2-8 Sep

Q: Is the book of Job a science textbook?

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 Talmud tells us that Moses, to whom the Torah was revealed on Mount Sinai, wrote the book of Job, which contains magnificent, awesome descriptions of natural phenomena in order to affirm G-d's rule over the Universe. Job is further explicated in Bava Batra, one of the most legalistic sections of the Talmud, with detailed reference to how carefully G-d has planned the world, balanced on so delicate an equilibrium between survival and disaster. His care extending to every hair on a person's head and to an individual shape for every raindrop.

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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