Evolutionary Creationism

1 Science is not a monolithic entity and scientists express a whole range of attitudes about these matters. Nevertheless, the popular interpretation of science which conflicts with creationism basically espouses this perspective.

2 Literally, The Name. It refers generally to G-d in any of His myriad expressions and interactions with the world. In particular it refers to the four-letter name of G-d, called the Tetragrammaton (Yod-Keh-Vav-Keh), which indicates His transcendent, eternal, and unknowable level of Being, as well as His immanent expression through the attribute of mercy. These four Hebrew letters contain all the permutations of the verb to be. Tradition teaches that The Name translates as That Which Was, Is, And Will Always Be. HaShem is the point of eternity that lies within each moment and each object; that which preceded creation, permeates creation, and will endure beyond its passing. G-d and HaShem are interchangeable.

3 G-d is beyond gender, containing both male and female elements as well as levels of oneness where even the duality of gender does not exist. The essential name of G-d, indicated by HaShem (see footnote 2) is androgynous. It contains two masculine letters (Yod and Vav) and two feminine letters (the two Heh's). Similarly, Genesis 1:27 describes the first human as "created in the image of G-d... male and female." The "Jewish G-d" is both male and female. Nevertheless the dilemma remains of which gendered pronoun to use when writing about G-d. The author has chosen to continue with the custom of "He" simply because changing this implies various ideological affiliations and associations that are not hers.

4 Ken Wilber, ed., Quantum Questions, Mystical Writings of the World 's Great Physicists, (Boston, MA: Shambala Press, 1985).

5 Tikunei Zohar.

6 "With ten utterances the world was created" (Pirkey Avot 5:1 1). These are the first verse of the Torah ("In the beginning. . ."); the eight verses that begin, "Let there be..."; and Genesis 2:18, ("And the Lord said: It is not good that Adam should be alone...").

7 One could say that the ten fiats of Genesis organize and express information in "Macintosh mode," while the Ten Commandments organize and express that same information in "IBM mode."

8 The author wrote a previously published article on evolution, and sometimes borrows ideas from this work without formally quoting them. The article is: Susan Schneider, "Evolution-Form and Consciousness," B'Or HaTorah, Number 4, 1984, pp. 15-16.

9 Meir Leibush Malbim, Beginning and Upheaval, trans. Zvi Faier (Jerusalem: Hillel Press, 1978), Genesis I :25b.

10 Adam is not male. Rather he is male and female joined. The Torah initially describes the creation of the first human being as follows (Gen. 1:27): "And G-d created Adam in His own image. In the image of G-d He created him, male and female He created them." Jewish tradition teaches that the first human being was a kind of androgyne, combining both male and female elements. Again the question arises of generic pronouns. The author has a correspondence course in which the odd lessons are written in generic "she" and the even ones in generic "he." In this paper she italicizes any reference to the primordial, androgynous Adam, refers to him as "he" and uses the masculine impersonal pronoun, for the reasons mentioned in footnote 3.

11 Genesis 2:7.

12 Most of the ideas in this section come from Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler' s discussion of the subject in: Michtav M'Eliyahu, Vol. II, pp. 135-145.

13 See Rashi quoted on p. 12. Additionally, Kaballa explains that the densest plane of Edenic reality was thought (called the world of briyah) In other words, the "stuff" of bodies was thought form.

14 Rabbi Joseph Ergas, Ikkarim II:29.

15 "And the Lord G-d made for the man and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. " The word for light and the word for skin sound alike, only the first has an Aleph as its first letter, while the latter has an Ayin.

16 Bereshit Rabba 20:29.

17 TB Baba Batra 58a.

18 TB Chagiga 12a.

19 Bereshit Rabba 8.

20 ‘And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord G-d amongst the trees of the garden." 21 Bereshit Rabba 19:8.

21 Bereshit Rabba 19:8

22 Rashi is the acronym for Rabbi Solomon Isaac, the authoritative interpreter of scripture according to the Oral Tradition originating with Moses at Sinai.

23 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, ed. William Morris (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971).

24 Dessler, 11:151.

25 Eliyahu Dessler: Michtav M’Eliyahu, Vol. II (p. 151).

26 It is not clear whether the Fall took place before shkiah (actual sunset), during bain hashmashos (the intermediate period after the sun has set but the sky is still light), or during Shabbat itself; though the withdrawal of the ohr ganuz (the primordial light to which Rashi refers, see p. 12, the expulsion, and actualization of the curses did not take place until after Shabbat. It appears that the "Ten things that were created on Sabbath eve before twilight . ." (Avot 5:18) were a consequence of Adam and Eve's eating from the Tree of Knowledge and so were transitional to the subsequent physicalization of reality. Generally this Mishna is interpreted to mean that the supernatural quality of these ten things derives from their relationship to Shabbat, and their worldly aspect comes from their connection to the weekday, but actually it seems the opposite. The six days (as described above) existed in the most rarefied realm of physicality-a light-like, unified reality where only holiness reigned. When Adam and Eve sinned, reality fractured, and the "Sabbath of Sabbath’s" (the final Shabbat, called, "the day that is totally Sabbath and peace for ever more") split off, and only in the future will this higher dimensional universe be attained. The actual level of Sabbath experienced by Adam was of a much lower order of existence after he had sinned, and "his eyes were opened," and "his stature shrank to ten cubits," and he was given "garments of skin." Thus the Mishna might indicate how the spiritual quality of these ten things came from their connection to the original six (and nearly attained seventh) supernal days of creation and their physical aspect derived from the recreation of reality that happened either before or during Shabbat. As physical entities, their existence of these ten things only became necessary not that sin would be a part of the world. They have one foot in the "sinless" holiness of the first six days; thereby connecting it to the lower physical reality that was to come.

There is no contradiction to the obligation of resting from creative work (which is the definition of Shabbat), for the process of collapse and reconstitution of reality does not require actual malacha (creative work). It is more like a Shabbat clock-the laws are set, the rug is pulled out from under, and reality falls into its new position. It is an unwinding of effects and consequences, and not the manifestation of direct intervention (see Rambam, Guide to the Perplexed, I:67).

27 Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Collected Essays and Notes (London, 5719) and reprinted in Challenge: Torah views on science and its problems, eds. Aryeh Carmel and Cyril Domb (Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 5738/1978).

28 Zohar II:20a

29 Yechida means literally, single and united. It is the highest of the five levels of soul. It is the point which is actually unified and identified with HaShem. It bestows the capacity to experience Divine oneness on the deepest possible level.

30 It is interesting to note that science dates the appearance of writing at exactly this time "The earliest evidence of writing dates back about 6,000 years to the emergence of large city states. (Merlin Donald, Origins of the Modern Mind (Harvard University Press, 1991) p. 278.) Just as the level of consciousness anthropologists call Homo sapien, has certain physical traits that accompany it and which enable its classification; perhaps the level of consciousness associated with the Torah's definition of Adam is linked to the capacity for writing.

Alternatively, it would appear, according to Bereshit Rabba 6:2, that the appearance of man in the scriptural sense of the word, fully reconstituted in the material world, is marked by the point that man created fire from flint. "Though the luminaries were spoilt on the eve of Sabbath, yet they were not smitten until the termination of Sabbath . . . when the sun sank at the termination of Sabbath darkness began to set in. Adam was terrified . . . what did the Lord do for Him? He make him find two flints which he struck against each other, light came forth and he uttered a blessing over it . . ." Thus G-d's first creation, on day one, was light. Now man must reproduce the entirety of creation from his efforts below, and his first creation is also light (fire), and also on day one.
The reconciliation of these two clues would make a fascinating study.

31 Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Burnett Books, Hutchinson Publishing Co. 1987).

32 Denton, Chap. 1.

33 Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species (Collier Books, New York 1972) p 41.

34 Denton, p. 355.

35 Malbim, Genesis 1:25b.

36 Malbim, Genesis 1:26.

37 Malbim, Genesis 1:25

38 Dr. Michio Kaku and Jennifer Trainer, Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe (Bantam New Age Books 1987) p. 195.

39 Torah also works with ten dimensions (and 26). The most basic model of reality is called The Tree of Life which contains ten spheres (or channels) in highly ordered arrangement. Tradition teaches that this configuration exists at the heart of every piece of existence, from the most subatomic matter to the most sublime extremities of the universe, from the world of nature to the world of angels and beyond. It is the universal map that describes the elements that are necessarily present in any point of focus from pinhole to cosmos. Secondly, the number 26 is the numerical equivalent of the most holy and unspeakable name of G-d, the Tetragrammaton (see footnote 2). Its letters actually superimpose onto the Tree of Life and so the 10 and the 26 are two perspectives of the same thing (i.e. the whole). There is no question that the two most significant numbers in Jewish metaphysics are 10 and 26.

40 Kaku and Trainer, pp. 164-170.

41 Kaku and Trainer, p. 158

44 Schneider, p.30.

45 Malbim, Genesis 1:26.

46 Malbim, Genesis 1:26.

47 One finds further support for this idea in the Madras (Pirkey de Rebbe Eliezer, Chap. ~ And he formed the lumps of the dust of the first man into a mass in a clean place (it was) on the navel of the earth. He shaped him and prepared him, but breath and soul were not in him. What did the Holy One do? He breathed with the breath of the soul of His mouth, and a soul was cast into him, as it is said, And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." And in the Zohar 35b, "Adam and Eve, when they were first planted, were not swathed in light nor did they emit a sweet odor, of a surety they were uprooted and duly reestablished.
Both of these statements indicate that first there arose a body (guf) having none of the special sanctity and spiritual consciousness of "human being-ness" and only at some later point was it infused with a Divine Soul. This first stage could be the body or template that arose by evolutionary means, and only later, with Divine intervention, made its leap into human status.

48 Malbim, Genesis I:25F.

49 Malbim, Genesis, Trans. Gaier, P. 125.

50 Malbim, Psalms 8:6.

51 Zohar Il:161b.

52 John Graves, The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Relativity Theory (Camkbridge: MIT Press, 1971), pp. 312 313. See "Evolution-Forn and Consciousness " for a more developed discussion of this idea.

53 These principles and assertions raise the ageless question: Why do bad things happen to good people? How does one reconcile the fact of perfect justice with all the appearances to the contrary. These questions can only be properly addressed by drawing from the kabbalistic level of teachings which is outside the scope of this paper. Let it suffice to say that there are very profound and satisfying answers to be found there. One thing is clear, in the final frame, when all the causes and effects are sorted out, everyone will see that there was always only perfect justice and only good endures.

54 This is secret behind the Torah's seemingly irrational insistence that a very particular area of land (the terrain contained within the biblical boundaries of Israel) should be the "homeland" of the Jewish people. This seems strange at first. Isn't the most important thing that there be a homeland? Isn't the place of it somewhat irrelevant. The answer is that each area of land is an ecosystem which forces its creatures to develop in certain ways if they are to survive and to flourish there. Southern Europeans are different from northern ones, Californians are different from New Yorkers. The territory within the boundaries of Israel is also an environmental niche which selects for the behaviors and traits that are specified in the second paragraph of the Shema: "...If you love HaShem your G-d and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will provide rain for you land in its proper time...you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. I will provide grass...for your cattle. You will eat and be satisfied. Beware lest your heart be seduced and you turn away and serve other gods...there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce. And you will be swiftly banished from the goodly land..."

The land of Israel requires its inhabitants to develop spiritually. (It would seem that each people has its own 'place" and ecosystem which draws forth its full spiritual potential though others living there would not be as profoundly affected.) Unless (at least the Jewish residents) of Israel are growing and purifying their relationship with G-d they will not survive and certainly will not flourish there. Self actualization is a labor intensive process and no one does it unless they are forced, unless their physical or psychological survival requires it. A Jew could live any other place in the world and avoid developing his or her full capacity of relationship with G-d. The ecosystem of Israel, however, demands, that at least its Jewish inhabitants actualize every drop of their spiritual potential.

55 Bereshit Rabba 11:6.

56 The Torah contains many enlightened principles of ecology.

57 The criteria of successful physical adaptation, according to Darwin's model, are population growth and extended life and reproductive span. The criteria of successful psycho-spiritual adaptation is inner peace and quality of life.

58 Schneider, 31.

59 Hirsch, Genesis 1:1.

60 Rabbi Hillel from Sklov, Kol HaTor