A Higgs theory, and Rabbi Luria’s Tsimtsum to Tikun Explains it All

The discovery of a boson like particle is evidence for Higgs’ mathematical theory that energy becomes matter due to a field that provides resistance to some massless particles; thus giving them the mass that allows them to bind together and form most sub-atomic particles, atoms and molecules, stars, planets and people, rather than whizzing around the universe at the speed of light. This produced the physically differentiated universe we live in.

Luria’s theory is that the energy of God’s explosive radiation of creation, when confined in material containers (vessels) shattered the vessels and produced the spiritually and morally differentiated and disharmonious fractured universe we live in.

How do these two theories that seem so far apart in space and time (Luria died in Safad, Israel on July 25, 1572) come together? They both start from the same observation. We live in an imperfect universe. But our universe exists only because of its imperfections. In fact, when people say “nothing is perfect,” they are literally correct. Nothingness–and only nothingness—or as Luria calls God; the Ayn Sof, the Limitless One, is perfect. Everything else is not.

We have strong astrophysical evidence from both the early and the recent late universe that there must be something called dark matter. This mysterious stuff dominates the matter content of the universe today and is crucial for structure formation that made human existence possible.

Consider the pre-creation and instant of creation universe: a state of pure, formless, undifferentiated, vacuum energy: featureless, uniform, pure. As K. C. Cole says: Perfection can actually be well-defined in physics by the idea of “perfect symmetry.” It means that no matter how you try to change something, it doesn’t make a difference. Look left, right, up or down, on a large scale or small, move fast or slow; it doesn’t make a difference.

This is the perfect nothing that existed when only God existed: a peaceful, unchanging, total unity: with no direction, no flaws—no growth, no piece of it different from the rest.

“We have, in our minds, a tendency to accept symmetry as some kind of perfection,” wrote the late Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman. But our universe is far from this perfect state of unity: Forces are different from particles; electrons are different from quarks; gravity is different from electricity, matter is different from antimatter, and each human being differs greatly and unpredictably from every other.

What shattered this primordial perfection? The Higgs field did it. The field theorized by Peter Higgs literally took this formless perfection and froze structure into it, the way freezing imparts crystalline structure to amorphous water. Water is perfectly symmetrical, but ice is not. Moving up is not the same as moving sideways. Freezing destroys the sameness.

The name of God’s pre-creation existence is Ein Sof (Hebrew: אֵין סוֹף) meaning endless in Kabbalah, and understood as the Holy One God (a singularity) before any self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm, was probably derived from Solomon ibn Gabirol’s (c.1021–c.1070) term, “the Endless One” (שֶׁאֵין לוֹ תִּקְלָה). Ein Sof may be translated as “unending one”, (Zohar, part 2, section “Bo”, 42b) It was first used by the Spanish Kabbalist Rabbi Azriel of Gerona (c. 1160 – c. 1238).

Then, when the Universe was about 380,000 years old, the first atoms of matter were formed. These were hydrogen atoms, the simplest element in the periodic table. These atoms of hydrogen collected into gas clouds and began to cool gradually and settle within the small clumps or “halos” of dark matter that emerged from the Big Bang. Dark matter neither reflects nor emits visible light, yet it makes up 85% of all matter in the Universe.

This cooling phase, known as the Cosmic dark ages (darkness on matter’s surface) lasted about 100 million years; the delay due to waiting for structure to form so that the gas (90% hydrogen plus 10% helium and little bit of heavier elements) can cool. Then the gas that had cooled inside the dark matter halos became gravitationally unstable, collapsing and coalescing, beginning the formation of the first stars — which became the very first galaxies ever formed.

With the formation of the first galaxies, the Universe burst into light (let there be light), bringing the cosmic dark ages to an end; and resulting in two different populations, like some of the recently discovered satellite galaxies orbiting our Milky Way galaxy.

The first was a very faint population consisting of the galaxies that formed during the “cosmic dark ages.” The second was a slightly brighter population consisting of galaxies that formed hundreds of millions of years later, once the hydrogen that had been ionized by the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by the first stars was able to cool within more massive dark matter halos.

The intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by the first galaxies destroyed the remaining hydrogen atoms by ionizing them into a plasma state, making it difficult for this gas to cool and form new stars. The process of galaxy formation ground to a halt and no new galaxies were able to form for the next billion years or so.

Eventually, the halos of dark matter became so massive that even ionized gas was able to cool. Galaxy formation resumed, culminating in the formation of spectacular bright galaxies like our own Milky Way (firmament distinguishing the upper/earlier firmament from the lower/later firmament). These findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal in August 2018.

Although much of this current cosmology fits in neatly with Genesis 1, especially with the addition of Isaac Luria’s insights of Tsimtsum and Tikun, the real issue is not how it all started (Tsimtsum); but how it all (human and extra-solar civilizations) is going to end in the Messianic Age (Tikun).

As the great German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig pointed out; when it comes to God’s creation we are totally passive creatures, i.e. nature is what it is. When it comes to God’s revelation we are somewhat active, but only as receivers, transmitters, commentators and enactors. But when it comes to God’s redemption of the Messianic world and its humanity, we are full partners, for God will not redeem us without our ongoing, free will participation.

Physicist Leon Lederman compares the way the Higgs operates to the biblical story of Babel. The citizens of the city of Babel, all spoke one language with few words, until God differentiated their speech. Like God, says Lederman, the Higgs differentiated the perfect sameness, confusing everyone (physicists included).This idea has wide-ranging implications. Normally, the Higgs is invoked only to explain how particles have different masses i.e. why a quark is heavier than an electron..

Cole thinks the Higgs’ field influence could reach much further. Something like the Higgs field, but not exactly the Higgs field itself, may be behind many other unexplained “broken symmetries” in the universe as well. For example, why is electricity so different from gravity? Why is our universe made of matter but not antimatter–even though the two should be created in precisely equal amounts? In Lurianic terms: Why do pious people sometimes sin? Why do some bad people repent when others do not? Why do good intentions not always lead to good results? Why does true love fail so often?

Luria says that the primordial shattering of the vessels left sparks of holiness embedded in all the material fragments (called husks) and that the purpose of all human beings, especially Jews, is to repair and mend the broken vessels, and help restore the wholeness and holiness of existence. Thus, the Higgs field is only a latter natural development of the Divine collapse of symmetry that led to the Big Bang, which created the universe.

Feynman wondered why the universe we live in was so obviously askew. “No one has any idea why,” or perhaps, he speculated, “total perfection would have been unacceptable to God who made the laws only nearly symmetrical so that we should not be jealous of his perfection.”

If Dr. Feynman only knew Rabbi Luria he would have known that jealousy is not the issue. Choice and growth, repentance and atonement, charity and love are the reasons for creation. God had to undergo Tsimtsum, a contraction in the Divine attributes, in order to create an imperfect universe; that would have creatures created in the Divine image that could grow morally and spiritually by fixing imperfections. Only when the perfection shatters can everything else be born.