Religion and Science

In 1830, Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon from tablets written in Egyptian. In 1835, he bought Egyptian funerary papyri from a traveling exhibitor, which he declared to have been written by Abraham. Over the coming years he published his translation as the Book of Abraham, which later became part of the LDS canon. Because every stage of this process is documented, we can see how a mid-century piece of American literature was made into scripture by a new religious movement.

Why did Laban accept that Rachel could not rise before him when she said, “For the way of women was upon me”? Why does the Torah forbid sexual relations during menstruation? Nahmanides’ answers place him at the crossroads of medieval science and mysticism.

Study science to fall in love with God is the message of the Song of Songs according to both Maimonides and Gersonides. Whereas Maimonides believed it was forbidden to make the hidden meaning accessible to the average person, by the time Gersonides was writing a century later, the philosophical reading of the Bible was well known. Thus, he not only explicates the text but also quotes Aristotle 49 times to make his points.

When I encountered TheTorah.com, I experienced a moment of déjà vu. In the early 1970s, I majored in Bible at Yeshiva University and spent my junior year abroad in Jerusalem studying with Hebrew University Bible professors. My goal was to grapple with questions of Pentateuchal criticism in a way that would be meaningful and beneficial for an Orthodox Jew. But then I dropped it. Here is my story.

Statements that express our feelings are often confused with factual assertions.

The Torah describes God’s fashioning the firmament (רקיע) on the second day of creation. This piece of the universe, however, doesn’t actually exist—a problem obfuscated in my yeshiva education.

Although incest taboos are found in the majority of cultures, medieval Jewish thinkers found this to be an insufficient explanation for the Torah’s prohibitions. 

A pediatric neurologist searches for the soul through the lens of current neuroscience.

Jacob’s ancient scientific trick.

The midrashic Parable of the Illuminated Palace concerns Abraham and the existence of God. In Part 1, we looked at Maimonides rationalistic, Aristotelian approach. Alternative interpretations focus on the idea of an experiential, living relationship with God.

The midrashic Parable of the Illuminated Palace centers on Abraham and the existence of God. Maimonides’ interpretation of the parable envisions an Aristotelian Abraham for whom God is a scientific fact.