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The Concept of Creation (3)

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Creation and Infinity

 

     The idea of creation contains a paradox, which we express daily in our prayers: "King of the world, who reigned before any creature was created;" not only did God exist, He also reigned, before any creature was created.  "When all was created through His will, then was He named King;" after the world was created, what was added was that we call Him king.  "And after all will cease to be, the Awesome One alone will reign" - here we express in fact a deep paradox; from our point of view we exist, yet from another perspective we seem not to exist.  We are faced with the task of gauging the relation between the finite and the infinite.  For example, the relation between the sum and substance of Man and that of God in essence describes the relation between the finite and the infinite.

 

     Let us allow ourselves to go a little wild with numbers.  How much is five divided by zero?  The very question endangers us.  Mathematicians forbid dividing by zero.  They forbid it because division by zero creates a tremendous paradox.  It reveals infinity.  The prohibition is intended to save us from the paradox.

 

     How do I know that five divided by zero is infinity?  If I have five apples and in order to satisfy one person I must give him an apple, then I can satisfy five people.  If one tenth of an apple is enough to satisfy one person, I can satisfy fifty people.  If one thousandth of an apple would be enough, I could satisfy five thousand people.  If zero apples were enough, I could satisfy all people.  Let us assume that 'five divided by zero' is a certain number.  Let us assume that I want to add four to that number.  The equation would be 5/0 + (4x0)/0 = 5 + 0/0 = 5/0.  In other words, if I have infinity and I add four to it, I will get the same number again.  This is in effect the meaning of the paradox.  As far as infinity is concerned nothing has changed.  For the four, a lot has changed.  In other words, from our perspective, we are the 'four' that has been added to infinity.  From our perspective we exist, yet from the standpoint of infinity no change has taken place.  In other words, it depends on your perspective.  Perhaps, the guiding principle could be that infinity is composed of many levels.  Possibly, the whole world is infinite; however, God is such a large infinity that when we add the minute infinity to it, the large infinity is not altered.

 

Creation: A principle of faith?

 

     Let us take another look at Rihal's statement about creation (1:67):

 

     "However, the question of the eternal existence or   creation of the world is a difficult question to resolve, and the proofs for both claims are equal, and what tipped     the scales toward creation is the tradition from Adam,      Noah and Moses, may they rest in peace, prophetic    testimony, which is more reliable than the testimony of    logic.  And despite all this, if the believer in the     Torah felt logically compelled [to accept] ... the      opinion about previously existent crude material coupled   with the opinion that our world was preceded by many     other worlds, it would not taint his belief that our world came into being only a certain period of time ago, and that its first human inhabitants were Adam and Noah."

 

     The Torah accepts the position of generation.  However, is this a truth of such stature that all who deviate from it would be considered heretics?  No.  Rihal allows for other interpretations of the text.  We have mentioned two positions: Eternal existence and generation.  However, other positions exist, and among these approaches Rihal's words direct us to a third position, the doctrine of sabbaticalsIn order to understand it, let us imagine a tape that can be rewound, rather than a film.  Each time the tape is finished, it is replayed.  This parable represents a cyclical approach, which maintains that the world repeats its own history over and over, is destroyed and rebuilt.  If this tape were flawless, the same history would repeat itself over and over, in a never-ending cycle.  And, in fact, such a position does exist, called the theory of eternal repetition, which is found among Greek philosophers, medieval astrologists and modern philosophers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche.  A similar approach was accepted by various medieval Jewish philosophers such as Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra.

 

     Of particular importance is a similar approach in kabbalistic thought, which emphasizes the concept of a spiral rather than a circle, not an eternal precise repetition of the past but rather a repetition within a process of advancement.  To return to our model, the doctrine of sabbaticals can be described as a rescreening of the tape in which new motifs appear on the screen within the original production.  This example demonstrates the doctrine of sabbaticals, which maintains that many worlds existed before our own ,and that many more are yet to come. In the words of our Sages: "The Holy One ... creates worlds and destroys them."

 

     This statement and others like it do not compel us to adopt the doctrine of sabbaticals.  Important thinkers such as Rabbi Isaac Arama, author of the Akedat Yitzchak, who were opposed to this doctrine, interpreted the statement to refer not to real worlds, but rather "draft copies," plans of worlds that were considered and not created; and their presentation comes to teach us that our world possesses unique qualities, and was created for the sole purpose of realizing those qualities.  These characteristics allow man's free will to find expression, or in the words of Rav Kook, they permit the process of human actualization to be realized alongside Divine perfection.

 

     The author of the Tif'eret Israel used this theory to understand fossils.  We may indeed discover relics from those worlds in our own.

 

     Rihal addresses a significant question here [1:67]: is the concept of creation a fundamental principle of our faith?  What would be the verdict upon a person who doubted it?  Would another interpretation of the scriptural description of creation have religious validity?  The Chaver's answer here is brief.  It would later be developed in the Rambam's philosophy, which was undoubtedly influenced by this segment.  Rihal's response is that although the general position that we have developed above is correct, whoever does not accept the severe version presented here, would not be charged with heresy.  Post facto, two other approaches are also acceptable: the theory of eternal existence, or yesh mi-yesh, and the theory of sabbaticals.  The first is the approach mentioned earlier: the theory of preexisting material.  The second is the model of the cyclical world, in the words of Rihal: the "opinion that many worlds preceded our world."  These opinions do not mar the faith of their proponents, the "faith that this world came into being only a certain period of time ago, and that its first human inhabitants were Adam and Noah."  They do not impair the simple meaning of the text; one might even say that they agree with it, as certain philosophers before and after Rihal explained.

 

The Rambam's Approach

 

     However, some thinkers did not relate to the whole chapter of creation as a cosmological description.  Thus, for example, a number of the Rambam's more extreme students maintained that the scriptural descriptions of the origins of humanity are to be taken allegorically.  Have the gates to novel interpretation been closed?  We will return to the question of the legitimacy of a novel interpretive position at a later stage.  The Rambam related to the problem itself and suggested a vantage point from which we must answer the question.  The real problem is not found in the question of the scriptual interpretation.  It is a question of principle: does the theory of pre-existing matter accord with the Torah's principles, does it permit the belief in Divine revelation?  The Rambam constructs his thought on the fact that the Torah is based on two principles, prophecy and the existence of miracles.  Prophecy would exist, according to the Rambam's view, even in a world which had existed forever.  However, this would not be the case regarding miracles.  For miracles to be feasible, one must assume God's complete sovereignty, or in other words, the idea of creation from nothingness (yesh me-ayin).  If the world existed forever and functions according to its own rules, then God cannot even trim a fly's wing.  The existence of miracles teaches us that we must not accept the idea of eternal existence.

 

     Possibly Rihal referred to these ideas [1:67]:

 

     Indeed, the Torah mentions miracles which contain    alterations of the natural order, either in the manner of     creation of objects or in the transformation of one      object into another.  However, all these only come to   demonstrate that the Creator of the world can, from His    will, do whatever He chooses whenever He chooses.

 

     Thus, we discover that the possibility of miracles defines the relationship between the world and God.  And this depends on the fact that the world was created from Divine will.  Out of the three fundamental components of the concept of creation: the time component, the issue of creation of matter, and the issue of Divine will, Rihal chose to emphasize the third factor.  The central thesis is not, then, the time or the material issues; the central issue is God's will.  What's done is done: the history of the world is interesting, and the riddle of creation, the cosmological question, is a fascinating riddle, but religion does not need it, except to perceive God as an omnipotent creator functioning out of His own will.  The central content of creation is the idea of creation from Divine will; all the rest is secondary.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)

 

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