Editor's note: The basis for this article is a shiur given by Rabbi Yitzy Radner of Yeshiva university
For centuries, there has been a fiercely debated topic amongst the leaders of the Jewish community and the leading scholars of the non-Jewish world. From the sages of the Gemara vs. the scientists of that time to the leaders of our generation vs. modern-day archeologists, Torah and science have long been contradictory topics. When trying to discern who is correct, one must first understand what each of their perspectives is based upon.
What is science’s perspective on problem-solving? To figure out the application of a word, one must first understand the meaning of the word. The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge. Science bases itself on what humans perceive and know. When trying to understand how humans function or how the world orbits, science turns towards what we can understand. Science only believes that which can be seen.
The Torah perspective on many of these issues is rooted in Emunah, faith. Emunah is antithetical to the function of science. Emunah is the understanding of our limitations and the recognition of Hashem’s supreme control. Emunah dictates that when we do not understand something, it doesn’t mean it is nonexistent.
One can comprehend the aforementioned idea in terms of the following parable. Yaakov’s mother, Rivka, travels to a foreign country and stays there for the rest of her life (for the sake of the parable). Yaakov knows his mother and knows where she is. However, when Yaakov has a son named Reuven, the only reason Reuven knows that he has a grandmother named Rivka, is because his father told him. He doesn’t know her and has never seen her before, yet he believes she exists because of what his father told him. Similarly, science dictates that anything that cannot be perceived by the world at large is nonexistent. Despite being told by an eyewitness, if humanity can’t prove it, it never happened. On the contrary, Emunah dictates that we rely on what the previous generation has taught us. We place ourselves in something much larger than humanity.
With the above background, one can now fully understand a portion of the Sefer Ha’Ikarim related to Parashat Lech Lecha. The Sefer Ha’Ikarim explains that non-Jewish philosophers and scientists are missing an aspect of Ruchniyut that the Jewish sages and Nevi’im have. Non-Jewish scientists are stuck in the realm of human knowledge. However, Jewish Nevi’im and sages can break through the realm of human knowledge and, through the study of the Torah, achieve a connection to Hashem and to a power beyond this world. For this reason, Nevi’im, like Elisha, are able to perform acts that defy nature. Since nature is how scientists understand the world and no being can change it, having a miracle performed for them is unfathomable. When one realizes that nature is just the rules that Hashem set up and these rules can be changed at any moment, he/she is no longer restricted by those rules.
Although we may not be Nevi’im, we can still see the above principle in action all around us. One story to illustrate this is an occurrence told over by Rabbi Noiky Roberts. Rabbi Roberts had a congregant that, for over fifteen years, could not have children. Doctors from all around the world were giving up on them left and right. They felt hopeless. However, they never stopped connecting themselves to a power beyond this world and they continued to daven year after year. One Yom Kippur, the brother of the childless man had a vision. He saw himself going up to the ark and pulling out a precious child. He then turns around and hands the child to his desperate brother. That year the infertile couple had a child. When one connects himself/herself to the inexplicable, anything can happen.
When finding a precedent for this concept, Avraham Avinu immediately comes to mind. As a man who discovered God and realized there is so much more to this world than what we can understand, the inexplicable happened to him: he survived a furnace, beat multiple kings in a battle, and had a child when he was one hundred years old. For good reason, the Torah says “V’He’emin Ba’Hashem Va’Yechshev Lo Tzedaka,” “And because he put his trust in the LORD, He reckoned it to his merit” (Genesis 15:6). With Hashem’s help, we should all be able to follow the precious path Avraham Avinu lays out for us in this week’s Parasha.