|
Abstracts of the Contributing Lecturers of the Fourth Miami International Conference on Torah & Science The Kovens Convention Center, Florida International University, Miami December 18-20, 2001 For information contact Ilana Attia, info@borhatorh.org
Abstracts of Contributing Lecturers (in alphabetical order)
THE CREATION OF THE TABLETS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND LASER TECHNOLOGY Matest Agrest, Dr. Sci. (emeritus) Mikhail Agrest, PhD, Physics and Astronomy, College of Charlestown, SC, USA The miraculous phenomenon of the shamir is mentioned in the Bible and Talmud many times. We discussed the phenomenon of the shamir in regard to the King Solomon’s building of the Temple, as well as Moses’ creation of the high priest’s breastplate, in our paper "Miraculous Device Shamir" at the Twenty-Fourth Anniversary World Conference of the Ancient Astronaut Society in Orlando, Florida in 1997 (Abstracts, p. 15). The shamir and its related phenomenon of mikhtav is mentioned in the Mishna tractate Avot 5:6 as being among the phenomena created during the first six days. The Bible and Talmud commentator Rashi concludes that Moses made the second set of Tablets with the help of the shamir and its mikhtav. Significantly, mikhtav means both "writing" (the activity) and "writing" (the result) as well as an instrument used for this activity. During Rashi’s time mikhtav also meant "cutter." In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Shabbat 104a, Rabbi Hisda describes in amazement that the letters cut on the front side of the Holy Tablets of the Ten Commandments appeared in mirror image on the anterior side. This shows that the letters were cut through the entire width of the stone. Thus, it was a miracle that the center portions of the square-shaped final "mem" and the elliptical shaped "samekh" stayed in place. We suggest that a laser (i.e., the shamir) cut the letters on the front side of the Tablets by its ray (the mikhtav), thus drilling microscopic holes through the Tablets and producing a mirror image on the anterior side of the Tablets. We propose a reconsideration of the shamir and mikhtav phenomena based on contemporary knowledge, laser technology, and its prospective development.
JEWISH TIME IS A CALENDAR Ari Belenkiy, PhD, Mathematics, Bar Ilan University, Israel The contemporary Jewish calendar has a nineteen-year intercalation cycle and is built upon an application of the "mean month" technique. The version we have is essentially the calendar credited to the fourth century sage Hillel bar Yehuda Nasi. We know practically nothing about the calendar in use before the fourth century, yet Saadia Gaon claimed that the "Jewish calendar originates from Mount Sinai". This claim later turned into powerful myth. The claim is based on the famous baraita (halakhic statement) in the Talmud tractate Rosh Hashana, ascribed to Rabban Gamliel of Yavne (d. 116 CE), which quotes the exact Ptolemaic value of the mean lunar month and which is the basis for the calendar system we have now. This baraita was a subject of long controversy in Jewish literature; critics proved that it suffered at least two augmentations and the last fragment was probably added in late-eighth century Baghdad. Here we suggest the timing and authorship of the first augmented fragment. It can be attributed to the third century Jewish astronomer Shmuel Yarkhinai (Babylonia, d. 254 CE). The fact that the exact (or even close to exact) value of the mean month was unknown prior to the third century rebuts Saadia Gaon’s claim and leaves room for the possibility that other systems were previously in use. One of the Church Fathers, Julius Africanus, reported (c. 212 CE) that "Jews, like Greeks, add three months during an eight-year cycle." Though the existence of a system employing such a cycle was never acknowledged in the Jewish tradition, we point to a hint in the Talmud that somewhere around year 170 CE there was a calendar system which can be called the "week day" system. We rediscover it by juxtaposing it with another system, known in the Talmud as the "theory of others." The "week day" system and eight-year cycle survived for several generations, well into the third century. The "theory of others," though widely discussed, was never properly explained in the literature. We give it a consistent explanation and show that this system could be applied only with a nineteen-year cycle. This system is known in history: Otto Neugebauer described it as the essence of both the Alexandrian Jewish community and the Alexandrian Church calendars of the fourth century and was called "epact" in Christian medieval literature. As a result we see that the Jewish calendar passed through three different phases in its development: Day of the week > Epact > Mean month. This destroys the myth that "the Jewish calendar originates from Mount Sinai." It also shows that the Talmud hides much more than it reveals on this subject and that the final redaction by Rav Ashi eliminated a big piece of historical data. However, it also changes our perception of Jewish intellectual history. We see that between the second and the tenth century there was a continuous search for the best possible calendar. This history -- as numerous instances witness -- is rich with internal conflicts and excommunications. Even after 359 the Jewish calendar followed a long and painful path of adjustments, introducing different "dekiyot" (rules for postponing the new year), fixing the "molads" (the points in time of counting the calendar moons), and finally choosing the first molad -- the year of Creation. This process slowed down with Saadia Gaon’s intervention and was over at the end of the tenth century by the time of Hai Gaon
SOCIETY’S HARD CELL: STE M CELL RESEARCH CONDEMNED, CONDONED OR ENCORGAED BY JEWISH LAW? Rabbi Kenneth Brander, Senior Rabbi Boca Raton Synagogue, Dean of the Boca Raton Community Kollel & Yeshiva High School, Florida, USA Jewish law is a living organism prepared to respond to every contemporary issue. How does Jewish law embrace stem cell research? Should it be encouraged because of its promises to help treat or eliminate several diseases affecting humankind? Or should such research should be prohibited or discouraged because it causes the destruction of embryonic matter? Our ability to determine the response of Jewish law to stem cell research is directly connected to our exploration of the definition of abortion in Judaism. At what point in the gestational development of a fetus is abortion considered a prohibitive act? Does abortion also include fetal development that takes place in a fertilized egg outside the womb of the mother, i.e., in the IVF lab? These and other concerns will be raised and dealt with, showing why Jewish law encourages stem cell research.
TSIMSUM AND SCIENCE Jacob Zvi Brudoley, MD, Chicago, USA The kabbalistic idea of G-d creating the world by “tsimtsum” (contraction, withdrawing, limiting, withholding) can be illustrated by modern technological scientific models. A simple model is the creation of a “world” on a movie screen, accomplished by a withdrawal of some of the light coming from the projector by its film. Neuroscience, AI (artificial intelligence), psychology, and physics provide more complex and abstract models, but the principle is the same. First we shall consider the implications of G-d creating something. G-d prior to creation is all there is and if He wills in His omnipotence that something should exist, he knows its existence in His omniscience. This creation cannot be said to have an objective existence relative to G-d’s subjectivity since its existence is dependent on it. Even though G-d is absolutely One, He is conceptualized according to human capacity and described by terms such as “omnipotent” and “omniscient” as if these were separate attributes, but they are not. The creation is in a sense information that is the same as G-d’s will for it to exist -- which is the same information as G-d’s knowledge of its existence. Since G-d’s consciousness is omniscient -- contains all information -- the information that is the creation is actually what is left over when everything else is taken away. This is analogous to our first example, that the information which is the movie projected on the screen is actually what is left over after light is withdrawn from the beam of the projector. Although it is associated with materialism, neuroscience provides a model of experiential existence as information: a pattern of neurons firing or electromagnetic activity. AI based on this model of information maintains that the physical mechanism of the brain should theoretically be reproducible by a functional equivalent. Identity and information are related in neurological models of psychological disorders of identity in which information (memory) is withdrawn. Furthermore, some psychological schools of thought refer to conscious identity as only a part of the self, while the whole self includes what they call the unconscious. The motif is that of hidden information. Accordingly self both fills and surrounds the ego. Consciousness and its contents, including the experience of the world and identity, are the result of an apparent withdrawal of G-d’s self. The word “apparent” is used since G-d is somehow paradoxically both withdrawn and omnipresent. In modern physics the wave particle duality illustrates this paradox.
OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE: INDETERMINACY AND CONSTRUCTIONISM IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, AND THE ‘CONSTRUCTION’ OF THE REDEMPTION Professor Baruch Bush, Law, Hofstra University, USA The major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities today are all powerfully influenced by the view that the reality and meaning of "texts" or phenomena of any kind is practically indeterminate, and therefore the meaning of any text depends on the construction given to it by the reader or observer. Connected to the Uncertainty Principle propounded by scientists to explain the impossibility of observing physical phenomena without simultaneously affecting those phenomena, the principle of textual indeterminacy has been widely adopted in fields as diverse as history, literature, and sociology. In those fields, the principle has been used to challenge the assumption of the "authoritative text," and to argue in favor of the reader/observer's power to, in effect, "construct" the reality of the text by the act of interpretation. The ascendancy of the constructionist viewpoint can be viewed in very different ways. On the one hand, it can be seen as representing the ultimate in relativism, a denial of the very possibility of absolute truth, leading to the invalidation of standards of any kind -- including moral standards -- and the validation of radical and anarchic individualism. On the other hand, it can be seen as a proof of the limits of human knowledge, along with an invitation to exercise the faculty of interpretation to see reality in ways that conform to divinely revealed truths -- and by doing so to construct that reality itself. Taking the second view of the constructionist viewpoint, it is remarkable to find that it parallels in many ways the philosophy of Hasidism, particularly as expressed in the teachings of Rabbi Menahem M. Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe), and particularly his teachings on the arrival of the era of the Redemption. The classic teaching, "Think good and it will be good," as expounded by the Rebbe, is one powerful example of how "constructionism" is prefigured by hasidic thought. More recently, the Rebbe's statements that "the time of your redemption has arrived," and that its actual occurrence can be accomplished simply by fulfilling the task of "open your eyes and see" can be understood as an instruction that, if we use our interpretive powers to place a redemptive interpretation on all the phenomena we witness, the effect will be actually to construct the phenomena we witness, the effect will be actually to construct the redemption, and bring it from inchoate to actual and full reality. This paper will outline the elements of constructionism in contemporary social sciences and humanities; show how they are prefigured by hasidic thought, and suggest that the Rebbe's most recent teachings "elevate" the insights of constructionism by utilizing it as an instrument for realizing the redemption.
THE PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION OF TAHORA AND HOLINESS Professor Zecharia Dor-Shav, (emeritus) School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Israel "This nation have I created for Myself. They will tell My Glory" (Isaiah 43:21). "Our wives, our children and servants are all instructed that our actions in general should be directed to the honour and service of G-d" (Josephus, In Answer to Apion, Book II). An analysis is presented of tahora[1] according to Maimonides, indicating a unifying principle and deep psychological relevance for the religious concept. It is argued that the state of ritual purity and consequent accessibility of the state of holiness, serve as a symbolic medium for a motivational force, requiring: (1) the conscious self-actualization of the individual (2) as a member of a constructive social group (a) possessing exemplary role models and (b) functional leadership, and (3) utilizing consciously applied distinctions regarding time, place, and existential state to (4) act appropriately in accord with situational cues. The state of ritual impurity is described as resulting from contact with one of the following:(1) A creature who has lost that specific high quality of life that has defined its vitality, through: (a) death, (b) misuse of speech (equivalent to death according to the Talmud tractate Avoda Zara 5a), (c) impediment in the process of procreation. (2) The penitent offerings of societal leaders who had engaged in improper leadership. The highest states of holiness are described as available only to ritually pure individuals who have properly applied the relevant distinctions as regards their time, place, and existential parameters, when these distinctions are made in a fully conscious and deliberate manner. This state can be achieved only in a societal setting. [1] The Hebrew word tahora is loosely translated as "ritual purity’ despite the reasonable objections to the use of that term by Neusner (1973) in his forward to The Idea of Purity in Ancient Judaism, but an exact translation of the term does not exist in the English language, and other terms might be equally confusing. The observe state – tuma – is defined by Feidman (1977) as defilement, but no term is offered for the non-defilement state. The present article attempts to define the concept as a spiritual state, which serves as "a ladder and route of entrée to the possession of the Holy Spirit."
EREV SHABBOS AHAR HATZOT -- THE IMMINENT Y6K PROBLEM Aaron Leib Dukes, M.Sc., Statistician & Computer Scientist, Breakthru Systems Development, USA Torah Sages have termed the current and previous generations "Friday afternoon", in G-d’s week-long plan for "this world." This is based on the concept that a day in G-d’s time equals a thousand years in human time. Just as G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, which He proclaimed the Holy Shabbat, so too, there are to be six "millennia" of human years, and then a Shabbat millennium, an entirely different and loftier phase of existence, which will elevate the constructive activities of the previous six millennia to holiness. However, referring to time periods prior to the year 5750 since G-d breathed spiritual life into man as "Friday afternoon", as was done by Torah Sages in the last few generations, doesn’t work mathematically if G-d’s day is exactly equal to 1000 human years. An examination of Torah sources leads to the conclusion that G-d’s day = 1000 years is only a first-order approximation, and encourages more precise determination using human reason. Two such attempts are presented. The first involves an extension of Nahmanides’ insight that the actual history of each of the six "millennia" reveals eras and fundamental events analogous to the theme of G-d’s creation on each of His corresponding Creation-days. This suggests a value somewhat smaller than 1000 years for G-d’s day, which is then found to have confirmation in fundamental historical events and eras not mentioned by the Nahmanides, occurring as "predicted" by this smaller value. Secondly, it is attempted to determine objectively the number of human years equaling one of G-d’s days, by maximizing the concordance of expected transition points with historical dates and their significance as indicated independently in an accepted Jewish compilation of the historical record. G-d’s directing historical events according to a precise Divine project plan becomes strikingly apparent when viewed in this way. The conclusion: It’s already time to prepare our "systems" for the imminent messianic era when the mundaneness of our work will cease for the day that is totally Shabbat.
PROBABILISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE "TORAH CODES:" A FALSE PREMISE? Professor Isaac Elishakoff, Mechanical Engineering & Mathematical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, USA Counting the letters of the Torah and finding specific patterns in the Torah text is part of the Jewish tradition. The use of computers has enabled more elaborate searches to find patterns or ‘codes,’ especially by equidistant letter skips and the performance of quantitative checks. The promulgators of the 'hidden codes' employ quantitative analysis to claim how miniscule the probabilities are of the ‘codes’ appearing by chance. They conclude that the 'codes' could only been implanted by the Divine Author. Opponents to these conclusions have found similar patterns in other literary texts. One can argue that all texts are written by Divine inspiration. On the other hand, as Professor A.M. Hasofer stresses, one ought "not forget that bitter experience has taught us that misinterpretations of our Holy Torah have often resulted in the past in disaster and catastrophe for our people." My paper has a humble objective. I question the very use of probabilistic methods to analyze the significance of equidistant letter sequence Torah ‘codes’ by both their proponents and opponents. The reason is that in order to apply probabilistic methods the existence of multiple "Torahs" would have to be assumed—inadvertently or deliberately. Can one randomize Torah, as the supporters of the Torah ‘codes’ in effect suggest, and to which the opponents to the Torah ‘codes’ seemingly do not object?
WHAT IS ‘I’?: USING MAIMONIDES’ GUIDE TO INTERPRET THE PARADOXES IN MODERN PHYSICS Professor Ruvin Ferber, Physics, University of Latvia, Latvia, This paper analyzes the impressive similarity between John von Neumann’s concept of the conscious "I" to explain "strange" features of quantum mechanics and Maimonides’ clear logical constructions his Guide to the Perplexed regarding the unity of the world and true human perfection. Objective scientific knowledge is immanently incomplete because it excludes the phenomenon of human consciousness from its context. As a result, every attempt to include the role of a perceiving subjective individual in the course of describing the "rational" physical world is considered as non-scientific by definition. The price to be paid for such restriction is the appearance of paradoxical features in basic physics, e.g., in such quantum phenomena as co-operative non-local entanglement ("bounding of bodies" without any physically descriptive force), as well as the instantaneous collapse of a system into a certain outcome of a measurement. One of the most unexpected though logically perfect interpretations was given by John von Neumann, who attributed the latter to the interaction with the individual "I of a conscious observer." In his extraordinary influential book Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Berlin, 1932) von Neumann arrived at the crucial role of the consciousness of the human observer, clearly distinguishing between two kinds of reality: continuous time-dependent equations of motion versus sudden collapse as the inevitable concluding stage of any measurement. In developing this interpretation, Eugene Wigner separates the absolute reality of human consciousness from all other processes and relations in the world. It is extremely interesting to follow the deep parallelism between the above concept and the Torah-based views of Maimonides. According to Maimonides, interconnection is the immanent feature in the united world: "all that exists is like one individual whose parts are bound up with each other" (The Guide of the Perplexed, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963, II:1, p. 250). Maimonides continues: "… For there is no differentiation in time as a whole, and the substratum for the action is one, and its parts are bound up with one another." To demonstrate that such co-operation is the necessity of existence, Maimonides analyses a complex system: "For in the case of any complex composed of parts, which cannot cause a certain act to become perfect except through the co-operation of each one of its parts, none of these parts is an agent in respect to its own essence or the first cause of the act; that first cause is the coming-together of the parts of the complex. Now it has been demonstrated … that what is necessary for existence can have no cause. … Thus there can be no doubt about ultimately reaching One who is the cause of of the existence of this existent…" (ibid, p. 251). In the last chapter (ibid, III-54, p.635) Maimonides singles out the individual consciousness as an absolute necessity by analyzing how the term wisdom (hokhma) is applied in Hebrew. Maimonides clearly differentiates between the two kinds of perfections of various virtues (perfection of posessions, health, moral habits) and the "true human perfection" that "… consists in acquisition of the rational virtues … of intelligibles… This is in true reality the ultimate end; this is what gives the individual true perfection, a perfection belonging to him alone; and it gives him permanent perdurance; through it a man is man. If you consider each of … perferctions mentioned before, you will find that they pertain … both to you and to others. This ultimate perfection, however, pertains to you alone, no else being associated in it with you in any way ". Maimonides concludes that the ultimate perfection "is knowledge of Him, may He be exalted, which is true science" (ibid, p. 636).
WHAT IS TIME? AN ELUCIDATION OF THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, Toronto, Canada In a few cryptic lines of a letter written in 1946, the Lubavitcher Rebbe discusses the essential quality of time, and the various concepts within Jewish tradition of time as a creation. Along the way, Einstein’s relativity is dealt with in critical terms. Unfortunately, due to the cryptic style of the letter and the assumptions of knowledge it makes, the letter has been misunderstood or misinterpreted more than once. This paper is an attempt to clarify, in simple and concise terms, the most obvious intent of this letter after review of the referenced material and related comments of the Rebbe in other works. The subject of relative time and absolute time provides an excellent venue for discussion of a much larger issue: the necessity for interface between physics and metaphysics.
ENTROPY, SELF-ANNULMENT AND IMMORTALITY: IMMORTALITY IN SCIENCE AND TORAH Moshe Genuth, Philosophy of Science, Hebrew University, Israel The Second Law of Thermodynamics (also known as the Law of Entropy) states that: every natural process entails an increase in the disorder and randomness (i.e., entropy) of the universe. Modern information theory inversely relates information (or energy) to entropy. Since according to conventional scientific thinking, it is impossible to "beat the Second Law," this suggests that were immortality possible, it would depend on an organism acquiring a continuous and never-ending supply of information or energy. Based on known (and assumed) constraints on the availability of information in the universe, physicists have argued both for and against the possibility of a conscious organism achieving Immortality. Despite its physical quantification, the Law of Entropy only describes natural processes, and cannot be derived from, or interrelated to other laws of physics. This implies that its validity stands independently of other laws of nature. In fact the Law of Entropy was already formulated independently by medieval philosophers. To date, no source other than the human psyche (i.e., what human consciousness consistently observes to be the case) has been found as the basis for the formulation of this law. This implies that a small shift in the human consciousness could force a partial or full re-evaluation of the scope of the Law of Entropy. According to the Torah in general and asidism in particular, immortality is achieved by self-sacrifice,("mesirut nefesh") or self-annulment ("bitul"), actions scientifically equivalent to a conscious decision to increase one’s (physical) entropy. Though at first seeming to contradict science, the Torah’s prescription for immortality actually prompts us to redefine scope the Law of Entropy. According to the Torah, entropy is limited to only one specific category of information, allegorically identified in the Torah as the tree of knowledge (or information). However, according to the Torah, there exists a second category of information, allegorically identified as the tree of life (or immortality), which does not fall within the scope of the Law of Entropy. These two categories are also referred to in asidism as higher knowledge ("da’at elyon") and lower knowledge ("da’at taton"), where "da’at" can also be translated as information. Immortality, based on the possibility of ‘gathering’ non-entropic information (i.e., higher knowledge), is ultimately attained by the three-stage process identified by the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of asidism, as the necessary framework for any lasting change in consciousness: (1) Submission (hana’ah) to the entropy acting upon all structures composed of ‘lower information’, through self-sacrifice (for the needs of others) and self-annulment (to the will of G-d); which leads to (2) a separation ("havdala"), or differentiation in one’s consciousness between the two types of information: higher (non-entropic) and lower (entropic); which then (3) allows one to acquire higher knowledge, the non-entropic type of information, hence tempering or sweetening ("hamtaka") the entropic death mechanism, and allowing for immortality. Keywords: second law of thermodynamics; entropy; information; energy; immortality; self-annulment; self-sacrifice; tree of knowledge, tree of life; Hasidism; Ba’al Shem Tov; higher knowledge, lower knowledge; submission, separation, sweetening.
RADIOACTIVE ROCK DATING AND THE AGE OF THE EARTH Yaacov Hanoka, PhD, Physics, Evergreen Solar, Marlboro, MA., USA In this paper we attempt to tackle the disparity between what the Torah says for the age of the Earth ( about 5000 years) and what modern science claims (about 5 billion years). The technique used by modern science is sometimes referred to as geochronology and the method is radioactive rock dating. Certain rocks contain small amounts of elements that undergo radioactive decay into other elements. Knowing the rate of such a decay process and by carefully measuring the relative amounts of these two elements, it is then theoretically possible to calculate the age of the rock. By "age" is meant the time from when the rock crystallized or solidified into a solid from its earlier liquid state to the present. The basic nuclear physics upon which the method is based is not in question. Instead we take a closer look at how it is applied. There are two key assumptions: (1) that the measured sample is a so-called closed system and, (2) that the rock to be measured has not undergone significant heating after it has solidified. If assumption (1) is not valid, this can result in rocks appearing to be dated far younger than they are. At the other extreme, with the second assumption in question, rocks can appear to be very much older than they are. In the paper we shall examine these assumptions for the most widely used elements for this method, Potassium and Argon. Potassium is a metal, the seventh most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and is commonly found in rocks of volcanic origin. A small fraction of Potassium is a radioactive isotope, Potassium 40. A portion of this isotope undergoes radioactive decay into an inert gas, Argon, or more specifically Argon 40. A detailed look at assumptions (1) and (2) on purely scientific grounds indicates there is a significant basis for questioning the validity of applying these in the case of Potassium-Argon dating. A closed system for the particular case of Potassium-Argon means one in which all the Argon measured in the sample is only due to the radioactive decay of Potassium 40. In fact, a number of studies will be cited that have shown that volcanic rocks can have significant amounts of Argon present that is not from a radiogenic source but apparently due to high concentrations of this inert gas present when the rock was solidified. Also, at temperatures above about 200 degrees C, it is well known that Argon can diffuse in or out of a rock sample and also that this rate of diffusion is dependant on the particular type of rock chosen for the measurement. As an example, age disparities by a factor of 25 for adjacent but different rock samples have been reported in the literature. Various defects in the crystal structure, such as grain boundaries and dislocations, can enhance such diffusion by orders of magnitude. Thus any subsequent heating of the rock after it has crystallized can, in the words of a researcher in the field, "reset the clock." Using a model suggested in a paper presented at the last such conference and about to be published in B’Or Ha’Torah, it will be shown how one could explain some of the above without requiring a world that is a million times older than what the Torah says.
PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY : THE SCIENCE CONNECTING BODY AND MIND Yakir Kaufman, MD, Department of Neurology, Hadassah University Hospital, Ein-Karem, Jerusalem, Israel Most scientists have until very recently rejected the concept that the psychological state and internal well-being can effect health and disease. In part this may be because until recently, scientists have not had the technological tools to prove these links. But, in the last decade we have finally developed the technology in neuroscience and immunology to prove that these connections between emotions and disease, between the brain and the immune system, the mind and the body, are real.[1] Thus, today molecular biology can prove that behavioral/psychological factors, primarily stress and classical (Pavlovian) conditioning can influence immunological reactivity and, conversely, the immunological state of the organism has the consequences for behavior. Immune molecules (cytokines, interleukins) released by activation of the immune system are signals perceived by the nervous system and effect it in a range of mechanisms.[2] These new findings will lead to the development of therapeutic interventions ranging from behavioral/psychological and pharmacologic that will be of clinical significance in the health sciences. More than anything else this field of Psychoneuroimmunology – the brain-immune connection, the science of the mind-body connections – embodies the union of the knowledge of ancient wisdom with technological advances across many disciplines, from the molecular through to the systems (endocrine, immune, neural and behavioural) interaction level. This field pushes and pulls science out of a narrow reductionist view rooted in the sixteenth century philosophy of Descartes, back into the holistic view of entwined body and soul found in the Torah. [1] E.M. Sternberg,. "Does Stress Make You Sick and Belief Make You Well?" in Ann NY Ac Sci 2000; 917: 1-3. [2] R. Ader, "On the Clinical Relevance of Psychoneuroimmunology" in Clin Immunol Immunopath 1992;64:6-8.
WHO AM "I"?: TORAH AND SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWS OF THE SELF -- CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES Menachem Kovacs, PhD, Sociology, Montgomery College, USA Definitions of self are fundamental in both Torah and sociology and they share major areas of convergence as well as divergence. This paper will examine concepts of self found in both the revealed (nigla) and hidden (nistar) parts of the Torah as well as in the thought of classical sociologists like Max Weber, Marx, and Durkeim and in contemporary sociologists like C. Wright Mills, Wuthnow and Bellah. Together with the contributions of philosophers Foucault on post-modernism and Lasch on the value basis of self and community, there emerges a secular as well as sacred basis for a different self, sometimes referred to as "inner worldly mysticism" where both self and world are (viewed) as transformed. Crucial to this exposition is a discussion of the concept of self which stresses the individual's unique individuality and importance and the complementary but different concept of the collective self. Finally, sociologist Philip Wexler's paradigm of mystical sociology will be explained as a revolutionary attempt to fuse sociology and mysticism to better explain and understand the nature of humans and society. His explanation of "re-selfing" brilliantly integrates the work of social science and religion to posit a transformed self and society which holds the promise to journey from alienation to personal and collective redemption.
THE BLUEPRINT OF CREATION: A COMPARISON BETWEEN GENESIS AND ECOLOGY (PART I: PHOTOSYNTHESIS) Mordechai (Marc) Olesky, MSc, Agricultural Consultant, Florida, USA Both Torah and science describe the primary forces that interact to create the material world. According to Judaism, the Torah is the blueprint of creation. Jewish mystical teachings elaborate by explaining that creation emanated from and continues to be maintained by G-d, Havaya Elokim. In the first ten lines of Genesis G-d creates the four elemental forces -- air, fire, water, and earth, the constituents of all non-living and living matter. These elements come into existence from the breath of G-d, through His Ten Utterances. Together with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet that comprise the sayings, they determine the specific nature of matter and vivify it by shaping the elements into character and form. Ecology is the branch of biology that describes the relationship of an individual to his environment. The primary forces of creation that determine the abundance and distribution of life are wind currents, the sun and energy it provides, the hydrological cycle, and soil. From the perspective of Torah, these systems can be seen as the macrocosmic expressions of air, fire, water, and earth. Aspects of each of these ecological systems interact in the carbon cycle, the dual processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight in the presence of chlorophyll transform into sugar and oxygen, biochemical products essential to all life. When used in respiration by plants and animals, carbon dioxide and water return to the atmosphere, where they can be used again in photosynthesis. The chemical elements in the reactants move from non-living to living, and back to non-living. Chemistry identifies elements according to atomic number, the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. The total number of protons in a single molecule of water is ten and in carbon dioxide, twenty-two. According to the Torah, this is the same number of sayings and letters that create and maintain the world. Torah and ecology also correlate with respect to composition -- the sayings come forth from the breath of G-d. In photosynthesis the reactants are water and carbon dioxide, which are also components of breath. A further numerical correlation between the blueprint provided by Torah and the one by ecology is in the number of basic units -- the Torah has fifty-four portions; the complete formula for photosynthesis has fifty-four atoms. Is Genesis describing a primordial level of creation, one that upholds the potential for air, fire, water, and earth to interact through photosynthesis and respiration in order to support and maintain life?
THE DARK SIDE OF THE SCIENTIFIC MODEL -- AN UNDERSTANDING OF ANTI-TORAH BIAS IN MODERN SCIENCE Eliot Pines, PhD, Sr. Principal Electrical Engineer, Raytheon Company, USA There is a blatant prejudice of the general scientific community against Torah. Problems with the scientific perspective itself, and atheistic tendencies of most of its principal proponents, feeding off each other produce this. The religious layman might assume that the rationalizing of unrestrained lust, backed by fallacious theories, or faulty experiments or data, drives this. Indeed there is some truth to such a view, and it would seem supported by some spectacularly scandalous cases in evolutionary biology and archeology. But such are really exceptions, not the rule. In this author's opinion, the essential issue is arrogance. This being in the form of a deep-seated need for unencumbered control. This can exist in crude fashion in the scientist, but exists in a much more subtle and refined way in the scientific model itself. To understand this, we will need to briefly explore a very specific history from the destruction of the First Temple to modern science. The views of some of our great teachers will be contrasted with those of the philosophers whose ideas forerun modern science. In the process, the superiority of the Torah view will be demonstrated in general terms from mathematics and science themselves. At the end of the day, the scientific model is a finite tool that cannot deal with the infinite, and is intrinsically incapable of contradicting Torah. The underlying myth that this model can either project unto the infinite, or prove its nonexistence, is a demonstrable falsehood. This unspoken lie is really what takes the plowshare of science for which we should give thanks to G-d, and tries to make it into a sword with which to, Heaven forfend, slay Him.
NEGATIVE VACUUM ENERGY FROM UNRECAPTURED MATTER David E. Rosenberg, PhD, Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology Since the universe expansion is accelerating, it has been assumed that a mysterious negative vacuum energy is the cause. There is a lack of more than one peak on Boomerang and Maxima data on CBR analysis. These imply excess baryons, which are difficult to reconcile with nucleosynthesis calculations. These and other problems are solvable by a hot and cold baryon bounce model. It can simulate negative energy by having matter outside this universe from a previous bounce. If the CBR planck spectrum is actually due to accretion energy, early tidal forces will give a single peak on spectral analysis. Much evidence is presented that supermassive galactic black holes originated in the exploding shell of the big bang. A biblical Genesis-like model can solve the hot big bang problems.
THE UNITY OF TIME Tsvi (Victor) Saks, PhD, Mathematics, IBM, USA Jewish Time can be seen as a unity from several perspectives. Past, present and future coexist and influence each other, primarily through tshuva (return, or repentance). By doing tshuva, a Jew's current regret for past actions retroactively affects and transforms his past, either lessening the affect of misdeeds or transforming them into merits. The Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches a more complex model, in which the potential for tshuva is already present in the past misdeed. Thus the past implicitly influences the future, and when that potential for tshuva is manifested in the present life of the Jew, then the past is transformed, in a cyclic pattern. A mathematical model of time and change from the theory of Topological Dynamics will be discussed. In this theory, there is a: i) time component T (topological group) ii) universe component U (topological space) iii) a mapping f:T x U -> U, in which each moment of time represents a rearrangement of the universe U. We will examine various properties of this mathematical model and evaluate them in the context of Jewish Time: 1) The structure of T implies that one can naturally move from any point in time to any other point in time. 2) f is continuous, which implies that change is gradual. 3) T is topologically homogeneous, which implies that all moments of time are fundamentally equivalent.
THE DOUBLE TETRAHYDRON DIMENSION OF GENESIS Avraham Schmidt, PhD, Physics and Ecology, Institute Aco de Paou, France The first words in the Torah tell about the dimensions of our world: "Beresheet bara … et hashamayim."In the Beginning G-d created heaven and earth." In this verse we see the first three dimensions. Beresheet is the first; bara is the second; and Heaven and Earth is the third dimension. Beresheet is only a beginning dimension. The Russian painter Kandinsky explained in 1926 in his book "Dot, Line to the Flat" his vision of dimensions. The first dimension is the point. Everything starts here and the line is the continuation. The second dimension is when the line gets an angle. The third dimension lifts up a line into a new direction. We get a space. The first, strongest and most simple form of the third dimension is the tetrahedron. In the combinations the double tetrahedron forms a chiral opposite -- a "knegedo." If we continue this tetrahedron configuration, we see, that it forms a system of hexagons. The hexagon is the most important order system in the creation. For example, water is a complete hexagonal system and also the base of life. Water and soil are the basis of life and the two most important forms of matter on Earth. It is most interesting that all elements found in life forms have the same molecular combination of tetrahedron and hexagonal configuration: Carbon, Ammonium, Methane, Calcium, Magnesium, and many others. This is because they have to fit together to form the matter of living beings. Why do they have this hexagonal form? Could it be, that the Star of David-like hexagon is in fact the fingerprint of G-d’s creation? In an x-ray density map of iron in Porphorines we see atoms in chiral construction held in place by chiral systems. This shows, that the parts of matter never touch one another. The different parts of matter are separated by distances of negative and positive charged electromagnetic fields, the energy of which is much more than that of matter. The German physician Max Planck said: "So I declare that I found in my research of the atoms: There is in fact no matter. All matter originates and exists only by a force, which the nucleus parts bring to vibrate and holds together the atoms as a tiny sun system. Matter itself doesn’t exist. There exist only the invigorating, invisible and immortal spirit as the source of material." With this, Max Planck confirms, that matter is nothing else than dense energy.
THE SOIL OF SELF: HISTORICAL MEMORY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY Prof. Vera Schwarcz, History, Wesleyan University Hold with the past, don’t lose the past: If you lose the past, the will easily breaks, If you lose the past, the sword snaps, If you lost the past, the zither too laments. Meng Jiao, "Autumn Meditations" Keep from me all that I might comprehend! O G-d, I ripen toward you in my unknowing … Though the day darken, preserve my memory From your bright oblivion. Erase not my faults. Rachel Korn, "Keep Hidden from Me" Imagine a rootless rose. Unlike the water-nurtured lotus of China, a flourishing rose needs the nourishment of hard soil. Even lotus flowers draw sustenance from a tangled web of subterranean food suckers. We, human beings, are even more fragile than a rose and far, less resilient than the mud-nurtured blossoms that float on the lakes of Beijing in June. Our identity is embedded in a dense fabric of time, which – for the purposes of this essay we shall call "history." Historical memory is presented here as quite literally the root of selfhood without which the individual is terribly vulnerable in the world. Contrary to much of contemporary Western culture, I am not better off if I imagine myself as the sole initiator of my actions, as the midwife of my own consciousness. Historical memory, I argue, is an essential framework to anchor and expand a sense of selfhood. How, then, can I grow stronger by remembering others who came before my time? The Chinese poet, Meng Jiao, answered this question in the Tang dynasty. He argued that personal will -- like the power of the sword of action wielded by one’s hands and like the music of one’s heart conveyed by the zither -- depends on the vitality of the connection to the past. The twentieth century Yiddish poet Rachel Korn expressed a similar sentiment from the distinctively Jewish connection to G-d. Pressing beyond the boundaries of self-limiting intellectuality, she lays claim to the ripeness of "unknowing" -- that core of personhood best preserved in historical memory, no matter how fragile and faulty the process of remembrance may be. Memory, in this essay, is envisaged as a conscious map to plot, simultaneously, our own lives/values and those who came before us. Since human existence is poised at the fulcrum of intersecting temporalities, this paper as well moves along several vectors at once: Part I considers the process through which "I re-member" and "We re-call." Part II explores concrete examples of connectedness to the past to show how individual thinkers and artists created and drew upon the soil of history to create a more vibrant, enduring sense of self. Language will be shown, throughout to be a mirror of the consciousness that animates our quest for historical memory. When I re-member I gain quite literally a new organ for survival in the fight against the natural and willful erosions of identity.
THE HUMAN BEING -- A BRAIN-BASED MECHANISM FOR ESSENTIAL FREE WILL Dr.Eli Wertman & Dr. Y. Ben-Asouli, Department of Neuropsychogeriatrics and Neurobehavioral Clinic, Sarah Herzog Memorial Hospital, Israel Human beings are constantly making decisions, both implicitly and explicitly, in order to accomplish goal-directed behavior in face of a multitude of stimuli. The concept of free will suggests that decision making should be done autonomously and in a self-aware state. It also assumes that deciding upon a specific goal-directed behavior involves selecting the single behavior that is good and righteous from a few relevant alternatives. This issue is usually discussed from a religious-philosophical point of view. However, every step in the process of exercising free will is a well established neurocognitive operation. Recent developments in brain research enable us to deepen our insight of the neurobiology of free will and its essentiality to living human beings. Consequently, this might help in adapting new strategies to improve our ability to exercise free will. The following neurobehavioral components are vital to the process of free choice, and will be discussed from modern neuroscientific point of view (including specific effects of brain regions): 1) The quality of life of the chooser -- (e.g., essentiality, distinction of self/environment, unity of the self, duality of mental experience, essential perspective in time and space, affordabilities, selective attention, "normal" and pathological states of decreased choosing, fronto-limbic conflict, etc.) 2) Neurobiological components of the freedom of free choice (e.g., -- environmental and visceral dependence and independence, autonomy and will, temporal integration, etc.) 3) Structuring the event of choosing -- (e.g., delineating the possibilities, defining reference frames, assigning valence and significance, contextual effects, awareness to inner states, etc.) 4) The actual task of choosing -- (e.g., comparing alternatives, imagery processes, awareness of consequences, working memory, planning, somatic markers and CEST models inhibitory processes, response preparation, modulation of choosing response, etc.)
JUDAISM AND THE MODERN CONCEPT OF "SUSTAINABILITY" Akiva Wolff, Director of the Center for Judaism and the Environment, The Jerusalem College of Technology, Israel The tremendous advances in science and technology over the past century and a half have brought great benefit to mankind. These advances have helped facilitate a amazing human population growth and a great improvement in the material standard of living for many. These advances, and the development they have spawned, have not come without a price. One of the heaviest costs, of which the world is becoming increasingly aware, is the exhaustion of natural resources and the degradation of the natural environment. The growing awareness of the negative effects of modern development on current and future generations has led to a great interest in what is currently called "sustainability." Sustainability can be defined as ensuring that human actions don’t jeopardize the long-term availability and quality of environmental resources. First popularized in late 1980’s, the prefix "sustainable" as applied to a growing list of subjects (such as agriculture, architecture, building, development, economics, energy, and transportation to name but a few) has become part of the popular lexicon. More and more, we are seeing a demand for "sustainable" practices in virtually every field of human activity. Is there a uniquely Jewish perspective on the "sustainability" discourse? One can find the basis for strong support as well as concern in the Jewish sources. On the one hand, environmental protection is an important aspect of Jewish observance. Jewish law, as will be described in this paper and lecture, helps to create a sustainable society by balancing environmental considerations with the economic and social needs of society, both in the long term and the short term. Development, while encouraged, is controlled in a way that attempts to maximize protection of the environment and to conserve resources. On the other hand, the principle of preserving the environment at all costs is at odds with Jewish belief, which does not view this world as being eternal, and which places supreme value on the immediate preservation of human life, even at the cost of "sustainability."
CREATION FROM SOMETHING IN THE LIGHT OF CREATION FROM NOTHING Prof. Yossef (Marcio) Zukin, Industrial Design, PUC-Rio, Brazil The process of human creation can benefit from studying Divine Creation. In the same way, by examining the process of human creation, we can learn something of the order through which G-d brought the world into being. The blueprint for Creation of the physical universe and history was the Torah. When G-d chose to create the worlds, He looked into the Torah and created the world with it. With every single act of creation G-d looked into the Torah again, and created that detail of creation. The acts that we perform in this world and our process of creativity manifests itself in the way that G-d chose to create the world. Indeed, since the Torah is the source of our world, actions that conform to the Torah's view of the way a process should be run will, in the test of time, be the most significant and important way to do it. The same order used in the act of Creation may be followed in a human creation. First, it is necessary to have the will to create something, then an idea of what needs to be created, followed by a plan of the creation, and finally the implementation of creation. In this article, brief examples are given in order to better illustrate the parallel between the two processes of creation. They are based in part on the author’s creative experience in writing articles, developing products and mainly implementing projects of factories. The framework of analysis described in this article focuses on how creation is related to a creator, partners, planning, order and sequence, action and a continuous cycle of renovation. The Creation of heaven and earth is creatio ex nihilo. Before they were created, they simply did not exist. Conversely, the creation of any object by human beings consists of making one existent thing out of another already existent thing, merely changing the form and appearance. Creation from nothing is Divine, Infinite; and nothing is closer or further, similar or different, from the Infinite. Nevertheless, in the Talmud, our Sages compare parents with G-d. Their rationale is that G-d, the child’s father and mother are partners in creating the child. There are many other interesting parallels between the two process of creation and the primary contribution of this article is to shed light on the unity of both concepts specially now that the world is converging with the Torah ideal and that one has to act in a Torah way to be successful. For example, throughout history there may have been "successful" economic enterprises that were not created according to the "Torah business model" but now as the world is ready and we are approaching the Messianic Era, it is becoming necessary to conform to the Torah ideal.
B’OR HA’TORAH is Published by SHAMIR Professor Herman Branover, Editor-in-Chief Address
all correspondence for B'Or HaTorah to Ilana Attia Site housed by |
