Truth Through a Telescope

By Emily Green
KOACH West Coast Fieldworker

If you look out into space with a really powerful telescope, you will see planets, stars, other galaxies. And at the edge of it all, at the furthest point you can possibly see, a light flickers. This light is no ordinary light; it’s not the light of a sun or a star, it’s not the ambient light of a galaxy, but it is the light, the energy source of The Beginning.

Last year, sitting in astronomy, my final physical science requirement of my college career, I learned that if you look deep enough into space you can see the past, literally. You can see the light that was created from the start of the universe and everything that has happened on earth exists within that light. Now, of course my astronomy professor didn’t exactly speak of this phenomenon so poetically, but when he spoke, I heard a spiritual poem that spoke to my innermost thoughts about God and Torah.

I started daydreaming about all that we could see if we only had the technology to travel those distances; we could actually see the Garden of Eden, we could watch the Flood, we could see Moses take us from slavery and watch the Sea of Reeds split. We could look at the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple) when it stood in all its glory and we could cry as we watched its destruction. But, like I said, there is no technology great enough to bring us to these places in space.

Part of me is disappointed that we can’t travel that distance, and find Truth. But the other part of me is jumping for joy. See, growing up, I used to believe every story from the Torah and midrash as if it were historical fact. That’s how they taught it in school, so that is how I believed. But as I studied astronomy and Torah I faced a scary question — if someone were to have the technology to prove that Abraham didn’t really smash the idols, would my faith in turn be smashed? If someone were to be able to look into that light and prove that there was no Flood, or that the Exodus was just a story, could I go on in my Judaism or would I instead drown in my disappointment?

Not wanting to let go of a tradition that has taken me far in my life and taught me countless lessons on life, family, love and respect, I searched for a new understanding. In studying both Torah, and Astronomy I saw new possibilities. Looking up at the stars and other galaxies I could comprehend the idea of Olam HaBa (the World to Come). I could see that all of those people who came before me were literally up in the heavens somewhere. Moreover, in Bereshit the Torah says that God created light on the first day. But on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Some rabbinic sources say that the first light is the light of Hesed (loving-kindness) others say it is the light of Creation. After seeing PowerPoint slides of the edge of the universe, I am sure that this light I saw is the light of Creation, the light the Torah speaks about.

But tension still exists, because we don’t know what happened from that light until now. To be honest, I’m not so sure it matters. After exploring the universe through astronomy I’m pretty sure that it took a lot longer than 24 hours for the sun, the moon, and the stars to be formed; but who said that "God-days" were counted like "human-days." Whether Creation took six days or 6 million years doesn’t concern me — what is relevant is that the Truth of it all is out there in our universe and that regardless of what actually happened, the Torah brings Truth to my life. Whether precise or metaphoric, whether scientific or spiritual, I find deep meaning and beauty in our tradition.

If someone were to tell me that we weren’t slaves in Egypt, it wouldn’t break my faith — we were slaves in Mitzrayim because Mitzrayim is "a narrow place" and in every generation we find ourselves enslaved in narrow places. And Torah is true, because it redeems us from those places, wherever they might be for each of us.

[Posted 3/29/06]