As you may have heard, a there is a report that a reputable group of physicists believe they have seen evidence that neutrinos in their experiment traveled faster than light. If this turns out to be true, physics would need to be rewritten. It doesn't mean your car is going to work any differently, or baseballs will fly differently. What is does mean, however, is that we may have to toss out the Big Bang theory, all age of the universe calculations, much (if not all) of particle physics. Now you are really unimpressed, right? So it means physicists will stop working on one set of esoteric nonsense and start working on a new set of esoteric nonsense. Yes and no.
The first gate of Chovos haLevavos demonstrates how the Torah view is not inconsistent with the Aristotelian view of the world. Almost no one learns that gate any more, because the Aristotelian view has been long abandoned. Galileo did some seminal experiments and Newton did a lot of the theoretical work to herald a new generation of physics. A few hundred years after that, Michelson and Morley did some important experiments and Einstein did a lot of theoretical work to herald in the current era of physics (yes, I am glossing over a lot of detail). In no instance have balls started bouncing differently nor wheels turned differently. What did happen was that people started looking at he world differently. It is not by accident that the Industrial Revolution came after Newton (and a lot of others) or that the Computer Age came after Einstein (and a lot of others). The changes in physics trickled required a new world outlook, and that brought about big changes in our lives; not that the world changed, but our view of the world changed.
I think that should be our "take away". The Torah gives us a view, if fact The True View, of reality. Learning Torah, whether halacha, gemara, or mussar, imbues us with the Torah view. Each step we take in deepening our understanding and appreciation of that view has the power to bring about a revolution in our internal selves that is no less powerful than the changes in our external environment that have been brought about by Newton and Einstein. In two days we will hear the shofar and declare, "Today the World has been born." That world is us.
The first gate of Chovos haLevavos demonstrates how the Torah view is not inconsistent with the Aristotelian view of the world. Almost no one learns that gate any more, because the Aristotelian view has been long abandoned. Galileo did some seminal experiments and Newton did a lot of the theoretical work to herald a new generation of physics. A few hundred years after that, Michelson and Morley did some important experiments and Einstein did a lot of theoretical work to herald in the current era of physics (yes, I am glossing over a lot of detail). In no instance have balls started bouncing differently nor wheels turned differently. What did happen was that people started looking at he world differently. It is not by accident that the Industrial Revolution came after Newton (and a lot of others) or that the Computer Age came after Einstein (and a lot of others). The changes in physics trickled required a new world outlook, and that brought about big changes in our lives; not that the world changed, but our view of the world changed.
I think that should be our "take away". The Torah gives us a view, if fact The True View, of reality. Learning Torah, whether halacha, gemara, or mussar, imbues us with the Torah view. Each step we take in deepening our understanding and appreciation of that view has the power to bring about a revolution in our internal selves that is no less powerful than the changes in our external environment that have been brought about by Newton and Einstein. In two days we will hear the shofar and declare, "Today the World has been born." That world is us.
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