Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z"l On The Age Of The Universe

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's, z"l, position of the age of the universe based on early Kabbalistic sources is highlighted after the jump.

Because of the controversy over the banning of Rabbi Nosson Slifkin and his works, I thought it would be helpful to summarize the position of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z"l on the age of the universe. Rabbi Kaplan was both an illui (genius) in Torah and an illui in physics, and was arguably the most qualified individual of the previous generation to discuss the interface of Torah and science.

PART 1: Background

1. As long as no halakha is involved, there is no reason to poskin on (decide) an issue.
2. In his Guide to the Perplexed, the Rambam builds several shitot (philosophies) based on da'at yachid, an individual view of a sage that is not upheld by the majority. As long as this is done for hashgafah (philosophy, outlook) and not for legal issues, this is perfectly fine.
3. One cannot label an idea heretical until one has surveyed the sources. Perhaps Gedolim from earlier generations held the same view. If so, the view is not heresy.
4. Sefer Temunah, an early kabbalistic work attributed to the 1st century Tanna Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, is a work that discusses the kabbalistic import of the shapes of the Hebrew letters. Sefer Temunah is quoted in many different Halakhic sources (including the Beit Yosef) that deal with sofrut – writing Torah scrolls, mezuzot and megilot.
5. Sefer Temunah also comments on the Shmita Theory, the idea that sabbatical cycles existed before the creation of Adam, and that those cycles – those years – were actual physical years.
6. Sefer Temunah states that we are in the 6th 7,000-year sabbatical cycle and that the world is 42,000 years old.
7. The Shmita Theory became known as the Shitat Sefer Temunah.
8. Many pre-ARI kabbalists accepted the Shitat Sefer Temunah, including the Ramban, his close student Yitzhak of Akko, and the RADBAZ.
9. The Ramban's position is difficult to understand if you have not first learned Shitat Sefer Temunah.
10. The ARI (Rabbi Isaac Luria) rejected Shitat Sefer Temunah and taught that these cycles were not physical years but were instead spiritual, non-physical years. Rabbi Moshe Cordevero agreed with the ARI.
11. Because of the spread of Lurianic Kabbalah, Shitat Sefer Temunah became less and less known. For the most part, only those few scholars who studied ancient kabbalistic works were aware of it.
12. In 1838, when the Tiferet Yisrael wrote his essay on the age of the universe  that advocated a universe much older than 6,000 years, his works were banned by some hasidim. Others simply ripped the essay out of the larger work.
13. The Tiferet Yisrael's 'crime' ? Not accepting the ARI's opinion as binding. (See #1, #2 and #3 above.)

PART 2: Could The World Have Been Created 'Old'?

1. No Jewish source exists to support this contention.
2. To make the world appear to be billions of years old when it is really 6000 years old is problematic:

a. It makes G-d appear to be deceptive.
b. If one accepts the idea that G-d created an 'old' world, why not say the world was created 5 minutes ago and we with it, with all of our memories, etc. ready-made?
c. Again, there is no Jewish source for this idea. [It was invented by the 19th century Christian apologist Philip Henry Gosse.]

3. One can believe it it one desires. Such a belief – even absent Jewish sources to support it – is not heresy.

PART 3: The Shita of Yitzhak of Akko.

1. He was a student and a colleague of the RAMBAN.
2. Was one of the foremost kabbalists of his time.
3. Investigated and authenticated the Zohar, which was then published in his lifetime.
4. Is often quoted in the Mussar classic, Reishit Hokhmah.
5. In his work Otzar HaHayyim, Yizhak of Acco writes that, because the sabbatical cycles referred to in Shitat Sefer Temunah existed before Adam, they must be measured in Divine years, not human years.
6. Therefore, Sefer Temunah is speaking of Divine years when it states that the world is 42,000 years old.
7. According to midrashic sources, a Divine day is 1,000 earth-years long.
8. A Divine year would therefore equal 365,250 earth years.
9. So, according to Yitzhak of Acco, the universe would be 42,000 x 365,250 earth-years old.
10. That calculation comes out to 15.3 billion years, very close to current estimates for the Big Bang.

Part 4: Conclusion.

1. There is no real conflict between science and Torah on the age of the universe.
2. Ancient Torah-teachings have in fact been vindicated by modern science.

Comments

[josh]

It isn't that G-d created the world "old" he simply created things. Period. Why take 15 billion years to evolve things and get to man? You speak of some sort of finite G-d (chas v'shalom.) An infinite G-d can do whatever He so desires, whenever, however, etc.

[SS]

I love the books you have listed on the outside of your page -- all the books the Haredim love to hate.

[Isa]

Questions posed to me.
Is the Torah the absolute word of G-d
ME: yes of course, however there is one letter difference between sephardi and Askennazi Torahs. In Askennazi this letter is an alief, In Sephardi this letter is an Aighyn
How old is the world (universe)?
ME: Oh about 10-15 billion years old
WHAT??!!??
ME: No conflict!

[Kettle Called Black]

"Ancient Torah-teachings have in fact been vindicated by modern science."

THIS is precisely why R' Slifkin's books have been banned as kefira - not that Torah sources don't support an old universe, rather the idea that the Torah sources somehow need "vindication" by science. This presumptive acceptance of the accuracy of science, and worse, the idea that Torah sources are only acceptable if they measure up to some external standard, is the problem, not whether or not 5765 represents a literal number.

[FNU LNU]

The basis of scientific theory (observable, repeatable physical data) is not all that horrifyingly crazy. As to the specific scientific means by which archelogical, biologiocal, astronomical, etc. ways that the age of the world and universe can be determined. I doubt there is anyone reading this forum with the ability to truly understand these issues with the proper scientific backing. That our education sometimes purposefully avoided the issue did not help in this regard.

Someone who wants to say that the Torah is making a fact-claim about the world and universe (like how old it is) but that such claim can not be critically questioned is themselves clearly a kofer. If they had true faith, treating Torah facts like actual facts, and subject to normal analysis would not be a problem.

[pushkina]

better to say instead of vindicated: science is in accordance with Torah.

would better editing make the haredim's problems with slifkin's books go away?

[Paul Freedman]

If the Ari took a traditionalist 6,000 year position, as well as his followers we reallly would have to say that the consensus of kabbalah does not support an "old" universe.

[Wm. C. Loveless]

After God created the entire universe in six days... He rested on the seventh day.
If we convert millions of years into one
day among seven... can you imagine God resting for nearly one billion years? How
absurd.

Remember God created the universe in six days (the substantive Earth on day three
& the sun, moon, and stars on day four). The sun was not created before our planet Earth. It was the other way around. And
for the rest of the stars, they too were created after the Earth.

Until day six there was no other human being on this planet. And when God created mankind (Adam) out of the dust of the ground he was made complete: physical, emotional, with conscience, and spiritually minded.

It was also w/ the fall of Adam that God promised us a Saviour. This really drives a wedge w/ the assumption that we had ancestors prior to Adam (who were totally human) and lived without ever sinning.

And for that matter how can science explain having not one (but) two prototype human beings that evolved at the same precise moment (Adam & Eve) who ultimately became responsible for the spiritual destiny of mankind?

One other fact of Scripture remains:
death entered our cosmos after the fall
of Adam... no evolution... no mutation... was a reality and so was the advent of contracting a disease, virus, etc.

How can science explain evolution without
death?

[Shmarya]

Try reading up on evolution and genetics. Do so by reading real scientific publications and not the crap put out by the Creation Institue, etc.

i suppose that whan the scientists say that the worls is 15 billion years old they also refer to the divine years(what does that have to do with physicality?)??!!

[honestabe]

watching religious people (x ions, muslims and jews alike) play the numbers game with days of creation and inserting the flood as though it explains anything is hilarious...

i wonder how similar the silly arguments would have been if there were blogs around when people were into thor and zeus...i can almost picture the comments tryin to explain how despite newly understood realities of thunder and lightening, still, its compatible with their religious upbringing and teachings;) hehe

u go guys...god planted fossils and made it all appear that science was right and all the gedolim got it wrong;) he made us one chromosome pair less than the other great apes and made it obvious to genetic observation that we have a joined set of chromosomes indicating evolution from them...he made vestigial limbs an obvious indicator of evolution...he made many many design errors which can only be explained with evolution...hehe

like bertrand russel said when asked what if there is a god....i paraphrase...hey dude, u did a hell of a job fooling me;) u totally made it seem like u never existed;)

what can i say...he is foolin the hell out of me too

[bryce]

If I may quote the above:
PART 2: Could The World Have Been Created 'Old'?

2. To make the world appear to be billions of years old when it is really 6000 years old is problematic:

a. It makes G-d appear to be deceptive."

Within 20 seconds, I easily came up with a way that God could have made the world to look old without any intent of deception on His part. I'm sure the readers here can do the same.

[Tim]

What I have found in life, is either you Follow Torah, or you do not.

Trying to explain how old the Earth is, whether or not Hashem cares, is mute, when you are following the commands to Love your neighbor as yourself, and love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, soul, and mind!

Please, let us focus on what is important, rather than this stuff which only divides!

[Ben]

I find it surprising that in these debates, nobody quotes Rambam's axiom regarding science vs. Torah: "If science and Torah disagree, either Science has miscalculated, or Torah has been misinterpreted." Therefor science and Torah MUST be in harmony. Most Haredi immediately discount the idea that Torah has been misinterpreted. Then why didn't Rambam say, "... science has miscalculated." And leave it there? There is no viable and authentic scientific calculation that brings the age of the earth, much less the universe, near 6000 years. We have great rabbinic minds that calculate the universe as much older, based on Torah. Therefor, by Rambam's axiom, these mystical interpretations become favorable.

These interpretations also predate modern scientific calculations, and ergo predate the need to make excuses so that Torah and Science jive. So any atheist who wants to make that accusation can shut their mouth, as can any literalist who wants make an accusation of theological weakness.

What's that you say? Rambam believed in a young earth, and didn't believe in Jewish mysticism? So, what? If he lived now, with more advanced scientific knowledge, based on his axiom, I'd say his opinion would be different, and he'd believe in both an old universe and Kabbalah. If he believed in mysticism while living then, that might have been enough to change his mind.