Torah and/or Quantum Physics

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard P. Feynman (American theoretical physicist 1918-1988)

This sounds pretty credible because an intelligent person said so. I also sound smart because I associate myself with the wisdom of an intelligent, theoretical physicist.

Now, if I quote the same thing from a “Rabbi” in the 1800s, why does it have an entirely different ring to it? And, this “Rabbi” adds much more expansively to the concept?

“Three things you must know to be an adult: • Don’t fool yourself. • Don’t fool others. • Don’t let others fool you. — and do it all without trying to impress anybody.” Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch (1860-1920) to his son before his bar mitzvah (1893).

The Godly wisdom implanted in our Torah and our Holy Traditions is eternal and accurate, even if we don’t get it, YET. Intelligent people know the Torah has always been way ahead of the societal science curve. Studying the Torah and practicing its dictates will always place a person in the best wisest places in their lives, long before “people” come to their senses.

The following is another example of the modern-day cutting-edge science in our Torah long before it was discovered in the Standard Model of particle physics, Quantum mechanics.

In Quantum mechanics, we discovered that light (essentially electromagnetic energy) travels in wave-like and particle forms. The crazy thing is that these two states seem to collapse at a certain point, and until then, the matter is in a superposition. (The idea is that a system is simultaneously in all possible states until it is measured. After measurement, it then falls to one of the basis states that form the superposition, thus destroying the original configuration). Erwin Schrodinger mused, “how can the cat be alive and dead at the same time?”

Another feature of Quantum Mechanics is super entanglement. When two particles, such as a pair of photons or electrons, become entangled, they remain connected even when separated by vast distances and what happens to one affects the other faster than the speed of light! Albert Einstein famously called this “spooky action at a distance.”

In the Torah there is a law where if a Husband suspects his wife of illicit behavior (and since the husband is entangled with his wife the rite only works to discover the innocence of the wife if the husband himself is not guilty of adultery) after she was warned to keep away from a certain individual, she becomes forbidden to her husband until she is tested with special water in which the name of God was placed.

During this time, she is not considered divorced and yet forbidden to her husband. She is in a superposition of both married and not married simultaneously. Once she is tested with the water and found innocent, at that time retroactively, even if her husband did cohabit with her during the unknown state, he is now considered innocent since we know now, she was innocent all along (the cat was always alive).

If she is found guilty, not only would she be punished, but at the “same instant,” the paramour who was also now super entangled in this situation will die in the same way she does, “wherever” he may be because of his behavior (back in time) which triggered this entire procedure.

The Torah also speaks of the laws of the Nazarite. (As a mature person, someone voluntarily takes upon themselves not to drink wine, touch dead bodies and let their hair grow.) Samson, the Judge, was inducted to this state of a Nazarite by the Angel and his mother before age 13! It was only when he reached the age of Maturity and willingly accepted this way of conduct we consider him to have been a bona fide Nazarite — from the time of birth.

In both scenarios, we see the Torah operational precisely by these most recent modern-day discoveries.

The Torah is operating and giving credence precisely to the principle of superposition. There are states where we must live and operate under the reality that it is both, and neither, simultaneously until the time, we will retroactively affect the past.

Entanglement with others, good or bad, retains the connection even when physically at great distances.

Rabbi MM Schneerson once told an attorney in a Private audience “Torah is not dependent on science but far higher .” 10 Shevat 5740 Rabbi David Weitman & Attorney.

“Torah and its commandments is our life and the length of our days, and in it, we will explore (spend our time) day and night,” even if it takes another hundred years for “scientists” to discover the benefits of its directives.