By Ilya Magid

About the Best Book

1. Torah
2. Rosh Hashanah
2. Karachs Rebellion
3. Scientific Systems

Editors: Steven Siegel and Sandy Novack

ABOUT THE BEST BOOK

1. Torah


My favorite book is the Torah. For me it proves the existence of G-d.

Investigators discovered in the Torah the secret codes by which you can read about events that happened after biblical times and that also prove divine beginning of the Torah.

The Book has many levels to it.

After a first reading one does not understand very much. He has to read the Torah many times. If you read the Torah in conjunction with interpretations by the sages, that will be the next level. The sages used also the knowledge of the oral Torah (it included Talmud) and knowledge of all Torah. They had the interpretations of the early sages.

The interpreters' Torah explained the Torah for different kinds of Jews.

2. Rosh HaShana

Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year) is celebrated on the first and second day of the Hebrew month of Tishrey (which coincides with September or October). It is a solemn holiday that is ushered in a period of ten days of penitence and prayer. Rosh Hashanah does not permit during Work.

We commemorated the 6th day of creation, when G-d created man. The following events were on that day:

          2:7 The Lord G-d formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into                  his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
          2:8 The Lord G-d planted a garden in Eden and placed there man                  whom he had formed.
          2:9 And from the ground the Lord G-d caused to grew every tree that                  was pleasing to the sight and good for food......and the tree of                  knowledge 'of good and bad.'
          2:15 The Lord G-d took the man and placed him in the Garden of                     Eden, to till it and tend it.
          2:16 And the Lord G-d commanded the man, sayings, "Of every tree                   of the garden you are free to eat;
          2:17 but as for the tree of knowledge 'of good and bad' you must not                    eat of it, for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die."
          2:19 Lord G-d formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the                    birds of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he                    would call them; and whatever the man called each living                    creature, that would be its name. (Giving the names of beasts                    and birds is classification, which is a scientific job.)

At that time Adam was a good investigator, good scientist. He could answer questions, of 'truth and falsehood.' He could make, as a scientist, quantitative estimates.

Knowledge about 'good and bad' is a moral judgment. They don't come from natural laws. A moral estimate can be made only by G-d. That can't possibly do logical.

Moral estimates are a)Obey G-d, b)Don't kill, etc.

Maybe Hashem would give Adam understanding of moral judgment later, but he did not want to wait.

When Adam ate fruit of the tree 'of knowledge of good and bad' G-d excommunicated him from the Garden of Eden and G-d said:

          3:16 women, " I will make most severe; your pangs in childbearing; in                    pain shall you bear children..."
          3:17 Adam," If you eat of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You                    shall not eat of it', cursed be the ground because of you; by toil                    shall you eat of it, all the days of your life."

Adam shall die, but G-d evinced mercy.

Right now on Rosh Hashanah we beg Hashem not to judge strictly on law, but evince graciousness as to Adam.

3. Korachs Rebellion

I like the book by Rabbi Soloveitchik Community of Testament. I like the explanation about the insurrection of Korach.

I try to connect events of Korach's rebellion with the Soviet Revolution.

The Torah is portraying those events by some sentences. Rabbi Soloveitchik utilized the oral Torah, other interpreters showed the ideological underground of the insurrection.

Korach's rebellion was directed against the leadership of Moshe. That was not a spontaneous action by the Jews, connected with the extreme heartless in the wilderness. Korach and his followers made preparation to rebel for a very long time.

Korach was a cousin of Moshe and Aaron. Grudge played a big role as a reason for the rebellion.

[The leader of the Soviet Revolution, Lenin, hated the czar who hanged his brother Alexander for trying to kill Czar Alexander II. Lenin created no legal party for destroying the Czar and his government.]

Korach waited until the authority of Moshe collapsed. He decided he could act after the case with the scouts when G-d punished the Jews who had to roam in the desert 40 years.

[Lenin waited, as the czar's power declined from the effect of World War I]
From Numbers 16:3] "They (followers of Korach) combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?"

The question implies the challenge: If G-d is in our midst, then whoever is leading us will have His support. Or, if you are going further (though this is not expressed), if we are all holy, what need is there for someone like Moses to instruct us, or why is there a need for law to make us holy? Since the people are holy, commandments from without are not necessary.
[It is a known Lenin's phrase, "Each cook can rule the state".]

The prophets explained to us, their entire community is holy, but there is also individual choice.

Korach tried to prove that the Torah is not G-d, but it was the job of Moshe. Korach placed a blue 'tallit' on his 250 students. They went to Moshe and asked him, "Is it necessary to attach that 'talit' with 'tzitzis' (blue thread)"? Moshe answered, "Yes, it is, the law requires it". Korach told his people, "The blue 'tallit' requires the 'tzitzis' to be placed on the corner and only then can you wear it?"

After that he asked Moshe "Is it necessary to nail a 'mezuzah' on the room having the Torah?" Moshe answered, "Yes, it is, the law requires it."

Despite Moshe and Aron, Korach spoke against the strict observance of the commandments. He sought out contradictions there and indoctrination of the Jews against Moshe. Moshe insisted on strict observance of the commandments.

There was a rebellion in the end.

At that time Hashem was down. He knew all. Korach applied demagogy. G-d punished Korach and his company by death.

[The Soviet slogan, "Freedom will be for the people. Plants will belong to the workers, the land will belong to the peasants, G-d is absent; Religion is opium for people." We knew what we received. Hashem punished the Soviet Union after 70 years.]

Halakha is based not only in common sense, but also on its own methodology, analytic system and concept.

Rabbi Soloveithik connected that with the current development of science, 'visible is not always right'. The commandments are necessary to follow all the time even if they are not understood.


4. Scientific System
Scientists construct mathematical theories from facts to go up from reality (nature) to the heavens. But nature is more complicated than mathematical theory described it. I say some words about the scientific system.

Rabbi Soloveichik explained to us, using an analogy with science, "Physics of Aristotle became imperfect because it went by common sense. It explained that subjects fall apart, because they were heavy (Subjects, having more weight fell more quickly.) Galileo and Newton changed that conception. They developed the theory of gravitation. One consequence was that all subjects fell alike.

James Clark Maxwell developed the mathematical theory of Electromagnetic waves. (Visible light is a small part of the Electromagnetic spectrum.) It has a significant application: TV, Radio, etc. To represent the nature of waves is very hard. Further, scientists discovered the corpuscle's nature of waves (photo effect). Max Plank connected the size of the corpuscles with wavelengths.

Louis de Broglie indicated that those material particles have wave nature. A noticeable effect is observed only for small particles.

Uniting this concept, Werner Heisenberg created the new Quantum Mechanics Theory from which follows an uncertain principle. (We can not know at the same moment the speed and location of a particle.) This theory is used for the explanation of atomic processes. That is only a mathematical theory. The nature of objects is not clear.

It is known, that the nucleus of the atom consists of protons and neutrons (protons are similar to neutrons but they have electric charge).

Physics ascertained that protons consisted of more small particles-quarks. They bound in the nuclei of the atom strong and weak nuclear interactions. About quarks we can see them only with the help of logical deduction based on immensely complicated theories and the use of the big accelerator atom-smashes. The atom-smashes accelerate small particles to a high speed and throw them together. As a result they detonate and pass into clean energy (the same effect takes place in the atomic bomb) which created new particles.

The process of explosion and fission may reveal the desired particles-quarks. Free quarks can exist only a short time. Quarks can be seen with their trail. The trail continued after them. (The process was depicted in special camera. The trail of particles is similar to the trail, which is continuous after the jet propulsion of an air plane).

The trail consisted of transitional particles, which also live a very short while. Dates about those particles were forced into powerful computers. Only after that, physics became known, and would appear in particle accelerators. There was a theory 'Standard model of quarks'. From that theory, there followed, that those quarks appeared only in pairs. Each pair formed a certain type of proton. As a result of great effort in 1977, physics discovered five quarks. It is necessary to find the sixth quark.

There were years of search and disappointment. Maybe the theory was erroneous. In the year 1990 physics had suspected maybe the power of the particle accelerators was not deficient. There were more powered particle accelerators in Fermi's laboratory in Chicago. The weight was 5 tons, height three floors. All the world scientists united. They created a group of 400 people from many investigating institutes.

A complicated network of giant laboratory computers did tremendous work. The particle accelerator registered trillions of encounters, which generated different particles. After the primary selection there remained more then 10 million encounters, which would be the connection with quarks. The computer checked thick and fast tracks and from the result they made a report. The sixth quark was discovered after 17 years of research.

The mass of the sixth quark, which is a builder of the material of the proton, exceeded the mass of the proton by 60 times. Scientists recognized that the theory of building matter did not end. It required additional work.

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