולא תבקש ממני שיסכים כל מה שזכרוהו מענין התכונה למה שהענין נמצא, כי החכמות הלמודיות היו בזמנים ההם חסרות, ולא דברו בהם על דרך קבלה מן הנביאים, אבל מאשר הם חכמי הדורות בענינים ההם, או מאשר שמעום מחכמי הדורות ההם

The Rambam, in Moreh Nevuchim says that any scientific statement made by Chazal is not necessarily Torah. Their statements may only reflect the scientific knowledge current in their day. (Chelek Shlishi Perek 14 at the very end).

This is a fascinating position for Rambam to take. Certainly, most frum people today would be very uncomfortable with this little-known position and without Rambam’s imprimatur it would smack of heresy.

As well as relying on:

–MaHaRal (c.1512 – 1609) who has a great deal more to say. These are just a few quotes from several pages on the subject.

מהר”ל מפראג ספר נתיבות עולם נתיב התורה פרק י”ד

ולכך אמרו במדרש [איכב רבה פ”ב] אם יאמר לך אדם יש חכמה בגוים תאמין…

וכך הם דברי הרמב”ם ז”ל בחבורו כי מה שאמרו חכמי האומות במה שהוה תחת גלגל הירח יש לשמוע להם כי היו חכמים בעולם הטבעי….

ואצל חכמת האומות אשר חלק מחכמתו לבשר ודם אבל שם חכמה עליה…

ואם כן מזה נראה כי יש ללומד חכמת האומות, כי למה לא ילמד החכמה שהיא מן השם יתברך שהרי חכמת האומות גם כן מן השם יתברך שהרי נתן להם מחכמתו יתברך…

אבל נראה דחכמת יונית דהתם איירי חכמה שאין לה שייכות אל התורה כלל…

אבל החכמות לעמוד על המציאות וסדר עולם בודאי מותר ללמוד…

אבל דברי חכמה אינו אסור כי החכמה הזאת היא כמו סולם לעלות בה אל חכמת התורה…

אבל חכמת מהלך הכוכבים והמזלות בודאי מחוייב ללמוד…

אך אמנם אם דעתו כמו שארו [אבות פ”ב] ודע מה שתשיב לאפיקורס ואם לא ידע דבריהם איך ידע להשיב על דבריהם ואם כן צריך לדעת דבריהם כדי שידע להשיב לאפיקורס…

The Gedolei Yisroel recognized that science is merely the study and analysis of those laws that the Ribono Shel Olam embedded in Creation. That many scientists profess atheism does not, a priori, negate their research or their findings.

Certainly, modern science has come a long way and is now much closer to the Torah approach to Creation than ever before.

DEBUNKING STEADY STATE

For example, up until the 1970’s “Steady State” theory was taught in every school since the time of the Greeks.

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 CE) was an Alexandrian astronomer. He wrote an astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest. Ptolemy’s writings (foremost the Almagest) never ceased to be copied or commented upon. Wikipedia

He taught this theory which held that everything is, was and would remain static, no change ever, which precludes creation. This was taught in all schools continuously through the 1960’s.

The Kisvei HaRamban (1194 -1270) (Mosad HaRav Kook, Vol. I pg. 156) wrote:

ואם יסתכל בזה ויתחכם בענין, ומפי מלמד בעל קבלה, ידע כי הקודם בבריאה דק מין השני, וכי הוא נאצל ממנו, וידע היסודות כמה הם, וידע כח היסודות, והדבר ‘קראו אותו היונים במלה שלא יכלו חכמי שאר האומות לתרגמה בלשון אחר, והזכירוה חכמי הנוצרי במלת אילי, והישמעאלי במלת היולי,וענינה מטיריא, והוא כח ממציא שנתלו בו היסודות……ר”ל מאפיסה מוחלטת ומאין גמור, יש נקודה פחוסה מגרגיר חרדל והוא השמים וכל אשר בם, ונקודה אחרת הארץ וכל אשר עליה, והם היולי השמים והיולי הארץ, ומכאן ואילך לא ברא דבר אלא שהוציא יש מיש   

that “in the beginning everything was contained in a point smaller than the size of a mustard seed”, thus predating Big Bang theory by hundreds of years. 

Big Bang theory, postulating a beginning is, thus, much more in tune with the creation account than was Steady State theory.

Is Big Bang Theory true? Well, no. It happens to be the best explanation of known information to date. It can’t be called true or definitive as every cosmologist will readily admit that the theory will be modified, or even forsaken, as other data accumulates. Even today, various scientists are already calling Big Bang into question.

Emuna P’shuta was fine for prior, uneducated generations. However, many of the Gedolim were very much in tune with the science of their day. We now live in an age of information. Schoolchildren today are confronted with information unknown to their parents and grandparents. We are given 5 senses, plus reason, and intellect. Use them! Putting our heads in the sand and pretending that scientists have no idea what they are talking about is intellectually dishonest.

The Mishna in Avos, Perek 2 Mishna 19 tells us:

רבי אלעזר אומר ….ודע מה שתשיב לאפיקורות.

ודע, Have the knowledge. Know what you are talking about. Ridiculous statements like, “Dinosaurs never existed. God just put the bones there to fool us.” only say that you are the fool.

כמה טפשאי שאר אינשי – כמה שוטים הללו רוב בני אדם. רש”י מסכת מכות דף כב עמוד ב

Unfortunately, both the Gemora and Rashi find that most people are fools.

– Rav Eliyahu Dessler (d.1953) discusses the issue of time in Michtav Me’Eliyahu (Vol. II p.151). He begins,” The days referred to relate to the period before the completion of creation, when the concept of time was different from that which applies now.” He continues with a discussion of the Ramban’s commentary to Breishis 1:3.

 The first two Perakim are Sodei Sodos, secrets hidden within secrets. {our edition of Zohar Pirush HaSulam runs to about 500 pages just on the first two Perakim.} The Torah is not a science book, nor is it a very good history text. That was not its purpose. Thus, the novice is warned not to attempt to draw out information from the text without a very knowledgeable mentor and decades of careful study.

During the six days of creation there are only nine actual acts of creation, which are bolded in the following text. Meforshim count the word בראשית as the tenth act of creation.

Clearly, these ten things cannot be more than a bare bones description. It is patently absurd to think that a world can function with just the few components mentioned in the narrative. A list of all the missing pieces would run to millions upon billions of pages. Surely, we must assume a great deal is not being said. The Torah is not given to teach the details of creation. Thus, the esoteric nature of scripture. Obviously, the entire corpus of laws of cosmology, quantum mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, and geology would have, of necessity, been built in there somewhere, none of which are the results of evolution nor are they random. Whole necessary systems and crucial hierarchies aren’t even mentioned. We are left to fill in the blanks, if possible.  

We are going to take a unique perspective on this Perek.

Let us go one Pasuk at a time, in order, generally on the level of P’shat, the plain meaning of the text, with some allusions to Remez, that which the text may be hinting at.

One major assumption, with the readers permission. We will use those commentators, as the Ramban above, who maintain that all of creation occurred on Day One. Putting everything into place took the next five “days”.

The Alshich HaKodesh (1508 – 1593) writes:

בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים שמרבה חמה כו’ שהוא כללות כל תולדות שבשמים, שבהברא השמים היו תולדותיו בכח נבראים באיכות בדקות. וכן ואת הארץ, שעמה נבראו בכח כל תולדות הארץ אילנות ודשאים וגן עדן הארץ. נמצא שכל מה שנברא בימים שאחר יום ראשון לא היו רק כיוצאים ומתפרדים אלו מן השמים ואלו מן הארץ. והוא אומרו תוצא הארץ תדשא הארץ, כי בתוכה היו מיום הראשון ומוציאה אותם אחרי כן. ושיעור הכתוב בראשית ברא אלקים, לא בלבד שמים וארץ רק את כו’ שמרבה האת שבשמים כל תולדות השמים, ואת שבארץ כל תולדות הארץ שזה כל העולם, שהכל נתהוה בראשון, אלא שהיה מתגלה כל פרט ביום הנכון לו לפניו יתברך.

אלשיך בראשית פרק א

He finds that everything created after Day 1 was only that which devolved from or was separated out from the primary creation of ‘heaven’ or ‘earth’ which, as in the big bang, contained all essential mechanisms, in perfect balance, for the eventual pinnacle of Creation -MAN!

Rather than rely solely on miraculous events, let us look to Derech HaTeva, natural means, as God’s method. In other words, where possible, we won’t go with a miraculous explanation where a natural, scientific explanation may work, which is not to say there were no miracles.

ONE DAY

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ:

There is no First day.

So ְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית ב– In the beginning, at the start, the origin. The clock starts ticking. There is no time without motion a la the Rambam (source), so there is simply nothingness, no prior anything. We cannot even fathom nothingness. At this critical junction, time begins with all that this includes.

While it is not known what could have preceded the hot dense state of the early universe or how and why it originated, or even whether such questions are sensible, speculation abounds on the subject of “cosmogony”. This is the מה לפנים of the earlier cited Gemora.

Questions, of course, must be formulated properly. Some questions may have no answer, others may have answers as yet not discovered, still others may simply be nonsensical. For example:

What will you be doing 5 years from now? Has no answer.

What is gravity? Has not yet been explained.

Tell me, what is located 5 miles north of the North Pole? is simply nonsense.

When any given piece of information is beyond our (my) limited understanding, we will label it as סוד, a secret and make no pretense at an explanation..

An early reference to our problem is written in the Kabbalist work Sefer HaTemuna attributed to the first century Tanna, Rav Nechunia Ben HaKana,. In discussing Shmitta (Sabbatical cycles) he states that the world will exist for six thousand years and be destroyed in the 7,000^th year. However, since the Sabbatical cycle is a part of a larger Jubilee cycle of seven Sabbatical years, he avers that the world will last for 49,000 years. Far more than what Emuna P’shuta allows. It always helps to have a Tanna on your side.

-Aryeh Kaplan (1934 – 1983) quotes a “highly significant interpretation” of the Sefer HaTemuna by Rabbi Yitzchok of Acco (fl.13th–14th century), a student and colleague of the Ramban. He is often quoted by the Raishis Chachma and is known as the person who investigated and verified the authenticity of the Zohar, which had just been published at that time. Rabbi Kaplan states that he had obtained a photocopy of Otzer HaChaim, one of Rav Yitzchok’s works, and discovered a novel interpretation of Sabbatical cycles. The relevant quote is: “I, the insignificant Yitzchok of Acco, have seen fit to record a great mystery that should be kept very well hidden. One of G-d’s days is one thousand years, as it is written, “For a thousand days in Your sight are as a day” (Tehillim 90:4). Since one of our years is 365 ¼ days, a year on high is 365,250 of our years. Two years on high is 730,500 of our years. From this, continue multiplying to 49,000 years….” “Behold, our eyes see that the world has existed for a very long time. This is to refute the opinion of those who say that the world has not existed more than 49,000 years, which is seven Sabbatical cycles.” [Note the Rav Yitzchok does not even mention refuting the 4,900-year figure that would have been in vogue in his time! It is also noteworthy that he uses the solar, rather than the lunar year. What stands out is his statement that this needs to be kept a secret, yet he writes it down for dissemination].

Rabbi Kaplan completes Rav Yitzchak’s equation by doing the math. “Thus, according to Rav Yitzchak the universe would be 49,000 x 365,250 years old, this comes out to be 15,340,500,000 years, a highly significant figure. From calculations based on the expanding universe and cosmological observations, modern science has concluded that the Big Bang occurred approximately 15 billion years ago. But here we see the same figure presented in a Torah source over seven hundred years ago!” (Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of The Universe: A Kabbalistic View- Aryeh Kaplan, Ktav Publ. 1993) {See this article for other cogent arguments presented by Rabbi Kaplan.}

In all fairness, Rav Moshe Meiselman in “Torah Chazal Science” totally rejects this entire line of reasoning and brings cogent arguments for his rejection. His thesis is that Chazal, through Mesora, knew everything and never made mistakes. His synthesis is between various Machloksim between Rabbonim attempting to show how current science never negates any statement made by Chazal.

–Rabbeinu Bachya (1255–1340) to Bamidbar 10:35, as well as Vayikra 25:8, alludes to the series of cosmic Shmittos and Yovelos and vast amounts of time. He ends his discussion with the warning that these are matters that are best minimized and that we are not to dwell on them as being included in “that which is above and that which is below”.

          -The Kuzari (1;67), written by Yehudah ben Shmuel Halevi (c 1075 – 1141), says clearly that a belief in prior worlds is not a defect in faith to the Ba’al Torah who needs to believe they existed!

HIYULI

ואם היה מצטרך בעל תורה להאמין ולהודות בהיולי קדמון ועולמות רבים קודם העולם הזה, לא היה בזה פגם באמונתו, ספר הכוזרי מאמר א אות סז

“A learned person, who needs to believe in Hiyuli, original matter, and many worlds does not have a blemish on his faith.”

 {Hiyuli is a Greek work used by Chazal to define material which existed prior to the creation of this world or, perhaps, the chaotic stuff created but not yet formed into recognizable matter.}. Both the Otzer Nechmad and the Kol Yehuda, commentators on the Kuzari, discuss this point at length. Neither raises any objection to the statement.

So much for the fundamentalist, creationist literal misreading and erroneous misunderstanding of the text. Breishis time functions in a manner unlike our calendars, atomic clocks, wristwatches, sundials, or egg-timers. As such, it may very well be beyond our limited comprehension. Let us simply accept that and regard time as a non-issue!

בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים       Creation!  By Elokim, Elokim alone has this power of Yesh Me’Ayin, something from nothing. Man is given this ability solely as a thought process but has not, and cannot, ever produce anything without raw materials. Similarly, there is no natural process that can manufacture something from nothing. That includes evolution. סוד

Throughout the first Perek of the Creation saga, we are only introduced to Elokim. Chazal comment at length on the specific usages of the various names of Hashem.

A little Drush: The name, Elokim, is mentioned 32 times in the first Perek. The numerical value of 32 in Hebrew is לב; The first and last letters of the Torah. The word means heart considered the seat of belief.  

אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם –   The verse could have simply said שמים וארץ. Both the predicate את as well as the ה הידיעה are there to tell us something. We see, in many places, that את is used to include other things.

Our question, therefor, becomes what other things?

RAMBAM

The Alshich makes this point very clearly.

את השמים ואת כו’. הנה ברבוי האתין אמר רבי ישמעאל (בראשית רבה א יט) את השמים לרבות חמה ולבנה כוכבים ומזלות,

He determines the ‘Es’ is there to include the Sun, moon, stars, and the zodiac.

However, at this point we are at a loss as to any definition of שמים. Is it a purely spiritual domain? Does it refer to the cosmos, the physical universe of stars and galaxies, which haven’t been created yet? Or could it be referring to the kabbalistic Ten Sefiros? Or perhaps other things? Hmm.  סוד   

וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ: – Both the predicate את as well as the ה הידיעה are here again. We can, therefore, surmise that much more is being hinted at beyond the few words we can read. סוד

Again, the Alshich:

ואת הארץ לרבות אילנות ודשאים וגן עדן ע”כ. והלא יקשה כי הלא חמה כו’ ואילנות כו’ נבראו אחר יום ראשון ואיך כללם ביום הראשון.

For this ‘Es’ he mentions trees, plants, as well as the Garden of Eden.

According to many Meforshim, this Pasuk envelops all of creation with everything that follows merely filling in the broad strokes. Hence, the mystery, vagueness, and lack of detail. סוד!

Every translation renders הָאָֽרֶץ as the Earth, which as we will see, the next four words render this translation difficult at best. Let us consider that this may refer, not to our planet, but esoterically to the creation of the physical components, the 92 naturally occurring basic elements. The very elements from which Hashem will construct everything else, again non-evolutionary nor random.

This may well be the “Hiyuli”, undifferentiated matter, quantum stuff, referred to in the Ramban and Kuzari quoted above. סוד

Yet, the Alshich informs us that only a fool would think that Hashem requires large amounts of time for creation.

אמנם כוונת הכתוב לדעתי להרים מכשול מאיש שוגה ומפתי, בל יעלה על רוחו כי הוצרך זמן על בריאת העולם ומלואו, ולא כן הוא חלילה לאל, כי על כן לא נאמר בששת ימים עשה ה’ כו’ רק אמר ששת ימים, כאילו יאמר שהששת ימים ברא ה’ עם השמים והארץ. וזאת תהיה כוונת הכתוב

His opinion, to prevent an unwitting mistake, is that it should not enter your mind that a great amount of time was required for the creation of the Universe and all that is in it. God has no constraints.

ב וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָֽיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹקִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם:

   וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָֽיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ  –  Once again the translations don’t do justice. Null and void mean nothing is there, and all is empty. That can’t be the case since something was created!! We suggest chaotic, amorphous, unorganized, or muddled as being nearer the meaning. סוד

Cosmologists are able to explain all that happened using the recognized laws of physics. However, they state that, for the very first few moments after the big bang, the laws of physics did not yet apply. All that existed was extraordinarily hot plasma. Try 1 billion Kelvin hot! Kelvin being a temperature scale beginning at absolute zero.

  וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם – So a chaotic universe requires order. But all is darkness with no light to provide contrast. תהום gets translated as the deep. Let us use abyss, or undifferentiated matter, as a better fit with amorphous and chaotic. Nonetheless, without working definitions, we are still without a clue. The words have yet to convey any meaningful information to the uninitiated. סוד

וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹקִ֔ים –  Ruach means a wind, a breath, or perhaps  a spirit, none of which helps our understanding. Rashi tells us that this refers to the כסה הכבוד. This entire verse is clearly .סודי סודות

 מְרַחֶ֖פֶת – The verb “hovers” implies a physical body in a particular place in space “over” the undefined abyss. This is highly esoteric information. In fact, why does the Torah even bother to relate this verse. Still not much help! סוד

עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם: – “Over” or  “on” the face of” the water. Rashi asks: “What water? Where did water come from? We are not told of any creation of water.” Perhaps the creation of water was part and parcel with the creation of ארץ, earth. Or possibly מים was part of שמים.

אם כן תמה על עצמך שהרי המים קדמו שהרי כתיב ורוח אלקים מרחפת על פני המים ועדיין לא גלה המקרא בריית המים מתי היתה הא למדת שקדמו המים לארץ ועוד שהשמים מאש ומים נברא ועל כרחך לא לימד המקרא סדר המוקדמים והמאוחרים כלום

רש”י בראשית א:א

THE SIZE OF AN ATOM

After the big bang, in the quickly expanding universe, scientists think that super-heated plasma began cooling to form hydrogen atoms. Although the ancient Greeks named the atom as the smallest unit of matter, which it is not, the majority of the elements were only isolated and named beginning in the 1700’s and continuing until fairly recently.

It is difficult, at best, to try and understand the size of an atom. A single atom will pass through the finest filters devised as if they weren’t there.

Take a grain of sand. Split it in half, half again and half again. You will need to keep splitting the grain in half some 100,000,000 times before you are down to a single atom. If this was a paid position, an average worker, splitting the grain once every minute would require 1,000 years on the job [time off for coffee breaks and lunch is figured in, sick days are not.]

The atom itself, however, is, for the most part, hollow space.  What few people realize is how hollow it is. The actual physical make-up of the atom is only about one ten billionth (1/10,000,000,000) of its volume. In other words, “things” are only 1/10,000,000,000th “there”; the other 99.99999% is empty. Think of a ping pong ball in the middle of Yankee stadium. If it is the nucleus, the electrons would be circling around outside the walls of the stadium. All the rest is empty space. More graphically, the chair you are now sitting in is almost, but not quite, all empty space, hard vacuum, nothingness. It supports your weight due to the motion of the electrons as well as the attraction certain atoms have for each other.

 Could Mayim perhaps be referring to hydrogen, which is two thirds the constituency of water and was the major product of big bang filling the entire universe as it expanded? If so, why doesn’t the Torah be precise and simply say hydrogen?

Well mostly because-

The discovery of hydrogen by Henry Cavendish; (1731 –1810) was first mentioned in a 1766 paper “On Factitious Airs”.

Antoine Lavoisier later reproduced Cavendish’s experiment and gave the element its name. Wikipedia,

Had the Torah used some term for the gas, hydrogen, for 3 millennia no one would have known what it was talking about.  So, the Torah hides its meaning in an abstruse manner. Lashone B’nei Adam. סוד

Just to muddy the water a bit, we have all heard of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons. Scientists are now talking about bosons, leptons, muons, gluons, quarks, mesons, positrons, and taus, all sub-atomic particles. And so, Alice, down the rabbit hole we go.

ג וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֖ים  –   Here is our second, of the ten acts, of Creation.

יְהִי־א֑וֹר – Utilizing our current scientific understanding of the origins of the universe, as well as the above mentioned Ramban, this would be the Big Bang. There is now a space-time continuum.  

Again, Breishis Rabba Perek 3 sif 4 tells of a discussion between R’ Shimon Ben Yehotzedek and R’ Shmuel Bar Nachman regarding the origin of the light created on the first day. R’ Shmuel tells R’ Shimon that he received the information “B’Lichisha” silently, (i.e., in secret) and would pass it along the same way. It is not for public dissemination. סוד

LIGHT AND DARK

 וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר:- So we come to the end of the third verse before we finally come to something we might, possibly, be able to fathom assuming the definition of אֽוֹר is light. Perhaps it really means energy. סוד

 Darkness is merely the absence of light, requiring no special act of creation. Light, on the other hand, is a physical reality. Photons require a physical source. However, neither the sun, moon, nor the stars have been created yet. Big Bang to the rescue. The unbelievably massive explosion of a singularity brought into being energy and matter as well as distributing matter across the universe. This had all been specifically fashioned, at the very outset, for the eventual formation of a planet suitable, not only for life but, very precisely, for intelligent life.

Now, the laws of physics, quantum mechanics, as well as chemistry, take hold. Atoms are built up and all the elements, which are the building blocks of everything, are available for continued creation. Order has been imposed on chaos.

When we speak of light, we generally mean visible light, that which we see. However, visible light is only a small fraction of the electro-magnetic spectrum. ְ  יהִי־אֽוֹר includes the entirety of

Several readers have informed me that they didn’t understand the chart. By way of a short explanation: Sunlight has a number of components, only one of which we can actually see; the visible light right in the middle of the chart. The warmth from the sun results from the not visible infrared rays just to the left of the visible. The tan you get comes from the non-visible ultraviolet rays to the right. All the other rays are included in sunlight as well. Now study the spectrum carefully. The chart is actually self-explanatory.

Much of this spectrum was undiscovered until recently. X-rays were discovered in my Great-grandparents lifetime, radio was invented in my Grandparents’ lifetime, television in my parents’ lifetime, microwave ovens, cell phones, and wireless remotes in my own. The Torah could speak only about visible light even though so much more is involved.

Chazal equate both מים and אור, water and light, as metaphors for Torah. Torah is the blueprint for the world. Torah is, thus, the order provided to the world.

This order was built into the very first pico-seconds of formation.

The premise of the fine-tuned universe assertion is that a small change in several of the physical constants would make the universe radically different and totally unsuited for life. As Stephen Hawking (1942 – 2018) has noted, “The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron. … The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.” (Wikipedia)

^{So, we ask Dr. Hawking “Adjusted by whom or what?” To his credit Dr. Hawking has made many references to God.}

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹקִ֛ים  – “And God Saw “ is patently an anthropomorphism. We can’t even begin to guess at the esoterica hinted at in this phrase. סוד

  אֶת־הָא֖וֹר- May be referring to the actual light of creation or to the Torah. On the scientific side, the original light of the big bang is still in evidence today, known as Cosmic background radiation. This is electromagnetic radiation that fills all space.. In fact, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson found this background radiation, quite by accident in 1965. Robert Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson interpret this radiation as a signature of the Big Bang. Wikipedia

 Seforim tell us that this original light has been hidden and is being saved for the Tzaddikim sometime in the future.

(ד) וירא אלהים את האור כי טוב ויבדל – אף בזה אנו צריכים לדברי אגדה ראהו שאינו כדאי להשתמש בו רשעים והבדילו לצדיקים לעתיד לבא. רש”י בראשית פרק א פסוק ד

 כִּי־ט֑וֹב –  God grants this imprimatur seven times in the six days of creation. A very interesting question arises as to why God does not use the phrase regarding the seventh day – Shabbos Kodesh? Perhaps because Shabbos was not an act of creation. Just the opposite.  Shabbos represented a cessation of those acts. Creation is forever finished.

So too, if all that God does is, by definition, “good”, why do we need to be told this? Wouldn’t just the last one, referring to all the days have been sufficient? What secrets does this “good” hide?

וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים – Once again the narrative describes an action. We can read the words and translate them. But what does this “division” actually mean? סוד

 בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר – Dividing between two things means that the two were originally mixed together.

 וּבֵ֥ין הַחֽשֶׁךְ: –  Why the repetition of the word “between”? The verse could have read וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹקִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָאור והַחֽשֶׁךְ. or even אור וחֽשֶׁךְ. Furthermore, darkness is simply the absence of light. While we may speak of degrees of darkness, which is really degrees of light, total darkness is, in practice, rather difficult to achieve. In addition, the next verse renders this one superfluous.

 ה-      וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלקִֹ֤ים | לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַח֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד

Why tell us that light and dark were divided. Naming each individually readily reveals a difference, a separation, between the two. It may be possible that the Torah is teaching us to distinguish between good and evil, between truth and falsity, or even between knowledge and ignorance. רמז

Here again, we are being told things that are perhaps beyond our limited understanding. סוד

TIME AGAIN

The current Jewish year is 5784. This is not the age of the Earth. It represents an internal dating system developed by the Sages in the time of the Mishna utilizing the dates given in Tanach and working backward to Adam HaRishon. Thus, the true age must currently be stated as 5,784 years plus the six days of creation. Exactly what are the six days? Does the Torah mean six days of 24 hours? If we are to define days as occurring as a result of the Earth’s rotating on its axis alternately facing the sun and then away, we are faced with a problem. First off, the evening and morning written here are obviously not in a human time frame. In fact, evening comes first. One would think that the verse should start with day once the light was created. Why start with the preexisting non-light?  סוד The sun and moon are not put in place until Day 4. The first three days are most likely in some other, cosmic, time frame, the length of which is not defined. It might be 24 minutes, 24 hours, 24 weeks, or 24 brazillion years.  The seasons, days and years are also given on day four.

 Time has been proven to be relative. “Up to the beginning of this century people believed in absolute time. However, the discovery that the speed of light appeared the same to every observer, one had to abandon the idea that there was a unique absolute time. Instead, each observer would have his own measure of time. To someone high up, it would appear, that, everything down below was taking longer to happen.” (Stephen Hawkings, A Brief History of Time pg. 143)

The concept of time has also proven to be very elusive and rather difficult to understand. For example, light travels at a constant speed of 198,000 miles a second, in itself, hard to wrap your mind around. Are we moving along in a stream of time or are we standing at the side watching the stream pass us by? Huh? So, if you feel that you don’t understand, join the club. Very few people, if any, can fathom time. It takes a photon (a single unit of light) 9 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. However, time, believe it or not, does not exist for something travelling at the speed of light, hence, for the photon, it leaves the sun and is instantly at Earth. The same holds true for starlight coming from billions of light years away. Go ahead, scratch your head and say “Wut”

In Breishis Rabba Perek 3 sif 7.

אר”י בר סימון יהי ערב אין כתיב כאן, אלא ויהי ערב, מכאן שהיה סדר זמנים קודם לכן, א”ר אבהו מלמד שהיה בורא עולמות ומחריבן, עד שברא את אלו,

Rebbe Yehuda says that the verse does not say “Yehi Erev” but “Va’Yehi Erev”. The extra Vav telling us that there was a period of time prior to Creation. Therefore, Rebbe Abahu taught that He created worlds and destroyed them until He created this one.

           Perek 3 sif 9 also alludes to Hashem building worlds and destroying them.

Everyone agrees that the Jewish dating system begins with the Creation of man. The previous six days are not included in the count. Rav Shimon Schwab zt” l (1908 – 1995) writes a long dissertation attempting to show the possibility of massive events compressed to occur all within those six days.

Some background is necessary here. The age of the Earth, and the universe, did not become an issue until the middle of the 1800’s when very large, obviously ancient, fossilized bones were uncovered. At the same time, the nascent study of geologic strata began to suggest an older and older Earth. Even then, early guesses placed the age at only 10,000 years although that number quickly grew.  

When Darwin published “Origin of the Species” in 1859 he had to postulate millions of years to give his theory of cumulative mutations sufficient time. We will return to this problem later in this paper.

We note that the text, as written in every Torah scroll, ends each day with a P’sucha. That is, the rest of the line is left open to the margin.

The second Perek is written with no breaks except for one verse that is a Stuma before and after. Ergo these breaks in the first Perek clearly carry some information. What could they be alluding to?

Let us step way out on a limb and try a hypothesis. How would a religious, scientific mind have written the First Day? Perhaps something like this:

1. To begin with, God created the undifferentiated matter of the universe, and all it contains, in an infinitesimally small point, a singularity.
2. Now, the Universe was unformed and chaotic, there was utter darkness, God’s will held sway over the matter.
3. God then caused a massive explosion, energy emanated, and the Universe began expanding and was filled with undifferentiated, hot, dense plasma.
4. God was satisfied with this and made a separation between energy and matter. Shortly after He made the laws of physics, quantum mechanics, and chemistry operable.
5. God named the energy light or day and the darkness night. So, there was day and night, thus establishing order over the chaos. And this ends the first Epoch.

A word about that last startling sentence. The above Breishis Rabba tells us that Hashem built worlds and then destroyed them. Taking this as fact, not allegory, we are left with a dearth of information. What could this possibly mean? סוד

 Assuming the planet Earth itself wasn’t destroyed, merely the things created, from day 3 onward there would be hard evidence left behind of what had been there before.

In fact, geologists have uncovered solid evidence of 5 mass extinctions.

1. Ordovician  with an 85% death rate 445 million years ago.
2. Devonian       “      a   70%     “       “   340       “         “        “
3. Permian         “       a  95%     “       “   250       “         “        “
4. Triassic          “        “  76%     “       “   200      “          “       “
5. K_T                 “      an 80%     “       “    65       “           “       “

Wikipedia

Even questioning the death rate and the number of years, although the geologists and archaeologists have sound proofs of their data, can we posit that these mass extinctions, as well as the subsequent geologic strata and archeological artifacts, are what Breishis Rabba is talking about?

It would certainly offer a Derech HaTeva (natural cause) explanation for the vast amounts of time needed for the formation of the oxygen in the atmosphere, the immense beds of coal and the oil deposits not to mention the tremendous numbers of fossils of extinct plants and animals from ages past all of which either required a miraculous source or else needed eons to develop naturally.

Of interest is the language used to number the days. The first day is not called ‘first’. It is simply one day, an ordinal number. The next 5 days are called by a cardinal number, e.g. second, third etc. This distinction serves to differentiate a time of primary miraculous creation from the rest of the natural results of cause and effect.

DAY TWO

ו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם וִיהִ֣י מַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין מַ֖יִם לָמָֽיִם: We are again faced with a new, undefined, vague, term – רָקִ֖יעַ. Continuing with our premise, following the explosive distribution of hydrogen throughout an expanding and cooling universe, clouds of hydrogen begin coalescing. Eventually gravitational force formed large enough clumps for heat and pressure to ignite fusion furnaces, inside nascent stars, necessary to the processes that will fashion the hydrogen atoms into heavier elements.

ז וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹקִים֘ אֶת־הָֽרָקִיעַ֒ וַיַּבְדֵּ֗ל בֵּ֤ין הַמַּ֨יִם֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ מִתַּ֣חַת לָֽרָקִ֔יעַ וּבֵ֣ין הַמַּ֔יִם אֲשֶׁ֖ר מֵעַ֣ל לָֽרָקִ֑יעַ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן: From an Earth-centric point of view, the רָקִ֖יעַ would be separating the matter clumping up below to form Earth from that of the matter ‘above’ forming the cosmos.

ח וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹקים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שֵׁנִֽי:

We aren’t told why the term רָקִ֖יעַ is necessary if it is merely synonymous with the term שמָ֑יִם as we know that there are no synonyms in Lashon Kodesh. Imagine the secrets embedded in this phrase. סוד

And so, ends the second epoch.

THE THIRD DAY

ט וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ אֶל־מָק֣וֹם אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵֽרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן:   Okay. God now masses the newly formed heavier elements in one place in a totally natural manner, forming a planet. Dry land is seen.

י וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹקים לַיַּבָּשָׁה֙ אֶ֔רֶץ וּלְמִקְוֵ֥ה הַמַּ֖יִם קָרָ֣א יַמִּ֑ים וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב: Now that there is land and ocean the world is prepared for the next step.   Interestingly, לַיַּבָּשָׁה֙ אֶ֔רֶץ are both written in the singular. Only one dry land. Pangea?   For many years I was perplexed by a question. How did creation occur? None of the Meforshim even ask this question. Using an obviously oversimplified example, the question goes like this. Hashem says, “Let there be grass!” Using any line of longitude as the date line , the beginning of day, did the grass spring up all around the world at the same time? Well, it really couldn’t have because anything east of the line was yesterday. Okay, how about the grass grew right on the line and sprang up as the world turned. Possible, but not my idea of creation. Then I found this MM. פרקי דרבי אליעזר (היגר) – “חורב” פרק כג מכאן אתה למד ששלש מאות וששה וששים מיני בהמה בארץ, ושלש מאות וששה וששים מיני עופות בארץ, ושלש מאות וששה וששים מיני שקצים ורמשים בארץ ביאור הרד”ל ומעירקר בריאתן לא נברא כי אם המין וסוג הגבוה ואח”כ לפי משנכנס בארצותם ומאכלים ומקריהם נפרדו נשתנו לעוד מינים רבים …וא”כ פשוט הדבר לומר במיני הבע”ח שהיו עיקרן מהבריאה שס”ה… מ”מ שליט בעולמו יודע בבוראיו צוה לנח לקחת אותן המינים הראשיים … Radal (Rav Dovid Luria 1798 – 1855) proceeds to discuss many ramifications of this idea. So, the few animals and birds “spread out from their original location” and adapted to their environments. What if that location was Gan Eden? Oh, so creation was limited to one place, which answers my above question. It’s also an interesting take on evolution. FORMATION OF EARTH’S SURFACE In Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer, Perek 5, by Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the most prominent Tannaim of the 1st and 2nd centuries, we find that the Earth was featureless until Hashem commanded the waters to be gathered to one place. Hashem folded the Earth’s crust so the water could flow to the lowest spots. This not only provides us with dry land it also explains mountain ranges and plateaus and could well explain crustal upheaval and stress which in turn explains earthquakes and volcanic activity. If we are to understand the singular to be literal it may explain why scientists posit that originally all the continents were joined into one super-continent, they call Gondwanaland or Pangea which leads to plate tectonics, magnetic pole alternations, crustal upheaval, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. – Rav Tzvi Hirsh Chajes (d.1855) comments in his notes to Nidda 23a on the Talmud Yerushalmi Nidda 3b on the Gemora that mountains were not included in Creation but formed later. He finds that this may explain why we find remains of plants and animals in the depths of the Earth which are no longer found.

יא וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים תַּדְשֵׁ֤א הָאָ֨רֶץ֙ דֶּ֗שֶׁא עֵ֚שֶׂב מַזְרִ֣יעַ זֶ֔רַע עֵ֣ץ פְּרִ֞י עֹ֤שֶׂה פְּרִי֙ לְמִינ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר זַרְעוֹ־ב֖וֹ עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן: God is beginning His preparations for the ultimate goal, man. The first life is that of the flora.   GENOMES This verse creates a problem for evolutionists. One that Darwin wasn’t even cognizant of. לְמִינ֔וֹ means according to its kind. The very idea of genome was unknown in his time and wasn’t discovered until about 100 years after Darwin published. In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a  genomeis all the genetic information of an organism. The existence of genes, and the constraints it places on reproduction, are a major stumbling block to the theory of evolution.   MACRO VS. MICRO EVOLUTION Oak trees bear seeds that grow into oak trees. Rose bushes produce rose bushes. Evolutionists posit macro-evolution for which there is simply zero experimental or archeological evidence. There are simply no transitional phases, zero intermediate life forms. DNA does allow for micro-evolution. We see it all around us. Every dog originated from a wolf. There are hundreds of species of dogs. Even a child will recognize the essential doginess of a dachshund or a saint bernard. They will never mix up a dog and a cat. The same is true of all domesticated plants or animals.   The bottom line is, dogs can evolve, however, no amount of planned hybridization will allow a dog to mutate and evolve into a mouse or a moose.    Evolution does not recognize a designer. It requires that evolution be random. The astonishing complexity of DNA itself makes macro-evolution a statistical impossibility.   Since Darwin’s original theory didn’t work, Neo-Darwinism sprung up with an alternative explanation called punctuated equilibrium which is a theory that states that evolution occurs primarily through short bursts of intense speciation, followed by lengthy periods of stasis or equilibrium. The model postulates change that happens very quickly. Given the fact that this is a theory, its predictions cannot be directly tested.   Punctuated equilibrium postulates that genetic and morphological changes, that bestow a survival advantage, will be amplified quickly in small populations. The rapid pace of evolution in these isolated groups is also stated as the reason why there is no fossil record of evolution, and new species seem to appear abruptly.   Therefore, instead of mutations slowly accumulating over vast amounts of time, turning an aardvark into a platypus, Neo-Darwinists would have the all the myriad, complex changes occurring relatively quickly without ever describing the manner in which these massive changes occurred. Oh please, give me a break.   Darwin’s book is entitled “The Origin of the Species” not the Origin of Life. Evolutionists attempt to get around the question of the origin of life by proposing a chance lightning bolt hitting some primordial ooze, as if that’s going to work. Thousands of biology labs have put all the necessary ingredients into flasks and zapped them with electrical currents, in an attempt to replicate this event, with no success. Others have advanced several off-the -wall theories including that life was seeded from outer space. This nonsense merely moves the problem back a step.   One of the best-known current evolutionists is a man named Richard Dawkins (b. 1941). He appears on the internet arguing his atheistic stance. He is particularly vociferous in denying intelligent design preferring randomness.   Intelligent design recognizes the maker by his product. The painting speaks to the artist, the statue to the sculptor, the cake to the baker and the watch to the watchmaker. In fact, one of his books is entitled “The Blind Watchmaker” ascribing the complexity of the watch to happenstance. Of course, he doesn’t tell us where the parts come from. Moreover, a watch is not self-repairing nor self-duplicating nor can it operate on its own.   The book’s title is especially bothersome in that,           even a blind man has intelligence, and being a watchmaker,            he also has prior experience making watches. Nonetheless, a watch has scores of teeny-tiny parts requiring fine tweezers to assemble the parts in a very specific order and in a very precise place. How can Dawkins think that the blind watchmaker is not doomed to failure no matter how many times he attempts to assemble a watch? He can’t see the parts nor feel them through the tweezers. Not to mention that the watch is levels of magnitude less complex than an earthworm. Any elementary school child will instantly recognize that an object cannot and did not put itself together.   If you pass a field evenly covered with snow you need not be told that it snowed, and the snow naturally covered the field. The empirical evidence is clear and supported by experience. Should you see a snowman, no one in their right mind, or with a modicum of intelligence, would ever wonder how the wind accidentally sculpted that figure, or how chance blew a carrot right into the middle of its face. It wouldn’t even occur to you to question how those two pieces of coal wound up randomly as eyes, or how those two branches evolved as arms. There is no way that you would ever consider that snowman as anything but the product of a human being. No amount of proposing accident, randomness, or evolution will ever convince a sensible person otherwise. No argument will ever change your mind. Yet, you are gullible enough, or naïve enough or, dare we say, stupid enough, to believe that a dandelion, a butterfly, or a camel is simply a conglomeration of random accidents. Think about it.   Take a moment to think about the following statement. There is no such thing as coincidence, only our ignorance of what caused what appears to us as coincidence.   RANDOMNESS Okay, let us take a closer look at randomness. First off, a definition. In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual random events are, by definition, unpredictable Wikipedia As we will see, randomness should end up with three possibilities so at best only 1/3 of all mutations should be beneficial. Biological taxonomy classifies different animals and plants by a few characteristics shared by all or most of a particular type. Thus, mammals tend to share mammary glands, (hence the name mammals), they have hair or fur, and three bones in the ear. All birds have feathers, all insects, six legs, fish, fins and scales, etc. Studying all different life forms, what begins to become obvious is that while every type of plant or animal looks quite different the number of similarities is by far and away more compelling. We all share fairly similar digestive, circulatory, reproductive, nervous, and sensory systems etc. etc etc. This argues against randomness. There are only a few different digestive systems, the same for sexual reproduction. There are few differences in circulatory systems. Skeletal and muscle structure are very similar adapted to differences in lifestyle. And on and on. Randomness should have resulted in far more diversity. As we will see with flight, it had to have evolved separately and distinctly four different times utilizing random mutations. Somehow, although flight would seem to be a phenomenal survival mechanism, not all insects fly and there are many flightless birds. Only one mammal, bats, was lucky enough to develop flight. SIGHT Without going too far afield, let us examine just the five senses. Let us start with sight. The same Richard Dawkin, who calls himself an evolutionary biologist, attempted to describe the evolution of the eye to an audience. He first open-cupped his hands and claimed that this happened to some early animal, not identified, and explained that this focused the sun’s rays. Even a modicum of understanding would tell us that the focal point, as with a concave mirror, would be at some point above the depression leaving this animal with zero advantage. Mr. Dawkin then proceeded to close his hands slowly until his hands were cupped together with a small opening between his thumbs. This he said is how the eye evolved. We guess he thought his audience was either very stupid or very gullible. He neglected to explain how all the other parts of the eye developed, each part being essential for sight. His empty hands left out the eyeball, covered by an opaque membrane, the sclera. Nowhere did he tell us how the eyeball was filled with a clear liquid, the aqueous humor. He skipped over the iris, the eyelid, eyelashes, eyebrow, cornea, the pupil, the lens, the rods and cones (the cells in the inside back of the eyeball that sense the light), the optic nerve connected to a very specific area of the brain etc. He neglected to inform his audience of the six muscles necessary for the eye to move about in its orbit. He forgot about the tear ducts. All of which brings us back to irreducible complexity. Virtually all the parts are absolutely essential.  Any single missing component will result, at best, in fuzzy sight and, at worst, total blindness! Are we to believe that all of this occurred slowly over time? The alternative is that the entire structure developed all at once! AND that didn’t only happen once or twice. Almost every insect, spider, bird, amphibian, reptile, rodent, and mammal has sight. Not a single plant is sighted. There are of course some slight differences. Rhinoceros have poor vision; eagles have very sharp vision. Many animals are adapted for night vision. C’mon: This beggars the imagination. How are we to believe that this is the result of random flip of a coin. Shame on you Mr. Dawkin!!! We could belabor these points with the other four senses. Each of them runs into the same problems of irreducible complexity as well as concurrence, synchronicity, and homogeneity across so many different life forms. What is amazing is that there are only five senses. All five shared across almost the entire animal kingdom. Sorry, this cannot be random. Macro evolution consistently fails to explain itself. It’s time to admit that the Theory of Evolution just isn’t working. In fact, all of this is much more easily explained by purposeful design. BLOOD Blood reaches every part of the body. There are around 10.5 pints (5 liters) of blood in the average human adult body, although this will vary depending on various factors. During pregnancy, a woman may have up to 50% more blood. It delivers oxygen and nutrients, through arteries, to all 36 trillion cells and removes carbon dioxide and waste, through veins. at the same time. Blood carries the following to the body tissues by means of hair thin capillaries: Nourishment Electrolytes Hormones – Over 50 different hormones have been identified. Vitamins Antibodies Heat Oxygen Blood carries the following away from the body tissues: Waste matter Carbon dioxide   There are several components all produced in the marrow of bones from  stem cells. The components of human blood include: Plasma  is the liquid part of blood. The following blood cells are suspended in plasma: Red blood cells (erythrocytes) carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. White blood cells (leukocytes).  help fight infections and aid in the  immune process. ( The immune system is another marvel. It just happens to be built into the skin,  antibodies, cytokines, lymph nodes, spleen, adenoids, and tonsils, nasal passages, mucous membranes, lungs, and blood stream).   Types of white blood cells include the following: Lymphocytes are the cells responsible for the body’s ability to distinguish and react to an almost infinite number of different foreign substances, Monocytes are responsible for attacking and breaking down germs and bacteria that enter the body. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell (i.e., leukocytes) that are secreted in response to allergic reactions, skin conditions, parasitic and fungal infections,  and autoimmune diseases. Basophils are a type of white blood cell that works closely with your immune system to defend your body from allergens, pathogens and parasites. Basophils release enzymes to improve blood flow and prevent blood clots. Neutrophils They kill and digest bacteria and fungi to help your body fight infections and heal wounds.  Platelets (thrombocytes) help to control bleeding.   The constancy of the composition of the blood is made possible by the circulation, which carries blood through the organs that regulate the concentrations of its components. In the lungs, blood acquires oxygen and releases carbon dioxide transported from the tissues. The kidneys remove excess water and dissolved waste products. Nutrient substances derived from food reach the bloodstream after absorption by the gastrointestinal tract. Glands of the endocrine system release their secretions into the blood, which transports these hormones to the tissues upon which they have effect. The endocrine system includes testes, ovaries, thyroid gland, adrenal gland, pituitary gland, hypothalamus, parathyroid gland, duodenum, pineal gland, and kidneys. Many substances are recycled through the blood; for example, iron released during the destruction of old red cells is conveyed by the plasma to be reused for new red cell production. Each of the numerous components of the blood is kept within appropriate concentration limits by an effective regulatory mechanism. In many instances, feedback control systems are operative. All of the issues we discuss in this monograph, irreducible complexity, concurrence in virtually every higher animal, DNA, and the statistical impossibility of randomness, play out in this one system. Can anyone explain to us how the awesome chemistry of the circulatory system is even remotely possible as a random accident? VENUS FLY TRAPS Analyze an amazing plant. The Venus fly trap grows in areas with extremely poor soil. Somehow, the plant needs a source of nutrients. Accidentally it develops leaves exuding a sweet scent attracting insects. These specialized leaves are capable of snapping shut trapping an insect. However, they only snap shut when an insect brushes against several trigger hairs on the inner surface of the leaf. Amazingly the plant then releases digestive juices dissolving its prey and gaining the needed nutrients. No other plant has these wondrous abilities. Where did that DNA come from? Let us guess. Oh, it was merely an accident. Sure thing. Each and every living thing has wondrous attributes and abilities. Each conforming to its specific needs and perfectly fitted to the conditions in their environment. Protective camouflage, claws, paws or hooves, fangs, venom, elongated trunks or necks, speed and stealth, teeth suitable for specific diets, blubber, fur appropriate to the weather, horns, antlers, tusks, prehensile tails, shells, on and on ad infinitum. Some hibernate, others migrate, yet others change the color of their fur or feathers twice a year. Many release scents to mark a trail to food, fend off a predator, delineate territory or to find a mate. Somehow, each animal is perfectly suited for its particular habitat and lifestyle. Random accidents???

יג וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שְׁלִישִֽׁי:

The Third Epoch comes to a close.

THE FOURTH DAY

יד וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים יְהִ֤י מְאֹרֹת֙ בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם לְהַבְדִּ֕יל בֵּ֥ין הַיּ֖וֹם וּבֵ֣ין הַלָּ֑יְלָה וְהָי֤וּ לְאֹתֹת֙  וּלְמ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים וּלְיָמִ֖ים וְשָׁנִֽים:   Why only now, on day 4, do we come to ordering the entire cosmos? One would think, as scientists do, that many galaxies and stars preceded our star, the Sun, much less the Earth itself. One simple explanation might be אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה. Within the organizational configuration of the Torah chronological order is simply not necessarily a priority. The Torah has a much different, much higher purpose.   Even the inestimable Rashi (1040 – 1105) on his comments to the very first Pasuk of Breishis tells us that. לא בא המקרא להורות סדר הבריאה לומר שאלו קדמו, שאם בא להורות כך, היה לו לכתוב בראשונה ברא את השמים וגו’, שאין לך ראשית במקרא שאינו דבוק לתיבה של אחריו,…….. אם כן תמה על עצמך, שהרי המים קדמו, שהרי כתיב ורוח אלקים מרחפת על פני המים, ועדיין לא גלה המקרא בריית המים מתי היתה, הא למדת שקדמו המים לארץ. ועוד שהשמים מאש ומים נבראו, על כרחך לא לימד המקרא סדר המוקדמים והמאוחרים כלום:  רש”י בראשית פרק א פסוק א   “The verses do not come to tell us the order of creation as if to say this came first (he then brings examples to back up his point). Perforce the verses do not come to tell us the chronological sequence of events at all.”   GEO-CENTRISM VS. HELIOCENTRISM From another standpoint, the Torah is written from an Earth-centric, human-centric position and for thousands of years that viewpoint has held sway. Indeed, that position is exactly the reason for Emunah P’shuta as well as the Church’s antipathy to science. Science took a millennium and a half, after Ptolemy, who taught geo-centric theory (The Sun revolving around the Earth), to begin questioning this approach. “Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center The publication of Copernicus’s model in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Wikipedia   Galileo (1564 –1642), was an Italian astronomer. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method,  and modern science. Galileo’s championing of Copernican heliocentrism (Earth rotating daily and revolving around the Sun) was met with opposition from within the Catholic Church and from some astronomers. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was foolish, absurd, and heretical since it contradicted Holy Scripture. Galileo was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Wikipedia 500 years later the Church, belatedly, apologized to Galileo and, of course, today the entire world recognizes the Helio-centric model. Even so, people still speak of sunrise and sunset.   טו וְהָי֤וּ לִמְאוֹרֹת֙ בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם לְהָאִ֖יר עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן: It is interesting to note that the Rambam, (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, Perek 1, Halacha 5), presents a rare teleological argument (an argument from design) for the existence of Hashem. ואי אפשר שיסוב בלא מסבב, it is impossible to have spin without a spinner (cause and effect). He is apparently referencing the Sun and planetary motion but does not say that specifically. What he does say is that Hashem is the causative factor in all spin which continues, uninterrupted with no apparent other explanation. This spin, he says, is impossible without a causative “Spinner”. Prime cause. This argument can be equally applied to electron spin. In fact, by doing so Rambam’s point is strengthened immeasurably. Science simply does not know what imparted initial motion to electrons. Given entropy (all systems eventually slow down until they stop), science also cannot explain why that initial spin is still occurring at the same speed, never slowing down. This is a subtle, but extremely powerful point. ַטז ויעַשׂ אֱלֹקים אֶת־שְׁנֵ֥י הַמְּאֹרֹ֖ת הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים אֶת־הַמָּא֤וֹר הַגָּדֹל֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַיּ֔וֹם וְאֶת־הַמָּא֤וֹר הַקָּטֹן֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַלַּ֔יְלָה וְאֵ֖ת הַכּֽוֹכָבִֽים:   THE NUMBER OF STARS A thought about those stars. A fascinating prescient point is a Gemora in Brachos 32b. Here, Hashem is addressing Israel to explain a difficult verse. Hashem said to her, “My daughter, twelve constellations I have created in the sky. For each constellation I have created 30 hosts. For each host I have created 30 legions. For each legion I have created 30 cohorts. For each cohort I have created 30 maniples and for each maniple I have created 30 camps. To each camp I have hung 365,000 myriads of stars corresponding to the days of the solar year. All of them I have created only for your sake.” The Gemora uses the hierarchy of the Roman army for its choice of terms. It seems to be giving us a number and that number is apparently the number of stars in the sky.   For starters, it is important to know that only 5,000 to 6,000 stars are visible to the naked eye. Yet, for some reason, the Gemora would have us believe that there are actually 12 x 30 x 30 x 30 x30 x 30 x 365,000 x 10,000 stars in the sky.   It wasn’t until larger telescopes were developed in the early 1900’s that astronomers began to comprehend the extreme vastness of the universe. In 1918, the astronomer, Dr. Harlow Shapely [1885-1972] estimated that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. He then estimated that there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Note that both of these figures are little more than educated guesses [with the stress on the guess], on the part of Dr. Shapely. These figures are still used by astronomers today. In scientific notation the figure is given at 1018 -20 stars in the universe. This is a very large number. Centuries ago, there wasn’t even a method of writing such huge figures. Yet, Chazal, in the Talmud, redacted 1,300 years ago, in language that could be easily understood, gave a figure of 12 x 305 x 365 x 107 which equals approximately 1018 which equals 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 – that’s 10 pentillion stars. With no high-tech equipment, no fancy telescopes, how was it possible for the ancient Rabbis to have dreamt up such a figure and whatever possessed them to pass it off as objective truth? Coincidence?  Lucky guess? A stab in the dark? Not likely!

יז וַיִּתֵּ֥ן אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹקים בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם לְהָאִ֖יר עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ: These heavenly bodies were placed in the sky to give light to the Earth. Sunlight, of course, is the fuel which allows for life on Earth to exist. Take a moment to consider the perfect balance of the many forces involved. Earth is a perfect distance from the Sun. Too much closer we would burn up, farther away we freeze. The Earth spins on its axis providing a balance of light and dark. Its annual revolution around the Sun provides seasons. Without the ozone layer, radiation would kill almost everything. The Earth actually radiates an amount of energy back to space equal to that which it absorbs from the sun. If it didn’t, we would end up with a run-away greenhouse effect.   The Sun allows for photosynthesis, the fundamental basis of the entire food chain. That virtually all plants, and no animals, produce and use chlorophyl is a result of a random accident – NOT.   The moon causes oceanic tides. Both provide us with a very convenient way to track time. Hours, months, and years are inextricably linked to the Sun and Moon.      Interestingly, וְאֵ֖ת הַכּֽוֹכָבִֽים happens to also include Pulsars, Quasars, Neutron stars, white dwarfs, red giants, supernovas, and black holes amongst others. All these different types of stars are crucial to the continuous development of the cosmos.

יח וְלִמְשֹׁל֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם וּבַלַּ֔יְלָה וּֽלֲהַבְדִּ֔יל בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֣ין הַח֑שֶׁךְ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹקים כִּי־טֽוֹב: Why an additional separation between light and dark? סוד

יט וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם רְבִיעִֽי:     THE FIFTH DAY

כ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים יִשְׁרְצ֣וּ הַמַּ֔יִם שֶׁ֖רֶץ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֑ה וְעוֹף֙ יְעוֹפֵ֣ף עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ עַל־פְּנֵ֖י רְקִ֥יעַ הַשָּׁמָֽיִם: We now come to the fauna, fish, birds, and insects as well as flight.

כא וַיִּבְרָ֣א אֱלֹקים אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים וְאֵ֣ת כָּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַֽחַיָּ֣ה| הָֽרֹמֶ֡שֶׂת אֲשֶׁר֩ שָֽׁרְצ֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם לְמִֽינֵהֶ֗ם וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־ע֤וֹף כָּנָף֙ לְמִינֵ֔הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹקים כִּי־טֽוֹב: This verse is very difficult to understand. Why a separate creation for the Taninim? What are they? The term is not used anywhere else. Dinosaurs? Early animal gigantism? The bottom line is we don’t know, and any guess is just that – a guess.   By the way, we will not be bothered to include any further mention of dinosaurs. We’ve accounted for the eons of time and given a satisfactory explanation for prior worlds. In other words, there is plenty of room for the dinosaurs, so we feel they present no problem whatever.   The two repetitions of וְאֵ֣ת, as before, are there to be inclusive. Everything from microbes and insects to elephants and giraffes.   Evolutionists would have us believe that flight evolved, randomly, at least 4 different times.   CONVERGENCE Convergence means that an extraordinary number of unrelated species share many physical similarities that would have had to evolve separately. This concept has several inherent weaknesses, not the least of which being that random accidents had to occur over and over with the same results under different conditions.   FLIGHT One of the most remarkable examples of this phenomenon is flight.  The ability to fly had to evolve into four disparate types of creatures four different times! INSECTS — winged and non-winged appear simultaneously in the fossil record during the Carboniferous period 300 million years ago with no clue as to how they developed.DINOSAURS — Pterosaurs are found in the fossil record of 180 million years ago with no signs of earlier forms.BIRDS — Appear in the record 60 million years ago as fully formed creatures. There is some debate regarding the possible evolution of birds from dinosaurs, however, the physiognomy of the two are too vastly different to be easily explained away.BATS appeared last in the record some 50 million years ago. They are the only flying mammal. No possible evolutionary explanation suffices. (Francis Hitching The Neck of the Giraffe, Pg. 94)   In this verse again the Torah makes the point, twice, that all living things are constrained to reproduce with only their own kind. Biologists break down all life into categories: The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species   LIMITS TO HYBRIDIZATION In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Generally, it means that each cell has genetic material from two different organisms. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents In genetics, attention is focused on the numbers of chromosomes. In taxonomy, a key question is how closely related the parent species are. Species are reproductively isolated by strong barriers to hybridization, which include genetic and morphological differences, differing times of fertility, mating behaviors and cues, and physiological rejection of sperm cells or the developing embryo. Some act before fertilization and others after it. Similar barriers exist in plants, with differences in flowering times, pollen vectors, inhibition of pollen tube growth, and the structure of the chromosomes. A few animal species and many plant species, however, are the result of hybrid speciation, including important crop plants such as wheat. Wikipedia

כב וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹקים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֨יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ: Note that hybridization is limited to genus and species. Horses and donkeys are quite similar. They are able to cross breed. It pays to keep in mind that the offspring they produce, mules, are sterile.   Beyond that, there are constraints on cross-species reproduction in nature. Humans have, of course, cross-bred many plants and animals, in some cases getting a particular desired trait such as more meat, milk, or more resistance to disease. Most often these hybrids would not survive if returned to the wild. Those that do survive revert within a few generations to the original species.   “Ernst Mayr…selectively bred successive generations of (fruit) flies to try and increase or decrease the number of bristles they grew, normally averaging thirty-six. He reached a lower limit, after thirty generations of twenty five bristles; and an upper limit after twenty generations, of fifty six bristles. After that the flies rapidly began to die out. Then, Mayr brought back non-selective breeding, letting nature take its course. Within five years, the bristle count was almost back to average.” (quoted in The Neck Of the Giraffe pg. 57).   We must conclude that Creation has limited plants and animals to “L’Meeno”, their own kind, which obviates any evolution of anything from one morphology to something completely different.   “Luther Burbank, perhaps the most famous plant breeder in the history of the United States, once pointed out that nobody had succeeded in growing black tulips or blue roses, because the genetic material was simply not there. “I know from experience that I can develop a plum half an inch long or one two and a half inches long, with every possible length in between, but I am willing to admit that it is hopeless to try to get a plum the size of a small pea, or one as big as a grapefruit…. In short, there are limits to the development possible” (quoted in The Neck of the Giraffe pg. 54)   MUTATIONS Random mutations carry with them other problems as well. Randomness dictates that there will be 3 possible outcomes:                    1)helpful mutations that make the plant or animal more fit                        2) benign mutations that neither help nor hurt,                       3) or harmful mutations which make survival more difficult.   ” Deleterious mutations should be the rule. The reduction of entropy in living systems is such that it is probably a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.” (Reality Revisited Sassoon, pg. 89)   A very over-simplified explanation of the second law of thermodynamics might be that all systems will tend to go from order to disorder, which is called entropy. Heat will always move to something less hot, never the other way. The second law is also why there cannot be a perpetual motion machine.   Statistically the second or third possibilities are more likely to occur. Obstetricians have always observed babies born with all sorts of horrific physical anomalies, many genetic. The few who survive are most often institutionalized and don’t reproduce. Similarly, among the higher forms of animals, any offspring that are too different are either thrown out of the nest, killed by the mother, or shunned within the herd thus further mitigating the effects of mutations.   Interspecies variation was thought by Darwin to be a driving force in evolution. In fact, he based much of his theory on his observations of the bills of finches with differences spread across the Galapagos Islands. Interestingly, in 1967 the U.S. Government placed 100 finches from Layson Island to a group of 4 other atolls having no finch population. Within 20 years there were noticeable differences in bill structure among the birds on the 4 atolls. It would seem that bill differences are adaptive in nature and that the finch population readily changed in ways to match the food available. This, with no mutations, gradual or otherwise. The bill differences would have to be already built into the DNA ready to reprogram as needed. (Spetner pg. 202)   In his book Darwin often infers possibilities but admits that if future discoveries do not bear him out that he is wrong. Guess what. Darwin was right – He was wrong!   DEPENDANT STRUCTURES _ SNAKES Another irksome facet of evolutionary theory is that randomness makes it so much more difficult for concurrence.  Some snakes have no teeth, others do. A mutation occurs and 2 of those teeth become much longer, hollow, hypodermic, folding needles. They require special muscles to fold the fangs back when not in use. Did this all occur at once from a single mutation? What about that perfectly placed sack of venom? Or that the venom is actually poisonous? Or has the requisite musculature that squeezes the venom into the victim. You want us to believe that all these things simultaneously evolved by accident at the same time? Which came first? What advantage would the fangs afford without the venom, or vice versa? Too, snakes with teeth live in the same areas as snakes with no teeth as do snakes with and without venom. Survival of the fittest?   BEES Take the case of bees. When and why did flowers evolve color and scent? To attract what? How did they disseminate pollen before bees? Why evolve to produce pollen in the first place with no method to spread it? Did bees spring into existence with the hairs on their legs to collect that pollen? Is anyone foolish enough to think that randomness can account for the degree of synchronicity necessary for so many of nature’s wondrous surprises? We won’t even begin a discussion of the flowers’ production of nectar and its conversion to honey.   The number of similar examples we could cite here is virtually endless. Did cows eat grass before they had 4 stomachs or did the stomachs come before the cow? Did they start with only 1 stomach, evolved to 2, then 3, and finally 4? They must have been awfully hungry for a few million years.   Transitions are puzzling in evolutionary terms. Caterpillars only eat; they cannot reproduce. What prompted the caterpillars to evolve spinnerets, make cocoons, essentially liquefy themselves, metamorphose into butterflies, many of which are unable to eat but can reproduce. Most insects follow a similar pattern; eggs, larvae, pupae, adult. Other animals have similar changes such as tadpole to frog.   Instinctual behaviors are hard to explain. What prompts a newborn kangaroo to climb into its mother’s pouch?   Think about this. Do you think you can change a Chevrolet into a Cadillac by swapping out parts one piece at a time? Try it with the engine running. That can’t be done even with intelligent planning and zero randomness!

כג וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם חֲמִישִֽׁי:   THE SIXTH DAY

כד וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים תּוֹצֵ֨א הָאָ֜רֶץ נֶ֤פֶשׁ חַיָּה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ בְּהֵמָ֥ה וָרֶ֛מֶשׂ וְחַֽיְתוֹ־אֶ֖רֶץ לְמִינָ֑הּ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן:   TAXONOMY We arrive at land animals. The text enumerates 4 different life forms using a very different form of taxonomic classification. חַיָּה֙  refers to all higher mammals that are not domesticated such as deer, moose, bison and all predators.  בְּהֵמָ֥ה refers to those mammals which are domesticated: cows, sheep, goats, horses.  רֶ֛מֶשׂ  are all creepy crawlies, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.  וְחַֽיְתוֹ־אֶ֖רֶץ are perhaps those creatures that burrow underground as do most rodents.   One of the earliest Seforim we have in our possession is Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer. In discussing the number of animals Noach took into the ark in Perek 23, Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer mentions that there were 32 original species of birds and 365 original species of insect placed in the Garden of Eden. The Radal, Rabbi Dovid Luria, (1798–1855), again presciently, interprets this Medrash in Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer to mean that there were an original 365 species of animal and 32 species of birds which then needed to adapt to the environment as they spread across the globe. He states that this adaptation occurred as a result of differences in climate and food.  Hashem showed Noach which, of all the species, were the originals. Only those were taken on the ark. After the flood the process repeated itself resulting in the thousands of species we see today. All animals today are derived from those original, basic species.    [A very similar notion is presented by Leakey (1903 –1972) in The Sixth Extinction (pg. 27.) “All these thirty odd modern body plans trace their origin back to the Cambrian, back to that orgy of innovation that took place in the interval of 530 to 525 million years ago. If a potential phylum was absent in the Cambrian it was doomed to be absent for all time.”]   The fossil record has been a tremendous blow to evolutionists as it never once                                              yielded a single possibility that would have fulfilled Darwin’s expectations. Darwin complained, “Innumerable transitional forms must have existed but why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the Earth?” His answer was the extreme imperfection of the fossil record. The curious thing is that there is a consistency about the fossil gaps: The fossils go missing in all the important places. There are about 250,000 different species of fossilized plants and animals in the world’s museums. Compare that to the estimated 1.5 million species known to be alive on Earth today.” Everything that has been found fits neatly into existing phyla but for a few isolated instances that presented science with a new phyla each of which was highly specialized.” (Michael Denton Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, 1985 Chap.8)

כה וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹקים֩ אֶת־חַיַּ֨ת הָאָ֜רֶץ לְמִינָ֗הּ וְאֶת־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ וְאֵ֛ת כָּל־רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹקים כִּי־טֽוֹב: Two singulars and a plural??? Repeats the last verse Why?  The Darwinian idea of survival of the fittest is not without problems. In essence Darwin proposes that the biggest, strongest animal will win the right to the females. The fittest animal will therefore be able to reproduce and pass his genes on to the next generation. To some extent this idea does work. Predators will cull the sick and weak from the herd. Just as often though, they will kill the young as they are often easier to catch. Fitness does not enter the equation. Nor does it work when a whale opens its maw and swallows hundreds and hundreds of herring at a time. Birds catch insects on the fly indiscriminately etc. etc. etc.

כו וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכָל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ: THE RECIPE FOR LIFE With just 92 ‘ingredients’ Hashem fashioned the cosmos and all that it contains. We know of no single thing which includes all those ‘ingredients. Indeed, water has just 2 ingredients, both gases. Yet the combination of hydrogen and oxygen gives us a ubiquitous liquid – water. Chlorine, a poisonous green gas, combines with sodium, a flammable silvery metal, to form sodium chloride – table salt! Carbon can be found as coal, graphite (used as the lead in pencils), or diamonds. It is the second most abundant element in the human body (about 18.5%) after oxygen. About 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. All 11 are necessary for life. The remaining elements are trace elements, of which more than a dozen are thought on the basis of good evidence to be necessary for life. All of the mass of the trace elements put together (less than 10 grams for a human body) do not add up to the body mass of magnesium, the least common of the 11 non-trace elements. Wikipedia – Composition of the human body Only 11 ingredients to make a human being. Most cake recipes call for more ingredients and they don’t bake themselves!!!

כז וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹקים אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם:   PREHISTORIC MAN? Here, for only the third time, the verse uses the term create. Modern man is a special creation. Sentience, intelligence, speech, apposable thumbs, upright bipedalism, and the ability to refashion our environment are a few of the remarkable capabilities separating us from all other life.     -The Gemora speaks of 974 generations prior to Adam. (Shabbos 88b, Chagiga 14a, Zevachim 116a) The Machlokes there centers around whether these generations are to be understood allegorically, however, since at least one Amora is of the opinion that these generations actually lived we can rely on that Amora. Seforim point out that the Gematria of the word Breishis is 974.   –Rabbeinu Bachya, the Tzioni (Menahem Tzioni of Speyer (c. 1340 – c. 1410) a German kabbalist) and Recanati (1223–1290) an Italian Kabbalist) all make reference to pre-Adamite generations on the Pasuk Vayikra 25:8. The Sefer HaChinuch, (published anonymously in 13th-century Spain,) speaks about them as well.  Is it possible that these were the Neanderthals, or Cro-Magnons? Why not?

כח וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָם֘ אֱלֹקים֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לָהֶ֜ם אֱלֹקים פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ וּרְד֞וּ בִּדְגַ֤ת הַיָּם֙ וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּ֖ה הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ: God commands man to reproduce. Boy, does man ever. We now number almost 8 billion people. Which brings us to a very different issue. That of checks and balances.   POPULATION CHECKS AND BALANCES Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) wrote about three checks on population growth: disease, famine, and war. All three are non-evolutionary processes. The Torah does mention them later on as punishments.   We all just experienced a Covid pandemic. A virus that killed millions. All it would take is a mutation making the virus more, rather than less virulent, and we could kiss everybody good-bye.   A drought occurs causing a reduction in plant life leading to a high mortality and low birth rate amongst herbivores ending with predators starving to death. This continues until the drought ends, plant life recovers, herbivore populations rebound, and the predators are happy.   There probably has never been a year in recorded history without a war being fought somewhere in the world with disastrous loss of life.   Natural disasters are yet another population reducer. Besides droughts, there are earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, forest fires, and avalanches to name a few.   Be fruitful, multiply, and subjugate the land is God’s blessing. Humans did just that leading to a fundamental question for which Emuna P’shuta has no answer. During the European Age of discovery (1500-1800), wherever the explorers went they found the lands occupied by man. With the sole exception of Antarctica, every continent and island contained people. Where did they come from and how did they get there?   Don’t try land bridges because, firstly, that’s relying on scientific evidence you claim to not believe in, and secondly those unreliable scientists say that the last land bridges vanished 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. You can’t have it both ways! With sufficient time the ice ages and land bridges make perfect sense.   DNA Amino acids are organic compounds Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature. By far the most important are the α-amino acids, from which proteins are composed. Only 22 α-amino acids appear in the genetic code of all life. Beyond their role as residues in proteins, amino acids participate in a number of processes such as neurotransmitter transport and biosynthesis. It is thought that they played a key role in enabling life on Earth and its emergence. Wikipedia Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalyzing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, providing structure to cells and organisms, and transporting molecules from one location to another. Proteins differ from one another primarily in their sequence of amino acids, which is dictated by the nucleotide sequence of their genes, and which usually results in protein folding into a specific 3D structure that determines its activity. There are on the order of 1 to 3 billion proteins present in each human cell. {All random accidents, I’m sure}    Wikipedia The best-known role of proteins in the cell is as enzymes, which catalyze chemical reactions. Enzymes are usually highly specific and accelerate only one or a few chemical reactions. Enzymes carry out most of the reactions involved in metabolism, as well as manipulating DNA in processes such as DNA replication, DNA repair, and transcription. Some enzymes act on other proteins to add or remove chemical groups in a process known as posttranslational modification. About 4,000 reactions are known to be catalyzed by enzymes. The rate acceleration conferred by enzymatic catalysis is often enormous—as much as 1017-fold increase in rate over the uncatalyzed reaction in the case of orotate decarboxylase (78 million years without the enzyme, 18 milliseconds with the enzyme). Wikipedia We are presented with an additional problem. Proteins depend on DNA for their formation. However, DNA cannot form without pre-existing protein!!!  We guess this is the original chicken and egg question.   “How, when no life existed, did substances come into being which, today, are absolutely essential to living systems, yet which can only be formed by those systems?”  The Neck of the Giraffe John Francis Hitching (1933–2018) pg. 66)   We have never heard an evolutionist provide an answer to this conundrum. Without a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon all beginning of life theories are totally obliterated!   Again, let us remind our dear readers that this is all relatively young science. New discoveries are being made daily. And yes, it is rocket science. Don’t feel bad if it’s above your head.   AMINO ACIDS As it turns out, life is “merely” an alphabet soup consisting of only 4 letters: A, C, G, and T. Sounds pretty simple. It’s not!!! It makes up a code that is far more complex than any cipher yet devised by any super-computer. These 4 molecules combine in very specific differing orders to produce various amino acids which then produce diverse proteins, which then produce the variety of enzymes necessary to sustain life. Doesn’t sound very random to me.   Using only 4 amino acids – Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine – the double helix of a wondrous DNA molecule is formed. The structure and operation of a DNA molecule is far beyond the limits of this paper. Suffice it to say that every one of those 37 trillion (37,000,000,000,000) cells in your body contains a 6- foot- long strand of DNA containing all the instructions to make a new you. How’s that for packaging? Of course, this is supposedly the result of random chance. If you are able to believe this, have I got a bridge to sell you. Research sponsored by NASA, to enable astronauts to recognize the most rudimentary forms of life, suggested that the simplest kind of living thing would contain at least 124 proteins of 400 amino acids each. Accident, happenstance, chance, random, coincidence? We bet you think the Earth is flat, as well. בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹקים Once again there is a seemingly superfluous repetition. סוד   In any event, this man and this woman are separated from the rest of creation, even from those possible earlier generations. Mankind is different, markedly so. Intelligence, spoken and written language, problem solving, consciousness, self-awareness, sentience, long-term memory, logical thinking, morals, ethics, values, altruism, and, for the believer, a soul. (Actually, even the non-believer has a soul. They may not believe in God, but God does believe in them.)   There is only a 1% difference between the DNA of a chimpanzee and a human being. What a vast chasm that 1% makes.

כט וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקים הִנֵּה֩ נָתַ֨תִּי לָכֶ֜ם אֶת־כָּל־עֵ֣שֶׂב | זֹרֵ֣עַ זֶ֗רַע אֲשֶׁר֙ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְאֶת־כָּל־הָעֵ֛ץ אֲשֶׁר־בּ֥וֹ פְרִי־עֵ֖ץ זֹרֵ֣עַ זָ֑רַע לָכֶ֥ם יִֽהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָֽה: These final 2 verses, on the simplest level, are giving man his daily bread. One might ask why this permission is granted in this chapter rather than the next. None of the fish, birds or animals had to be told what they could eat. Put a cow in a pasture and it will start eating grass. Man alone, being a thinking creature, would look around and wonder what to make of everything. Does this taste good? Smells okay. Is that dangerous? That looks yucky! With some direction he is free to feed.

ל וּלְכָל־חַיַּ֣ת הָ֠אָ֠רֶץ וּלְכָל־ע֨וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם וּלְכֹ֣ל| רוֹמֵ֣שׂ עַל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ֙ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה אֶת־כָּל־יֶ֥רֶק עֵ֖שֶׂב לְאָכְלָ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן: This verse presents 2 problems. The first is the same as the previous verse. The second problem is, why the repetition of plant life. סוד

לא וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹקים֙ אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם הַשִּׁשִּֽׁי:

Finally, God concludes that כָּל, everything, was ֖מְאֹ֑ד, ט֖וֹבvery good. Creation is concluded for all time. Everything is in a stable equilibrium. There will be no further changes or improvements.

The very last word isַ.השִּׁשִּֽׁי. This is the only day where the number is preceded with a ה. This is not just day 6, it is THE Sixth Day. THE culmination.

THE BRAIN

Perhaps one final thought using the grey matter between our ears. That grey matter happens to be unique in the Universe. The human brain averages about 3 pounds made up of about 60% fat, 40% water with some proteins, carbs and salts. These meager ingredients combine, somehow, to form the most advanced, complex, sophisticated, highly developed object known to man. Known only through the utilization of that selfsame brain. (Evolution cannot explain self-awareness.)

Without even attempting to describe how the brain actually works. (Science is just beginning to unravel the complexity.) Merely listing some of its parts should be enough to overwhelm.

Apparently, the brain contains approximately 19 billion nerve cells each linking through anywhere between 10,000–100,000 fibers resulting in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible connections (1 pentillion). This is more than all the communication network connections on Earth.

The human brain has a right and left hemisphere each of which has 4 major lobes: Parietal, Occipital, Temporal and Frontal. Each has specific control over differing parts of the body.

Areas of the brain include the Cerebellum containing 55-70 billion neurons, the Cortex containing 14-16 billion neurons, the Cerebrum, the Thalmus, Hypothalamus, Medulla, and Hippocampus. Each again with very specific tasks.

Parts of the brain include 12 Cranial nerves, the 3 layers of Meninges covering the brain, Neurons, Dendrites, Neurotransmitters, Receptors, Vesicles, Synapses, and Axons. That’s besides the Pituitary gland and the Pineal gland. All well protected within a hard skull, further cushioned within a bath of fluid.

There are about 100 trillion synapses each connected to thousands of other neurons sending messages at anywhere from 1 to 100 meters a second!

Nothing in the natural world, and most certainly, no man-made object comes anywhere near the complexity of a brain.

Try as you might, there is simply no way anyone can ascribe this to chaotic, random, accidental, chance, evolutionary processes! Use that brain. Do some research. Don’t rely on some tired old propaganda. Think for yourself.

We’ve looked at the complexity of the eye. We’ve examined the astounding DNA and genetic material. We’ve surveyed the brain, took a look at flight, as well as a number of other wonders of creation. Do you still wish to maintain that you are merely a transitory hunk of meat leading a meaningless existence?

Merely 31 short verses to describe what is known as the balance of nature: the intricate, interdependent, complex, multifaceted, intertwined organic and inorganic systems, hierarchies. and cycles which constitute planet Earth. The water cycle, nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle, glacial cycle, ocean cycle, Milankovitch cycle, oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle, geochemical cycle, to name a few, are all in perfect balance. None are the result of evolution, and none are random events. The hierarchy of life itself is nothing short of miraculous. Intelligent life so much more so. The whole process of decomposition and the Earth’s ability to process and re-use waste over and over is amazing.

Take care to avoid intellectual dishonesty. You’re only fooling yourself. Ponder the evidence. Do the research yourself without relying on somebody else’s propaganda or agenda. Merely parroting something you heard or read does not constitute proof of anything. The world is full of lies and liars. Don’t be a dupe. It is up to you to take the time and make the effort to develop a carefully thought-out weltanschauung. You owe that much to yourself.

Without resorting to the Mekubalim and without recourse to the esoteric secrets of the Zohar, we think that the evidence points to a rather satisfying explanation of many of the problems. We have certainly merely scratched the surface leaving many questions unanswered. In fact, we’re not even sure the correct questions have been asked or that our answers are sufficiently complete.

We’ve examined literal creationism and found it wanting.

We find the theory of evolution to be incomplete, yet without answers to many, many key questions.

We question the unprovable stance of atheism.

And lastly, we posit that there is sufficient evidence to satisfy the agnostic.

 Only a simple, naïve, fool would imagine that he or she is able to begin to make sense of Creation, or understand miracles, from the little information contained in the six days or attempt to replace it with unfounded hypotheses.