The Rabbi’s Sermons on Democracy
Temple Beth Sholom, Hamden, Ct
#7 Different Ways of Watching - and Celebrating - a Solar Eclipse (8 April 2024)
An article written by a father (Rabbi) and son (Astrophysics Professor)
Rabbi Benjamin E. Scolnic, Temple Beth Sholom, Hamden, Ct.
Dr. Daniel M. Scolnic, Associate Professor of Physics, Duke University
On April 8, 2024, there will be a total solar eclipse with a path of totality covering a large swath of the United States. It is one of nature’s most spectacular events, and the next eclipse like this won’t happen for twenty years. Historically, eclipses have been seen as revelations, messages from the supernatural. They are critical pieces of stories in nearly every religion and culture; they have even stopped and started wars.
Today, the explanation for eclipses is rather simple. The orbital plane of the moon to the earth is 5 degrees off of the plane between the earth and the sun, so it is only with seeming rarity that the positions of the sun and moon align and the moon blocks out the light from the sun. Scientists can predict eclipses that will occur thousands of years in the future, and similarly, can explain what people saw thousands of years in the past.
A logical question comes to mind: what happens when a miracle can be explained by science? How does one discuss aspects of religion when they are actually predictable and understood? What happens when the supernatural is perfectly natural?
A trend in the scientific community over the last few decades has been to explain, with little sensitivity, that religion has things all wrong. Proudly, some scientists boast about ‘militant atheism’. Yet if the hope has been to convince the general public about the truths of science and the fallacies of religion, one would be hard-pressed to find evidence that this strategy has been a success. Today, only 57% of Americans think that science has had a mostly positive effect on society, the lowest it has been since first polls taken in 2016. Our country seems further than ever from trusting scientific experts. Only some presidential candidates say that they ‘believe in science’, a phrase deeply problematic in itself.
Perhaps it is time for a different plan, a new experiment. We do not need current scientific understanding of eclipses, evolution, or the Big Bang to contradict the primary texts of certain religions. Seeming contradictions can be found directly in the primary texts themselves. In Genesis 1, the order of creation includes plants, animals, and then Men and Women, made equally in the image of God. In Genesis 2, however, the order is Adam (a male), plants (the Garden in Eden), animals, and then Eve (a female). If the Bible wants to present an account of the order of creation, why would it give us two accounts with different sequences and diametrically opposite understandings of the relationships of males and females? Even if we postulate multiple Biblical authors, why would an editor give us texts that undermine each other?
A more appropriate reading of Gen. 1 and 2 is that these chapters are religious texts that are not supposed to be science or history. They teach religious lessons about how to be stewards of our planet and what the idea of equality might mean. Just as there are two different Creation accounts, there are different versions of just about every important text and event in the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, from why there was a Flood to the Ten Commandments. Are there texts that show warlike animosity between peoples? Yes, but there are texts that show us how to overcome our antagonisms and see ourselves as part of a human family. There is never just one worldview, because we need different perspectives at different points in history. We cannot be stuck in dogmatic positions when life is constantly changing. And if science definitively shows us more of what a believer should call God’s truth, we should be eager to learn all about it.
Yet science also has clear limits; it cannot tell us what happened before the Big Bang or what’s outside our universe. The religious idea that God created the universe can be taken to mean that there is meaning and purpose to our world and our lives. When a loved one dies, it is not very helpful to hear a scientific viewpoint that we are on a big rock, floating through space all by ourselves, and that randomness and death are all one can expect. Religion can offer people offers a path, deeply needed by many, through randomness. To many, religion offers hope.
The late Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish theologian, philosopher, and rabbi, understood this and offered us a path that combines religion and science. His idea was ‘radical amazement’. We should all be in awe at how the world works and do our best to understand everything that can be understood. We can bond[1] in our wonder about everything from the smallest scales of the universe to the largest. The texts of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, for all their differences, are consistent in their awe of our universe and our gratitude that we are here.
What does a path of radical amazement look like today? When something is within science’s boundaries, when science shows that its conclusion is provable and reproducible, religious adherents should accept these facts. However, the openness should go both ways. Scientists and atheists must also treat others with kindness and humility, recognizing that science itself cannot answer all we want to know about our place in the universe. If people can bond[2] over our common radical amazement, rather than be so militant in our atheism or our theism, maybe we can open up the space for understanding our place in this spectacular universe.
When we look at the eclipse on April 8th, what should we see? Should we recognize that the orbital plane of the moon has aligned with the sun? Or should we simply appreciate this rare and glorious sight? Perhaps both, and something symbolic as well: the eclipse will only last a few moments. We are here in the vastness of the universe for such a short amount of time. We must regain our radical amazement, and approach everything we see with a sense of wonder. And some appropriate humility.
#6 Turning Curses in Blessings - On the Power of Words (8 December 2024)
TURNING CURSES TO BLESSINGS: ON THE POWER OF WORDS
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There is a remarkable story about the power of words in the Book of Numbers 22-24. The Israelites have escaped from centuries of oppression in Egypt. Now they want to return to their homeland. A foreign king, Balak of Moab, hires a prophet/seer, Bilaam, to go up on a mountain and curse the Israelites. Once cursed with these words, the Israelites will be vulnerable to attack. This is how powerful words are taken to be. God, however, has other ideas, and when Bilaam tries to curse the Israelites, God makes blessings come out of his mouth. Curses are transformed into blessings.
All this sounds quaint at best to our modern ears, right? For us, words are merely words. Therefore, all speech should be free. In a controversy that is raging right now in the United States, very distinguished university presidents have stated that even the most hateful speech is acceptable unless and until it leads to violence. Otherwise, even calling for the death of other groups of people is acceptable discourse if taken ‘in context’. Words are just words.
Are they? Of course not. The Bible is right; words are events and are part of reality. Once spoken, they cannot be taken back. Not only do words have their own violence, and their own power, but we know there is a short continuum from violent words to physical violence. Hateful speech is not free. It could not be more expensive. It destroys peace.
By the way, why should we even be having this discussion? Why are people so consumed with hate for other groups that we must figure out where the lines are? And why, of all places, are universities the scene of such hatred? Isn’t the whole idea of diversity on campus that different people should learn not only from books but from each other?
Why is free speech being used for curses? The real job of the university is to teach its students about the power of words, so that words will once again be blessings for everyone.
#5 Equal is Equal
The Rabbi’s agitated thoughts on the attack on innocent Israelis these days and on the ongoing attack on human rights in America (13 October 2023).
Read here.
#4 How Much Damage Must Happen Before We Stand Up?
The Rabbi’s Sermon on ‘Own Goals and the Great Gatsby’ at Yom Kippur 5784 (25 September 2023)
Read here or stream on Youtube (at 2:44)
#3 This is What You Get When You Start Banning Books
The Rabbi’s Sermon on Bible Banning at Kol Nidre 5784 (24 September 2023)
Read here or stream on Youtube (at 1:01)
#2 Democratic Ideals in Early Israel
Hosted by Matthew Cobb & Kyle Erickson, University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter on 10 November 2022
The recording can be streamed on the Panopto Platform here.
#1 Let’s make a Deal, Or: Profiles in Courage
27 September 2022 (Rosh Hashanah 5783)
Do we have the strength to hold on to our dream, or are we OK to trade them for what is behind the curtain?