19-25 Aug

Q: What does the gematria of Elokim teach us about the laws of nature?

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: The heathens had made the fundamental error of attributing all observed phenomena to numerous deities, who were basically independent and competed with each other. Thunder and lightning were imagined as coming from one god, the winds from another, with the sun, the moon and the sea, the growth of crops, and the procession of rainfall being ruled by separate gods. The coalescing of all these powers into the rule of a single Supreme Being leads naturally to the concept of a single body of laws governing all physical existence, as symbolized by the gematria of the Hebrew word for the Creator, Elokim, being the same as that of teva, nature.

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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