Torah & Evolution
How does the Torah reconcile itself with evolution? Join Rabbi Dr. Stuart Fischman as he explores this fascinating topic through traditional sources.
Torah & Evolution: Torah & Evolution
“Evolution” is one of the most emotionally charged words in the Jewish community. When asked, some people will assert that “of course no believing Jew can believe in evolution!” On the other hand some people will say with equal vehemence that any Jew who denies the reality of evolution belongs in Afghanistan.
When I was asked to give three talks on the subject of “Torah and Evolution” I was reluctant to agree. I think that the word “evolution” is misunderstood and it is used to score polemical points and I disagree with both of the sides who discuss “evolution” with more emotion than informed opinion.
So in these three sessions I hope to explain “evolution” calmly and inoffensively.
What helped to plan these sessions is the memory of a great scholar who passed away this week. Rabbi Dr Moshe Tendler zt”l guided hundreds and perhaps thousands of students in Yeshiva University. Rabbi Dr Tendler both as a Rosh Yeshiva and as professor of Biology showed by personal example how the Torah and objective fact-based science can not only co-exist but, yes, enrich each other.
Torah & Evolution: Torah & Evolution
In today’s class we will discuss Darwinian evolution and the responses of Rav Kook zt”l and the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l to questions raised by this theory.
Torah & Evolution: Torah & Evolution
in our first two sessions we discussed the challenge of reconciling modern ideas on the evolution of living creatures with the Torah’s presentation of how life on earth came to be.
Today we will discuss one approach to reconciling physicist’s findings on the apparent age of the universe with the Torah’s description of how the universe came to be.
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Fischman graduated from Yeshiva University in 1980 and the dental school of Columbia University in 1985. In 1989 he began studying and teaching at Yeshivat Hamivtar and now studies and teaches at Yeshivat Machanaim in Efrat. He has rabbinic ordination from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.