Bereshit: How Old Is The Universe?

Some of the most delightful Chasidic stories are centred around Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz (1760-1827) whose wit, it is said, could even make the heavenly angels laugh.

Once, he relates, his personal gabbai (assistant), Leizer, came to him downcast complaining of a quarrel he had with G-D. “What about?” asked Reb Naftali, incredulous. “Well,” continued Leizer “I quoted to G-D your favourite verse – you know, the one about a thousand years being like a moment in His eyes. Then I said: ‘if that is true, surely that means that a thousand rubles in Your eyes are like a single ruble. Ribono Shel Olam, would it trouble You in any way if You were to give me one of those rubles of yours?’”

“And” exclaimed Reb Naftali “what did G-D reply?”. “What did He reply?” echoed Leizer ruefully.  “He said ‘fine, Leizer, I’ll fix that – just wait one moment!’”

“A thousand years in Your sight is like a day!” (Psalms 90:4). In a much more serious vein – what light does that verse shed on the six days of Creation?

Bereshit bara Elokim et ha-shamayim ve-et ha-aretz are often the very first words a child learns in Chumash. At the same time, no part of the Torah contains greater profundity than the opening chapter of Genesis.

Ma’aseh bereshit, which Maimonides defines as “research into the beginning of creation” (Commentary on the Mishnah Chagiga 2:1) is an area of study which, he declares, is “not to be expounded in public … since not every person has the breadth of knowledge necessary to grasp the clear interpretation and explanation of these matters in a complete manner” (Yad, Hilkhot Yesodei haTorah 4:10, 4:11).

Similarly, in his philosophical magnum opus, Moreh Nevukhim (Guide to the Perplexed), Maimonides declares: “The account of Creation belongs to those matters which are sitrei Torah, mysteries of the Torah …not to be divulged”.

The implication is clear. When it comes to the six days of Creation, there is no place for simplistic dogmatism.

Dogmatic assertions can appear from many quarters. To state that the universe could not have been created in six days as we know them is as unacceptable as to state that the universe must have been created in six such days.

Many contemporary scholars and sages of eminence, not least the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneeersohn ztl. whose knowledge of science and advanced mathematics was unquestioned, had no problem with the idea of creation in six days.  In a letter “on science and Judaism” addressed in response to a student, the Rebbe writes: “…we can still readily accept the possibility that G-D created ready fossils, bones or skeletons (for reasons best known to Him) just as He could create ready living organisms, a complete man and such ready products as oil, coal and diamonds without any evolutionary process”.  Absolutely so.  (Moreover, as the Rebbe reminds his correspondent a few paragraphs later “the theory of evolution … has not a shred of evidence to support it. … Such a theory …has no place in the arsenal of empirical science”.)

Does this mean that a person who believes that a creation day may have been aeons is
a heretic?  Not at all!  My revered teacher Rabbi Dr. Eli Munk  ztl, founder of Munk’s Shul in north-west London catering to frum German immigrant Jews and an acclaimed Torah scholar, writes in his book The Seven Days of the Beginning: “The word yom in Genesis 1:5 (also 1:8 and 1:13) cannot indicate a period of time determined by the effect of the sun on the rotating earth” (because the sun, moon and stars were not created until the fourth Creation day). Rav Munk also quotes a Midrash that “after the sixth day (author’s italics) a new counting commenced … A similar view seems to be expressed by the interpretation of yom as a thousand years which would mean ‘an indefinite time’”.

We have returned to the verse in Psalms with which we began. When the Psalmist speaks of a Godly day being “a thousand years” he is referring to a vast period of time (maybe billions of years!).

Significantly, while the subsequent days of Creation end with the words “it was evening and it was morning the second day …the third day … the fourth day …the fifth day …the sixth day (yom sheni, yom shelishi, yom revi’i, yom chamishi, yom ha-shishi) the first Creation day concludes va-yehi erev va-yehi voker yom ekhad – “and it was evening and it was morning one day”. (Gen. 1:5).  Why is the cardinal, not the ordinal, number used here? Rashi provides us with an answer.  At this point G-D was alone in His world. Thus, yom ekhad denotes “the day of the One (G-D)”.  We are speaking here of a Godly day. As to the length of a Godly day, we have no way of measuring it!

So how old is the universe?  R’ Shimon Schwab, (1908-1995), heir to the teachings of R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch, arrives at an answer to which no-one need demur. The universe is – as of Rosh haShana just celebrated – 5,787 years old plus six Creation days.