The Canadian Jewish Tribune reports:
Toronto’s Orthodox community was in uproar this week following the circulation of a letter by one of the city’s leading Rabbinic authorities, Rabbi Shlomoh Eliyahu Miller, head of the Kollel Avreichim (an advanced institute of Talmud study for married men).
The letter condemned the books of Rabbi Noson Slifkin, the ‘Zoo Rabbi’ as “words of heresy and denial…and ignorance,” for apparently suggesting that scientific knowledge could ever take precedence over rabbinic lore in explaining the origin of the world, astronomy or the laws of nature. Rabbi Slifkin lectured to capacity audiences in the city this weekend as a guest of the ‘Torah in Motion’ program.
Rabbi Slifkin’s books, which discuss various aspects of zoology, evolution and the animal kingdom in the light of rabbinic tradition, stress the rabbinic authorities through the ages who have welcomed scientific thought as illuminating – not contradicting – traditional Judaism. As such, he has been under sustained attack for more than a year by ultra-Orthodox leaders in Israel and the United States.
The attempt to ban his books and ostracise him, further fanned by what have been identified as clumsy attempts to attack modern science, provoked a huge crisis of confidence in Orthodox circles. The attacks on Slifkin were criticized as attempted ‘thought control’ in the Orthodox community, aimed at enforcing one interpretation of tradition, and intimidating anyone holding – or approving – alternative views. The Internet, and particularly the ‘blogs,’ were major forums in publicizing and discussing the unfolding of events.
Local orthodox leaders expressed concern regarding both the content and the tone of Rabbi Miller’s letter. Rabbi Miller criticizes Rabbi Slifkin’s views, defines him as a heretic, compares him to the ‘wicked son’ of the Pesach Haggadah, and explains that it is obligatory for Jews to believe in Rabbinic traditions, giving as an example the belief that Cain and Abel were born on the sixth day of creation, without any gestation period.
He then says that he will “strengthen the hearts of those who may have heard the words of denial (divrei kefirah)” by giving examples (apparently unrelated to Slifkin) of how the Torah has proven astronomy wrong, and how the Talmudic rabbis knew advanced science from biblical exegesis.
He further points out that in discussing the nature of light, the rabbis define darkness not as the absence of light, but as a real substance, and that in this “scientists are wrong.” In the letter he refers to Galileo, Quantum Mechanics, ‘Non-local reality’ and Bell’s Theorem as perhaps offering confirmation of his views. A local Orthodox Jewish scientist termed the scientific content of the letter “perplexing.”