I'm way too far behind with what we did, but by far the most interesting thing since Hebron has been Shabbat a couple days nights ago. Two speakers came in, one was a former karate black belt/promising rap phenom/secular guy who converted to Orthodox Judaism (yawn) and the other was a Harvard educated lawyer who promised a logical argument in favor of Orthodox Judaism. His talk went for an hour or so, from 11 to 12, and I dozed during parts of it because we were all exhausted. He hung around afterwards answering questions and it turned into an intense 4 hour discussion in this other guy's kitchen who was hosting the Shabbaton. Since it was Shabbat, the lights were programmed to shut off at 1 am, so we kept talking for 3 more hours until 4 am in the dark. I'm going to outline his argument here, because if it was interesting enough to keep me from bed after being completely exhausted, it should be interesting enough for you (it's pretty intense stuff, this guy's a genius, so don't be scared off):
Evidence in support of g-d
-Einstein proved that time is directly tied to matter and space. Space, time, and matter are all physical properties and therefore, by definition, finite.
-We can trace any finite thing to its limit.
---Spatially, the known universe has limits. The universe is expanding, so space is expanding, but space is not infinite.
---Time wise, the known universe has limits. We know this from the third law of thermodynamics: that temperatures will eventually reach an equilibrium. For example, if you put a cup of hot coffee in a room, and come back in 10 years, the cup of coffee will be room temperature. If you look at the universe like a giant room, and our sun as a cup of coffee, it's evident that the universe hasn't been around forever, because if it was, the sun would be at "room temperature". In other words, it wouldn't be giving off massive amounts of heat in an otherwise frigidly cold universe. The concept of a starting point for the universe isn't anything that revolutionary, its accepted among most scientists as the Big Bang. Thus, time has limits because time hasn't always existed.
---Finally, matter has limits. If you trace any physical object back in time to see where it came from, this will become apparent. Look at a tree. Where did the tree come from? From a seed of another tree. Where did that seed come from? From the other tree. Where did that tree come from? Ask this question enough times and you'll realize there has to be a first tree. You can break this down even further by asking where tiny particles of matter come from. Atoms haven't been around forever. They started with the big bang. So, since matter hasn't been around forever, matter has limits.
-This brings us to the logical point that if you trace finite things back far enough, you encounter a breaking point. At some point. space time and matter must have been created. Something came from nothing. Even Einstein, a devout atheist, acknowledged this fact before he died. This isn't saying anything about g-d, only the fact that it is logical to believe in a creator who started everything. Just ask the question: Who started the big bang? The act of creating something from nothing is, for these purposes, g-d. Nothing more.
Evidence in support of the Jewish interpretation of g-d, or the Torah:
This is what I was most interested in. It doesn't take much to believe in g-d, or acknowledge the possibility that some far-off creator once jump-started the universe. It's not really going to change your life. But if we start believing in the Jewish interpretation of g-d, then that has implications in virtually every facet of your life. If you believe in a literal intepretation of the Torah, it's time to start wearing tzit-tzit, a kippah, davin'ing 3 times a day, keeping Shabbat, and about 600+ other commandments. It will change your entire life.
There are a few main reasons why it's logical to believe the Torah came from G-d:
-Mount Sinai. This is the single biggest piece of evidence. In the Torah, it says that g-d revealed himself to 3 million Jews at Mount Sinai. No other religion in the world makes a claim so bold. The Torah says that g-d talked directly to 3 million jews. Christianity, on the other hand, claims that g-d showed himself directly to one person, Jesus, and that one apostle knew this, and that everyone else is taking the apostle's word. Islam teaches also that g-d revealed himself to one person, Mohammed, and that everyone else is taking Mohammed's word. Mormonism: Joseph Smith was the only one who heard g-d, and everyone else took his word. No other religion states that 3 million people were spoken to directly by g-d.
This is a huge deal. We have two options about the Torah: either it was written by man, or it was written by G-d. If it was written by man, we have to explain how man could get away with a lie that big. Way back when, if a guy writes the Torah with that piece about the 3 million people in it, and he goes around showing it to people, what are they gonna do? They're gonna ask: where are these 3 million people? Sure, maybe he could get a few people to play along and vouch that g-d actually did speak to them at Sinai. But 3 million??? It's virtually impossible. Not only did all 3 million people agree that g-d spoke directly to them, they all describe the exact same experience. You can find old Torah scrolls all over the world. They are all identical. Bibles have thousands of different versions. There is only one Torah.
So maybe this man who wrote the Torah didn't actually find 3 million people to go along with his lie. It'd be pretty preposterous, and you'd have to think there'd be some shred of historical inaccuracy somewhere along the line. At some point, you'd think just ONE of the 3 million would come clean and admit that they were lying, and then that would be a huge deal because it'd undermine the entire religion. There is no historical shred of evidence about this. All 3 million people actually believed they were spoken to by g-d, directly.
What if there weren't 3 million people? What if this guy just buried the Torah somewhere, and it surfaced years later, and by then everyone figured the 3 million people must have died off? That's definitely possible. But to the society where the Torah was introduced, why would they have any reason to believe it if there's no trace of the 3 million Jews? The 3 million Jews told their kids, and they told their kids, and they told their kids, and this is how Judaism survives: through the oral tradition of the Torah. But if there were no 3 million people, then how did this oral tradition ever begin? Just think about it. This "lie" has never been repeated throughout history. No other religion or cult has been able to pull of the claim that 3 million people were spoken to by g-d. Not one. If it was possible to make up, other people would have done it. Try a thought experiment. Try pulling this off yourself.
Just think: how could you go around convincing people that 3 million people were talked to directly by g-d? You can get people to go along with the lie... but could you really get 3 million people to do it, down to the letter, with no trace of inconsistency or indication that they were lying? Or, if you are going to go the route of saying that the 3 million people already died.. how do you get this lie introduced into society? How do you explain the virtual disappearnace of all 3 million people - and all their ancestors?
The truth is, there are ancestors to the 3 million. They're the Jewish people.
I probably completely butchered the discussion: we were all really sleep-deprived, and it happened a few days ago. But I'm still thinking about it and I'm pretty sure I got all the big points down. There are entire classes about why the Torah is logically not written by man, such as the fact that there are commandments which would be counterproductive to a people's survival (telling all able bodied males to come to Israel 10 days a year, leaving all the women and children defenseless), prophecies, and things that no man back then would have been able to know (like the idea that there was once one Pangaea that split into 7 continents and one imposter - the imposter being the North Pole, which is all ice). But the single biggest proof, the one thing that separates Judaism from every other religion, the biggest claim in the history of the world that nobody has ever been able to duplicate, was:
3 Million Jews claimed to be spoken to directly by G-d at Mount Sinai.
This Harvard educated lawyer, Rabbi Windel (spelling probably wrong), said that the goal isn't to convert people. I'm not converted (yet?). The goal is to simply provide the evidence and let people reach their own conclusions. What he has to say was definitely thought-provoking and I just thought I'd share a tiny sample of what we've been learning about. It's really cool stuff.
I'm sitting in a park outside Ohr Sameach, where I just moved in, and all these kids keep running up to look at my Macbook. I don't speak Hebrew though so I can't really say anything to them. For the next 2 weeks I'll be at Ohr Sameach, a yeshivah (Jewish school), but I'm taking very few classes so I'll have a ton of free time to explore the city and hang out on Ben Yahuda street. Everyone on Hamerkaz is leaving later today, which will kinda suck, but my friend Max who's a Free Mason will still be around so maybe I'll finally get to become a Free Mason during these 2 weeks free, and then I'll be awesome like those guys in the Lost Symbol.
I hope this was interesting, it took me a long time to type out and I really have to do laundry.
-Dan
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