Dr Maurice Mizrahi - Science and judaism - Va'etchanan

Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi B"H D'var Torah on Va'etchanan Science and Judaism This week's Torah portion, Va'etchanan, contains what is probably the most important and best-known statement in Judaism, the affirmation of staunch monotheism: Sh'ma Yisrael HaShem Elokenu HaShem Echad Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One [Deuteronomy 6:4] The prophets later reinforced this message. God says through the prophet Isaiah: Ani Hashem, ve'en 'od [I am the Lord, and there is none else]; Zullati en elohim [beside me there is no god ]... Yotzer or uvoreh choshech [I form the light and create the darkness], 'Oseh shalom uvoreh ra' [I make peace and create evil;]; Ani HaShem 'oseh chol elleh [I am the Lord who does all these things] [Isaiah 45:5,7] I may surprise you by telling you that monotheism gave rise to a scientific attitude. Indeed, science and Judaism are complementary and mutually reinforcing, rather than being in opposition. Science has challenged our understanding of the universe: How the world may have come into being, how it may end, the nature of reality, the role of the observer, the relativity of space and time, the uncertainty principle, etc. Judaism had a role in shaping scientific thought. After all, well beyond its beliefs and its teachings, Judaism nurtures basic attitudes, original ways of looking at the world. These attitudes transcend words and ritual and are transmitted through the generations even by secular and assimilated Jews. They are the essence of Judaism. Three Jewish attitudes helped create the climate into which modern science was born. Let us explore them one by one. First, the Jewish notion that God is One. It gave birth to the scientific quest to unify our understanding of nature, to synthesize everything, to bring all observations and experimental results under a single theory. Consider this. Physicists have discovered four natural forces: Gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. Each describes its own set of phenomena. Physicists have tried for decades to unify them into a single force, which they call the Unified Field Theory. Einstein spent his last 30 years looking for it. In 1979, three physicists got the Nobel Prize for unifying electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. (I should tell you I am a physicist.) The driver of these endeavors is faith in the unity and simplicity of the laws of nature. The notion that "God is One" has taught scientists to look for hidden connections that point to common origins. Note that it is not what comes naturally to mind. It must be learned and experienced. When one witnesses good and evil, it is natural to conclude in the existence of a God of Good and a God of Evil, forever struggling for control. It is natural to believe there is a god for every part of human experience: A god of war, a goddess of love, a god of the sea, a goddess of agriculture, etc. Looking for unity goes against the natural impulse. Second, the Jewish notion that God must be imitated. It gave birth to the scientific notion of trying to imitate nature rather than explain it. In describing Himself in the Torah, God does not say "I am the Lord your God, who is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, etc.", but rather "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt" [Exodus 20:2] -- "who extends mercy to the thousandth generation, who is slow to anger, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet who will not clear the guilty", etc.. [Exodus 34:6-7] In other words, God describes himself by what he *does*, not by what he *is*. When Moses asks God at the burning bush, "What is your name?", God answers: Ehyeh asher ehyeh -- I am what I am. [Ex. 3:12] Judaism has no theology, which literally means knowledge of God. Maimonides, the 12th-century Jewish philosopher, wrote that you can talk about what God IS NOT, but not about what God IS. In Judaism, we are enjoined to imitate God by following commandments, rather than explain God by believing certain statements about God's nature. God says in the Torah: K'doshim tihyu ki kadosh ani HaShem elokechem You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. [Lev. 19:2] In other words, "Imitate me by following my commandments". And we respond: Naaseh v'nishma -- We will do and we will listen. [Ex. 24:7] We do not say, 'We will believe'. Maimonides tried to formulate a Jewish creed with his thirteen principles of faith, but he encountered resistance because, although valid, his principles are not a test of observance. Likewise, scientists attempt to *imitate* nature, rather than explain it. Their concern is not the *why* but the *how*. They observe nature and imitate it by building theories that account for their observations. These theories predict future behavior, which helps them build useful devices. Their aim is to reproduce, predict, and use nature, not explain it. Indeed, "to explain" means "to establish a connection with common sense, reason, logic, or even intuition". Science does not do that because it must deal with observations that are too weird for that. For example, relativity theory says that what is five inches to one person can be five miles to another; what is five minutes to one person can be five hours to another. Quantum mechanics tells us that there is a built-in randomness in the world, a fundamental uncertainty that can never be resolved by more accurate measurements. It tells us that there is no reality independent of us, only probabilities, and that the observer creates reality by the act of observation. This implies that we are, in a very real sense, God's partners in creation. The scientist only wants to know: "Does the theory make correct predictions?", not: "Does it make sense?" The physicist Feynman, who won the Nobel Prize for quantum mechanics, once said that the purpose of science is to answer the question, "If I do this, what happens?". Science cannot "prove" anything. If one event always comes before another event, it does not prove that the first caused the second. A cause-to-effect relationship can *never* be proved. It's not just difficult, it's impossible. So the scientist can't answer "Why?" He can formulate theories, but they will remain theories. Once a theory, always a theory. Science describes how and religion speculates on why. Science and religion have a complementary relationship, not an antagonistic one. Third, the Jewish notion that no idolatry is allowed. It gave birth to the scientific notion that no theory is beyond scrutiny and doubt. Judaism is passionately opposed to idolatry in all its forms. The net effect is that Jews are prone to criticize, to doubt, to be irreverent towards authority, to be iconoclasts, because even though "no idolatry" means "no idols of wood and stone", it also means "no idols of the mind". Likewise, in science, Einstein challenged entrenched beliefs about time and space. Quantum physicists threw out the principle that two identical experiments, performed under exactly the same conditions, must yield identical results. Scientists discard theories when facts lead to new ones. There are no sacred cows in science. Feynman once said: "The most fundamental part of my being is to doubt." It doesn't bother him not to know; but it would bother him not to doubt. The 19th-century French playwright Edmond Fleg wrote: "I am a Jew because Judaism does not require me to give up any part of my mind." Some people like to say, "The truth shall make you free." But in reality, if you think you have the truth, you are not free, but a slave to that truth. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in his book *Man Is Not Alone*: The aim of Jewish piety lies ... in the maintenance and fanning of a discontent with our aspirations and achievements, in the maintenance and fanning of a craving that knows no satisfaction. Thus, Judaism ... teaches man never to be pleased, to despise satisfaction, to crave for the utmost, to appreciate objectives to which he is generally indifferent. It plants in him a seed of endless yearning, a need of spiritual needs rather than a need of achievements, teaching him to be content with what he *has*, but never with what he *is*... All that is creative stems from a seed of endless discontent. "All that is creative stems from a seed of endless discontent." That's the thought I would like to leave you with. Shabbat shalom.