“If there are teachers who explain [to students] that the world has existed for millions of years — gentlemen, stop them, don’t stay silent and listen because it’s unpleasant to comment,” continues Yosef. “Don’t tell me when the world was created. The world was created less than 6,000 years ago.”
We don't know when the world was created.
ReplyDeleteThe orbit of the earth around the sun determines years. So in the 6 days of creation, it's only on day 3 of the Creation that the sun and the moon are created. So the time before that could be billions of years equivalent.
It's not necessarily 24 hour periods.
4th day
DeleteThank you
DeleteThere are books out there that reconcile the literal reading of Bereishis 1 with the actual understanding of the age of the universe. The kefirah is to deny God created everything but a literal understanding of the details, especially with the current overwhelming understanding of science, is not kefirah except for those for whom Judaism is a cult with followers to be tightly controlled and bereft of critical thinking.
Deleteany good ones? I want something at least as good as Prof Aviezer, or better, but not an apikores guy
Deletehttps://mosaicapress.com/product/the-six-days-of-creation/
Delete(Note: 2 volumes)
https://www.amazon.ca/Six-Days-Cosmology-Evolution-Scientific/dp/1602803056
And there's always {cough, cough} that Slifkin book.
The first author, Rabbi hool, is learning in ponovezh kollel.
DeleteHow did he get to to read up on cosmology? In the preview he's claiming that stars burn hydrogen as fuel. That's not what they do. They are fusion reactors, transmuting hydrogen into helium, and releasing energy. I don't think he knows what he's talking about.
Well what he calls burning is the fusion part so one can forgive that.
DeleteHis other books are quite interesting like the one where he hypotehsizes that the Persian empire wasn't completely conquered by the Greeks so there's two different dating systems the later books of Tanach had to work with which is why they contradict classic science. His one on Egyptian chronology is also decent although slavish to "But it says in the Torah" sometimes at the expense of accuracy.
If you are going to start forgiving someone for talking nonsense science, then you can't expect me to rely on his scientific enquiry.
DeleteAlthough I corrected a secular Professor on another error regarding Hydrogen he made in his book, an he admitted that that was in the first edition but has been corrected in the paperback version :)
No, it's a technicality. The sun runs on fusion. Fusion of hydrogen so from that pespective, hydrogen is the fuel. Because when the sun runs out, it'll go out.
DeleteBereshit Specifically says years (and weeks and months) were created on Wednesday.
DeleteRamban says there were seven worlds before our current world.
Mimedina _ excellent 👍🏻
DeleteGarnel - it's not fuel or burning I'm any traditional sense.
There's no combustion or oxygen there. They are fused to become new helium atoms and release energy in the process.
Later on the helium atoms are also fused into heavier elements.
Actually when a star ⭐ reaches its end of life it becomes a supernova, and the elements fuse into even heavier elements such as gold!
Magic!
So we diving into semantics now. The 2 hydrogens fuse and release energy. Heat combusts the wick releasing light and more heat.
DeleteThere's a commentary by the Tiferes Yisrael in which he mentions dinosaurs and celebrates them as proof that there were seven worlds before ours and clearly the dinosaurs lived in an early one. I've heard that in all the "right" kind of yeshivos they tear that page out.
DeleteIf there was no sun to measure days, then how long were the first three days? And why take the word "yom" literally when it is used in other places as "era" or "at that time".
The fusion releases nuclear binding energy. It's not combustion.
DeleteIf you tell a nurse to give oxygen, and they bring laughing gas , would you say it's just semantics, and the Nitrous Oxide still has oxygen anyway?
This is their strong psychological flaw - If they want to believe the world is literally 5768 years old? Great. Really on a daily basis it has no practical effect. But if they want me to believe that, then they're being closed minded and arrogant.
ReplyDelete3:58am
ReplyDeleteSlifkin & his publications were rather lightweight ,but that's ancient stuff anyway.
Since that bygone period he has been a pathetic loser milking his minor episode to turn himself to a hero for the anti frummers.He chooses any & every issue of all & sundry that has no connection to his topics to oppose any more orthodox than he is.
Anybody who can cogently debate with him he has either blocked or whines adolescently how he was abused by the ban. As if scores of others who are adults haven't suffered way more,but carry on.
It gave the windbag a continuous career.
R A Feldman (his defender back in the beginning) stated well : Slifky wasn't necessarily an apikorus because of his stuff then,but he sure proved himself over & over an apikorus for everything since
Basically a finger to the wind PC knee-jerk Peter Pan
I've not read slifkins books. He used to just talk about zoo animals
DeleteI'm just discussing nuclear fusion. This is high end physics, don't expect people to learn about it in kollel.
I've read some of R' Slifkin's books. The criticisms given here are invalid. His work is well sourced and supported. And his critics are ignored mostly because their arguments start with either "Given that you're wrong and we don't have to prove it..." or "You can't use those sources that you did so you don't have support..." it's understandable why he dismisses them.
DeleteThe definition of "Kefirah" by his opponents is "He has a different point of view than the one that we've decided is the only official one."
I've noticed he has a book called Lying for the Truth.
DeleteI think in case of a rodef, or a competitor or anyone else trying to harm you. Then lying is a good thing.
But it reminds me of a very short Monty python skit, when Eric idle is dressed as Lennon, and says " I'm starting a war for peace" 😂
GI,
ReplyDeleteMissed the boat.Typical.
Nobody cares about his books anymore. Ancient stuff. Although he pretends otherwise
I personally read his books way back- before any ban. Still have one around in my house. [That's besides his contradictions. In one book the re'eim is a giraffe. In another book the tachash is a giraffe. In a third place he tried to concoct something else. Later on he realized & tried to circle back.]
The problem is him as a person.
Btw pretty sure he's finagling for a place on a knesset list based on his incessant harping of recent topics. the only question left for him is how high up ?
Tachash could be a dugong. That's a cousin of the manatee, if you live in Florida.
DeleteI know him personally. No political ambitions, just making his new museum a success and educating people. He harps on and on about the Chareidim because they are becoming a threat to the well-being of Israel and not enough people realize how big a threat.
DeleteOK, but who knows what the Tachash is? If it's not a special creature that was created for this one event, which is one opinion, then what is it? The rishonim and meforshim probably had no real idea of what it was.
DeleteGI
ReplyDeleteWhether or not you wish to believe thus,
it was irrelevant for Slifkin & his issues . Completely.Unless his goals are very different than what he ostensibly claims.
Chicken or egg.
He stuck his finger to the wind of his cheerleaders (possibly you too) & adopted.& adopts again.
Same with Organ donorship,etc.etc.
Take it or leave it.
Then he drives forward with loaded pretense it was always an integral part of his calling.
Whatever the merits of his posts & whatever his calling is, Serving the Creator isn't the agenda
re: his political ambition.
ReplyDeleteWill bide & wait for your mea culpa for larger perspectives, if/when my suspicion [even if in some ad hoc advisory role] is proven well founded !