3868 —טענות המדע על גיל העולם וחוסר ההוכחה שלהן

B"H, 10 M"Ch, 5716.

Brooklyn.

Havavac"h iy"a nu"n etc. Yisrael Tzvi HaLevi

Shalom u'Vrachah!

I was pleased with what you wrote in your previous letter about your outreach activities while in reserve duty. It is understood that your conclusion—that since you wrote to Eilat at my suggestion and did not receive a reply, you are exempt from continuing—is not correct at all. You must continue to write and send letters there, including suitable printed materials, with the main goal being to awaken their Jewish spark and bring it into revealed and inner expression, as explained in Chassidus.

Regarding your question about what to answer when people claim that science supposedly has proof that the world is older than 5715 years, and whether this can be answered by the well-known teaching of our Sages that "the Holy One, blessed be He, would build worlds and destroy them": The explanation of this teaching is not as you suggest; it refers to spiritual worlds, as explained by Rabbeinu HaZaken from the writings of the Arizal in Torah Or Parshas Shemos (page 51a).

As for those who say that science has proof for the above: this is completely false. Science has no proof at all—only a hypothesis built on shaky foundations. It is difficult to explain this at length in a letter, but the point is as follows: What is found in science textbooks about the world existing for many billions of years is based on this kind of hypothesis: Since (under today's conditions—temperature and air pressure, wind movement, quantities of various materials found on earth, etc.), it takes a certain number of years for every hundred cubits of sand to accumulate on a riverbank; since there are mountains made from this same sand reaching heights of several miles (assuming they too were formed from sand grains by such a river and that these conditions have not changed over thousands of years), it must have taken so many years—which comes out to much more than 5715.

But when you ask them where the sand grains came from in the first place—they have no answer. When you ask them—as it's obvious that if sand grains could form on a plain then perhaps mountains could also form all at once—they also have no answer. When you ask them how they know that five thousand years ago all conditions—water, winds, rivers—were exactly as they are now—they again have no answer.

Additionally, if their proof is truly scientific, how can it be that results from astronomy (science of celestial bodies), archaeology (science studying antiquities), geology (science studying earth's structure), and radiology directly contradict each other—sometimes one conclusion says it cannot be more than half a billion years while another says it cannot be less than two billion years? These contradictions are clear proof that all these investigations are merely hypotheses built on air. There is much more to say but this will suffice for now.

Certainly you utilized the days of Tishrei—the general month from which inspiration and joy flow for the entire year—to influence your surroundings positively; write about this next time as well.

Summary

The Rebbe teaches that scientific claims about the world's age lack true evidence and are based on speculative assumptions rather than solid proof. He encourages continued outreach efforts regardless of apparent obstacles or lack of immediate response.