Contra "Tsuyoku Naritai", Does Science surpass Torah, part 2/2

Guest Post: Rebbetzin Devorah Fastag

Leer en Español

(Please read part 1/2 first: Part 1: Tsuyoku Naritai, does science contradict Torah?)

The post labeled Tsuyoku Naritai also discussed the concept of the 'decline of the generations'.¹

The post² states:

In Orthodox Judaism there is a saying: “The previous generation [sic] is to the next one [sic] as angels are to men; the next generation [sic] is to the previous one [sic] as donkeys are to men.” This follows from the Orthodox Jewish belief that all Judaic law was given to Moses by God at Mount Sinai. After all, it’s not as if you could do an experiment to gain new halachic knowledge; the only way you can know is if someone tells you (who heard it from someone else, who heard it from God). Since there is no new source of information; it can only be degraded in transmission from generation to generation.

The sages of the Talmud explain that the earlier generations had a much better understanding of the Torah, but as time goes on, we understand less and less. Therefore a sage of a later period cannot contest the legal rulings of a sage of an earlier period.

When I was first exposed to the angels-and-donkeys proverb in (religious) elementary school, I was not old enough to be a full-blown atheist, but I still thought to myself: “Torah loses knowledge in every generation. Science gains knowledge with every generation. No matter where they started out, sooner or later science must surpass Torah.”

In reply:

The supposed citation is inaccurate. The actual quote is from the Talmud, which says:

Rabbi Zeira said [that] Raba Bar Zimuna said, "If the first [ones] are children of angels, we are people, and if the first ones were people, we are donkeys”.³

There is not only one generation between the human beings and the donkeys (or between the children of angels and the human beings), as his mistaken version says. Were that true, it would speed up the decline of the generations to a horrifying extreme, but it is a misquote! The space between the “earlier ones” being referred to, and the “us” being referred to (i.e. the sages of the Talmud who were saying this) was not one generation, but many hundreds of years! They were referring to people in an earlier period of history, not one generation earlier. So let’s get our quotes straight.

---

Secondly, this (much smaller) decline cannot cause science to surpass Torah, for two reasons. Firstly, the process of decline is temporary. It was never meant to continue limitlessly, and stops with the end of days. At that time all the lost Torah Knowledge will return with interest attached. The loss of Torah knowledge was not simply a natural consequence of time, as the post said. 

It was actually one of the curses of the exile and destruction of the temple, as the prophet Isaiah prophesied “and the wisdom of its wise will be lost”,⁴ which the sages said was referring to Torah knowledge.⁵ And so just as the exile itself is not forever and the Jewish People return to their land, so the loss of Torah knowledge is not forever, and it, too, returns to the Jewish People. In fact, the mystics teach that just as there is an exile of the Jewish People, so there is an exile of Torah.⁶

According to the signs given by the Talmud, that era is very, very close.⁷

Secondly, the decline is only in certain areas of Torah. In other areas there is actually an upward trend, as I will soon explain. First, however, I would like to explain how the latter generations are like donkeys, adapted from a teaching of the Sfas Emes.

The Sfas Emes teaches that every generation has a specific job to do to purify this world.⁸ The earlier generations were much more spiritually gifted, and their job was to purify the more spiritual aspects of this world, using a more refined spiritual perception.

The later generations are much more materially inclined, steeped in the physical, and their job is to purify the physical aspects of this world.⁹ So it’s true that there is a spiritual decline in the generations, but each generation has a very important job to do.

And now back to why science cannot surpass Torah. Firstly, as I explained in an earlier post, science and Torah are not in the same dimension. One deals with physical reality, and the other with spiritual reality, albeit as reflected in the physical world. They are not in competition, just as math cannot surpass music.

For those of you who may still have trouble comprehending this, I will try to explain it with an allegory. A high school student went on a long trip with his class. He and his friends brought along a huge supply of water for the trip since the water on the way would not be good drinking water. As the trip continued, the counselors kept handing out more and more cakes and cookies, but the water supply kept dwindling.

Would it make sense to say, “Well, there are always more cakes, but there is less and less water, so I’ll throw out my water supply and concentrate on piling up cakes instead?” Of course not. You must have water, and no matter how many cakes you get, that will never make up for the water you need. So don’t throw out your water!

Just as water is essential for the life of the body, so Torah is essential for the soul. A soul without Torah is like a body without water. No matter how many “goodies” one can attain through science, it will never make up for the needs of the soul. You must have water to live and you must have “water” for your soul to live. Science cannot substitute for Torah because science cannot water your soul.

Secondly, as already mentioned, the decline of Torah knowledge in latter generations applies only to certain aspects of Torah and not to others. Let’s explain this more.

The Torah has basically two aspects to it: the revealed Torah, which refers basically to halachic knowledge, but also includes the simple meaning of the Tanach (Bible), and the Talmud. Here is where there was a decline.

But there is also another aspect of Torah; the hidden Torah, also known as the inner Torah. While halacha and the grounded explanations are called the ‘body’ of the Torah, the mystical teachings are called the ‘soul’ of the Torah. These teachings give us great new Torah insight.

To give one example, the inner Torah speaks about reincarnation. This is taught in the Zohar, the teachings of the Ari z”l and many, many teachings afterwards. It is taught in chassidus, the teachings of the Vilna Gaon, in the commentary of the Ohr HaChaim and believed by virtually all Sephardim (with the exception of the Yemenites, who do not accept kabbalah). It is even brought in the famous work called Shmiras Halashon, on guarding one’s tongue by the Chofetz Chaim. This book was written for the average religious reader, not necessarily a scholar, and was accepted by orthodox Jewry as a classic.

Reincarnation is but one example. When one reads chassidus and other mystically inclined sources, one sees that we now have much greater insights into the teachings of the Torah (on the mystical level) than the earlier generations did. Consequently there are many questions on Torah that we know the answers to and previous generations did not, but they are not questions of halacha.

The reason that we know more is because as we draw closer to the end of days the “new Torah” spoken about in Jeremiah¹⁰ and in the Medrash,¹¹ which is the new mystical level of Torah, becomes more and more revealed. (For more on this subject please see my book, The Moon’s Lost Light, under the heading “Torah Chadasha”.)  

This outpouring of mystical knowledge, together with scientific knowledge, was predicted in the Zohar.¹² The Zohar says that in the year 600 of the sixth millennia (which corresponds with 1840 in the secular counting) the gates of wisdom from above and the streams of wisdom from below will be opened and the world will be flooded with wisdom (see footnote). The gates of wisdom from ‘above’ are the heavenly, i.e., mystical teachings. The streams of wisdom from ‘below’ are the earthly teachings, mainly science and technology. And so, today, the world is flooded with knowledge, and that knowledge is constantly growing as we progress towards the end of days.

But whether this is a good flood or a bad flood depends on us. If we use the flood of knowledge properly, studying the esoteric teachings with holiness and awe of G-d, and studying the earthly wisdoms with respect and thanks to G-d who created them, then it is a very good flood leading to the redemption of the world. But if we cut off knowledge from its Creator and use it only for self-gratification and arrogance in our own abilities and wisdom, then it will turn into a flood like Noah’s flood, a flood which destroys the world.

The future is up to us.

1. Hebrew, ירידת הדורות, “yeridas hadoros”

2. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DoLQN5ryZ9XkZjq5h/tsuyoku-naritai-i-want-to-become-stronger

3. Tractate Shabbos 112b

4. Isaiah 29:14

5. Tractate Shabbos 138b

6. So long as the temple stood it seems that the loss of Torah was not an ongoing process, because G-d arranged that the lost Torah would return.   Apparently when the people went to the temple on the three festivals, the Torah they forgot was returned to them. The verse says, “all your males will be seen” which can also be read as all your remembering will be seen.  The Hebrew word for male (zachar) is virtually the same as the Hebrew word for remember (zachor). It logically follows that this signifies that the men going to the temple would remember their forgotten Torah.  (As to why only males were obligated, see my book, The Moon’s Lost Light.)

Furthermore, when we pray for the rebuilding of the temple at the end of the amidah prayer (the main prayer said while standing) we add immediately “and give our portion in your Torah” as if rebuilding the temple and giving us our share in Torah were one thing, showing that the temple and our share in Torah are intrinsically connected. Without the temple, we do not have our full share in Torah. But the temple will be rebuilt and we will once again have all our Torah.

7. The Sages said “You have no more revealed end than this, when the land will give forth its fruit. (Tractate Sanhedrin 98a).

8. Sfas Emes, Vayakhel 5646

9. A donkey in Hebrew is “chamor” which is from the root “chomer”, material. And of course, a human being is much more material than an angel.

10. Jeremiah 31:3

11. Vayikra rabba 13:3

12. Zohar Vayera p. 117