I never realized how stifling the allegiance to the scientific THEORY of Creation was until I dropped it.
Yes, I realize entire books dedicate themselves to aligning the Torah narrative with the Big Bang narrative. (I read them too.) And yes, they're pretty convincing.
Only they sometimes engage in acrobatic semantics to line up everything just right, but they are pretty convincing.
Yet reading the Torah narrative with the unproven scientific narrative in lockstep alongside in your mind actually distracts from the whole point of the Torah starting with Beresheit.
And the theory-influenced mind automatically dismisses any commentary (produced by the most brilliant & holiest minds of humanity) that contradicts the scientific narrative—a narrative based entirely on conjecture.
After all, they believe it all happened billions of years ago, so how can any proof exist?
And with all the unscientific weasel-words like "assume," "maybe," "perhaps," "indicate," "feel," "possibly," etc., peppering their most prestigious papers on the topic, how can anything they say be taken seriously?
In essence, they are no different than their highly intellectual Greek antecedents who theorized that the change of seasons was caused by the abduction of a goddess's daughter by the god of the underworld, and when the daughter unsuspectingly ate 6 pomegranate seeds in the underworld, that act then compelled the daughter to spend 6 months with the god of the underworld each year, making her goddess-mommy so sad that the earth becomes barren & cold for those 6 months, until the return of the daughter brings back Spring & Summer.
It's the same process, the same jump from conclusion to conclusion without any proof—except for the obvious fact of the change of seasons.
And there is no reason why we need to believe any cosmology without any proof.
Yes, I realize entire books dedicate themselves to aligning the Torah narrative with the Big Bang narrative. (I read them too.) And yes, they're pretty convincing.
Only they sometimes engage in acrobatic semantics to line up everything just right, but they are pretty convincing.
Yet reading the Torah narrative with the unproven scientific narrative in lockstep alongside in your mind actually distracts from the whole point of the Torah starting with Beresheit.
And the theory-influenced mind automatically dismisses any commentary (produced by the most brilliant & holiest minds of humanity) that contradicts the scientific narrative—a narrative based entirely on conjecture.
After all, they believe it all happened billions of years ago, so how can any proof exist?
And with all the unscientific weasel-words like "assume," "maybe," "perhaps," "indicate," "feel," "possibly," etc., peppering their most prestigious papers on the topic, how can anything they say be taken seriously?
In essence, they are no different than their highly intellectual Greek antecedents who theorized that the change of seasons was caused by the abduction of a goddess's daughter by the god of the underworld, and when the daughter unsuspectingly ate 6 pomegranate seeds in the underworld, that act then compelled the daughter to spend 6 months with the god of the underworld each year, making her goddess-mommy so sad that the earth becomes barren & cold for those 6 months, until the return of the daughter brings back Spring & Summer.
It's the same process, the same jump from conclusion to conclusion without any proof—except for the obvious fact of the change of seasons.
And there is no reason why we need to believe any cosmology without any proof.
In the Beginning...Everything was Dark, Wet, and Goopy
So if you want to take to heart Rav Yehudah Petiyah's description of Creation in Minchat Yehudah, then why not?
Initially, he says, the entire Universe was filled with water.
And who's to say otherwise?
After all, modern minds believe this happened billions of trillions of years ago, so who can prove this wrong? Anyway, astronomers are always finding ice all over the Universe: in comets, covering planets, and so on.
Maybe that's proof that that Creation started off, not with a Big Bang, but as a massive pool of water.
(In your scientific paper, you can call it "The Big Slurp." Or "The Big Splash.")
Anyway, this vast pool of water was the Tehom (Deep).
And boy, was it dark!
(Light hadn't been created yet. And Rav Petiyah notes that at that point, darkness—rather than being the absence of light as it is now—was a quality in and of itself. In other words: DARK.)
The Me'am Lo'ez states an opinion that nothing else was created at this time except the Angel of Death, and that he was in the Tehom.
So the entire Universe of the Tehom was dark, wet, and scary.
(Actually, not everyone agrees on what exactly was created on the first day & what on the second. But the Universe as we know it was definitely dark & wet.)
And this pool was so vast, it came all the way up to the Kisei HaKavod (Throne of Glory), which is the Ruach Elokim (Spirit of God) mentioned in Genesis 1:2.
Only the darkness separated between them. (Rav Petiyah brings proof from Tehillim 18:12 — "He made darkness His hiding-place about Him as His booth; the darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies." All of Tanach is intertwined.)
Anyway, you had the Kisei HaKavod/Ruach Elokim hovering over the face of the water, like an eagle soars through the air as it hovers over its chicks, touching them occasionally.
And this was the Beginning.
Initially, he says, the entire Universe was filled with water.
And who's to say otherwise?
After all, modern minds believe this happened billions of trillions of years ago, so who can prove this wrong? Anyway, astronomers are always finding ice all over the Universe: in comets, covering planets, and so on.
Maybe that's proof that that Creation started off, not with a Big Bang, but as a massive pool of water.
(In your scientific paper, you can call it "The Big Slurp." Or "The Big Splash.")
Anyway, this vast pool of water was the Tehom (Deep).
And boy, was it dark!
(Light hadn't been created yet. And Rav Petiyah notes that at that point, darkness—rather than being the absence of light as it is now—was a quality in and of itself. In other words: DARK.)
The Me'am Lo'ez states an opinion that nothing else was created at this time except the Angel of Death, and that he was in the Tehom.
So the entire Universe of the Tehom was dark, wet, and scary.
(Actually, not everyone agrees on what exactly was created on the first day & what on the second. But the Universe as we know it was definitely dark & wet.)
And this pool was so vast, it came all the way up to the Kisei HaKavod (Throne of Glory), which is the Ruach Elokim (Spirit of God) mentioned in Genesis 1:2.
Only the darkness separated between them. (Rav Petiyah brings proof from Tehillim 18:12 — "He made darkness His hiding-place about Him as His booth; the darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies." All of Tanach is intertwined.)
Anyway, you had the Kisei HaKavod/Ruach Elokim hovering over the face of the water, like an eagle soars through the air as it hovers over its chicks, touching them occasionally.
And this was the Beginning.
The Theory of "The Big Squish"—Actually, It's Not Theory, But FACT
When Hashem created the Heavens and the Earth, He did so within this tremendous pool of water.
First, Hashem made the sphere of the rakia (firmament) and half the Tehom water completely filled this sphere and half the Tehom water remained outside of it.
In this way, says Rav Petiyah, no separation existed between the upper waters & the lower waters, except this layer of the rakia.
At this point, you are hopefully picturing something like a clear ball immersed in water and completely filled with water on the inside.
Then, in the very center-point within this rakia-ball, Hashem created the land.
At this point, everything is very wet and goopy, and Rav Petiyah likens it to the soft unformed body of an embryo.
(You can call this stage of Creation "The Big Squish.")
On the Third Day, Hashem commanded the lower waters (the water within the ball) to gather into one place, which became the ocean.
And now the land could be seen.
And there was air too, between the land & ocean in the middle of the ball and the sky above.
The Me'am Lo'ez also describes the entire Universe as filled with water, and explains that everything was mud (again, "The Big Squish") until Hashem commanded the water & land to separate, which it did to become a continent & an ocean.
And the land was immediately dry & ready to go—which, says the Me'am Lo'ez, teaches us that when one has the opportunity to do something good, he should not delay!
(The root of eretz/ארץ is ratz/רץ—to run. This is why the land was called eretz and not adamah or another word.)
However, notes Rav Petiyah, everything was still dark because the light still remained above the Tehom.
As you can tell, the initial Creation of the Universe resembles the earliest state of pregnancy as experienced within the womb.
And then things progressed as written in the Torah's story of Creation, with the appearance of different objects & creatures on different days.
(Rav Petiyah doesn't explain much more from here until the creation of Adam. And the Me'am Lo'ez has a couple hundred pages to say about it, but it's too much to summarize here.)
First, Hashem made the sphere of the rakia (firmament) and half the Tehom water completely filled this sphere and half the Tehom water remained outside of it.
In this way, says Rav Petiyah, no separation existed between the upper waters & the lower waters, except this layer of the rakia.
At this point, you are hopefully picturing something like a clear ball immersed in water and completely filled with water on the inside.
Then, in the very center-point within this rakia-ball, Hashem created the land.
At this point, everything is very wet and goopy, and Rav Petiyah likens it to the soft unformed body of an embryo.
(You can call this stage of Creation "The Big Squish.")
On the Third Day, Hashem commanded the lower waters (the water within the ball) to gather into one place, which became the ocean.
And now the land could be seen.
And there was air too, between the land & ocean in the middle of the ball and the sky above.
The Me'am Lo'ez also describes the entire Universe as filled with water, and explains that everything was mud (again, "The Big Squish") until Hashem commanded the water & land to separate, which it did to become a continent & an ocean.
And the land was immediately dry & ready to go—which, says the Me'am Lo'ez, teaches us that when one has the opportunity to do something good, he should not delay!
(The root of eretz/ארץ is ratz/רץ—to run. This is why the land was called eretz and not adamah or another word.)
However, notes Rav Petiyah, everything was still dark because the light still remained above the Tehom.
As you can tell, the initial Creation of the Universe resembles the earliest state of pregnancy as experienced within the womb.
And then things progressed as written in the Torah's story of Creation, with the appearance of different objects & creatures on different days.
(Rav Petiyah doesn't explain much more from here until the creation of Adam. And the Me'am Lo'ez has a couple hundred pages to say about it, but it's too much to summarize here.)
The Paradox Paradigm
Needless to say, it's important not to get too simplistic about Creation.
We are 3-dimensional beings living in a 3-dimensional world, and even just a fourth or fifth dimension is already way, way beyond our capabilities of imagination, let alone the mysteries of Creation and what existed before the Universe as we know it.
For example, the Me'am Lo'ez explains that the upper waters weren't and aren't real water as we think of it, but a type of spiritual substance.
And again: Who's to say not?
Especially with scientists claiming everything is billions of years old & finding ice all over the galaxy, why not believe that the Universe started off as giant womb?
I seriously have no problem believing in the narrative of The Giant Womb or The Big Squish.
In fact, it's clear that scientists, swayed by their emotions & egos, much prefer a massive sound & light show of the Big Bang theory (much like they probably like watching things crash & blow up in modern action films.)
And they often say as much, stating outright how they chose a particular theory based on a purely emotional preference.
(You can see more about this in: The Zealous Religion of Modern Science)
Also, I came across something very interesting in Rav Dessler's Strive for Truth!, quoting the Tiferet Yisrael (Chapter 33) by the Maharal of Prague.
He said that any allegories mentioned in the Torah are both allegories AND the Truth as the physical observer perceives it.
Meaning, when the Torah presents seeming contradictions, like how Hashem (who is beyond all time & space) "descended upon Har Sinai," we must understand that this wasn't a vision or only "looked" that way...but that's how it really was because reality is relative to the observer.
And the "observer" is us—very limited 3-dimensional physical human beings.
This idea is presented in the Midrash (Beresheit Rabbah 17:4) in which Adam gives names to all the animals & birds.
Hashem asks Adam: "And what is My Name?"
And Adam replies, "Ado-nai, for You are the Lord of all."
(Adon means "Master" or "Lord.")
And Hashem Himself concurs with this statement.
(Strive for Truth!, Volume II, Part 3, The Worlds of Asiya & Yetzira: Absolute & Relative Concepts—Relativity & Reality)
We are 3-dimensional beings living in a 3-dimensional world, and even just a fourth or fifth dimension is already way, way beyond our capabilities of imagination, let alone the mysteries of Creation and what existed before the Universe as we know it.
For example, the Me'am Lo'ez explains that the upper waters weren't and aren't real water as we think of it, but a type of spiritual substance.
And again: Who's to say not?
Especially with scientists claiming everything is billions of years old & finding ice all over the galaxy, why not believe that the Universe started off as giant womb?
I seriously have no problem believing in the narrative of The Giant Womb or The Big Squish.
In fact, it's clear that scientists, swayed by their emotions & egos, much prefer a massive sound & light show of the Big Bang theory (much like they probably like watching things crash & blow up in modern action films.)
And they often say as much, stating outright how they chose a particular theory based on a purely emotional preference.
(You can see more about this in: The Zealous Religion of Modern Science)
Also, I came across something very interesting in Rav Dessler's Strive for Truth!, quoting the Tiferet Yisrael (Chapter 33) by the Maharal of Prague.
He said that any allegories mentioned in the Torah are both allegories AND the Truth as the physical observer perceives it.
Meaning, when the Torah presents seeming contradictions, like how Hashem (who is beyond all time & space) "descended upon Har Sinai," we must understand that this wasn't a vision or only "looked" that way...but that's how it really was because reality is relative to the observer.
And the "observer" is us—very limited 3-dimensional physical human beings.
This idea is presented in the Midrash (Beresheit Rabbah 17:4) in which Adam gives names to all the animals & birds.
Hashem asks Adam: "And what is My Name?"
And Adam replies, "Ado-nai, for You are the Lord of all."
(Adon means "Master" or "Lord.")
And Hashem Himself concurs with this statement.
(Strive for Truth!, Volume II, Part 3, The Worlds of Asiya & Yetzira: Absolute & Relative Concepts—Relativity & Reality)
Liberate Your Mind
Judaism is very good at both acknowledging & embracing paradox.
Science is not.
Science looks to oversimplify things & only acknowledge what it can physically see in front of its face (which is why science has been so fluid & errant over the generations).
So science tends to be good with surgery (stuff you can see clearly) & germs (stuff you can see under a microscope), but does a pretty bad job when going outside of the strict boundaries of the physical (like God & Creation).
So feel free to read Parshat Beresheit with a liberated & unencumbered mind.
Science is not.
Science looks to oversimplify things & only acknowledge what it can physically see in front of its face (which is why science has been so fluid & errant over the generations).
So science tends to be good with surgery (stuff you can see clearly) & germs (stuff you can see under a microscope), but does a pretty bad job when going outside of the strict boundaries of the physical (like God & Creation).
So feel free to read Parshat Beresheit with a liberated & unencumbered mind.
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