12-18 Aug

Q: What is the logical contradiction of Jonah's prophecy "In forty days Nineveh will be overturned"?

ABSTRACT

There are a great many unsolved problems in science, in life, and in our understanding of the Torah. Yet, like our father Abraham rushing to the binding of his son, we must go forward with complete confidence in the ultimate clarification.

A: This can be interpreted either as a physical destruction of the city of Nineveh or the overturn of the moral standards of its inhabitants from evil to good. The latter proved to be the correct meaning, although Jonah himself had not known…. This two-sidedness is characteristic of the universe according to modern physics, as well as a recurring theme in history. Often what seems to us to be a logical contradiction results from our ignorance of the other, symmetric or almost symmetric, phenomenon or permissible interpretation.

BIO
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Alvin Radkowsky attended Yeshiva University, CCNY, George Washington University, and Catholic University, where he completed his doctorate in physics. From 1948 to 1972 he served as chief scientist of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Project. In this capacity he helped Admiral Hyman Rickover design the first nuclear submarine and invented a prize-winning method for prolonging the life span of nuclear reactors. During this time Radkowsky was active in the orthodox synagogue and Talmud study group in Summit Hill, Maryland. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Nuclear Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

In 1972 Radkowsky made aliya with his wife and daughter and became a professor of nuclear engineering at Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion universities. His major project is a design for a nuclear reactor which does not produce plutonium and nuclear waste.

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