Jewish views on evolution includes a continuum of views about evolution, creationism, and the origin of life. Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory Although generally, evolution is taken to mean any process of change over time, in the context of life science, evolution is a change in the traits of living organisms over generations, including the emergence of new species. ... This is an article on wide range of beliefs in creation ex nihilo. ... This article focuses on modern scientific research on the origin of life. ...

In general, the major Jewish denominations accept evolutionary creationism (theistic evolution), with the exception of certain Orthodox groups. The general approach of Judaism is that the creation account in the Torah's Book of Genesis is not to be taken as a literal text, but rather as a symbolic work. Jewish denominations: Over time, the Jewish community has become divided into a number of religious denominations, also called branches or movements. Each denomination has a different understanding of what principles of belief a Jew should hold, and how one should live as a Jew. ... Evolutionary creationism encompasses the concept of theistic evolution, a synthesis of the religious belief in a creator God with the scientific theory of evolution. ... Orthodox Judaism is one of the three major branches of Judaism. ... Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis the first book of the Bible. ... Torah, (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or especially Law. ... This article is about Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible. ... Symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representations of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships inbetween, as they define both context and the narrower definition of terms. ...

Classical rabbinic teachings

It is likely that the majority of classical rabbis held that God created the world some 6,000 years ago, and created Adam and Eve from clay. This view is based on a chronology developed in a midrash, Seder Olam, which was based on a literal reading of the book of Genesis. It is considered to have been written by the Tanna Yose ben Halafta, and cover history from the creation of the universe to the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. This chronology is still widely accepted among most Haredim today. See Semicha for article about ordination of rabbis. ... God creates Adam, by Michelangelo. ... For the town in the United States, see Clay, New York. ... Midrash (pl. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The Jerusalem Temple (Hebrew: beit ha-mikdash) was the center of Israelite and Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot. ... Haredi Judaism, or Charedi Judaism, also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. ...

A minority of classical rabbis believed that the world is billions of years old, and that life as we know it today did not always exist. Rabbis who had this view based their conclusions on verses in the Talmud the midrash. For example: The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ... Midrash (pl. ...

• Talmud Chagiga 13b states that there were 974 generations of humans before God created Adam.
• Some midrashim state that the "first week" of Creation lasted for extremely long periods of time. See Anafim on Rabbenu Bachya's Sefer Ikkarim 2:18; Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 9.
• Midrash Bereshit Rabba 14 states that humans were created with tails.
• Midrash Tanchuma Genesis 6 states that people born before the time of Noah had webbed fingers.
• Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 23 states that in the days of Enosh the faces of men became ape like.

Medieval rabbinic teachings

The medieval philosophical rationalists, such as Maimonides held that it was ignorant to read Genesis literally. In this view, one was obligated to understand Torah in a way that was compatible with the findings of science. Indeed, Maimonides, one of the great rabbis of the Middle Ages, wrote that if science and Torah were misaligned, it was either because science was not understood or the Torah was misinterpreted. Maimonides argued that if science proved a point, then the finding should be accepted and scripture should be interpretated accordingly. Rabbi Yitzchak of Akko (a 12th-century student of Maimonides, agreed with this view, and is now widely accepted within Modern Orthodox Judaism. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מיימון; Arabic: Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Kurtubi al-Israili; March 30, 1135—December 13, 1204), commonly known by his Greek name Maimonides, was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ...

Kabbalistic rabbinic teachings

A minority of classical rabbis believed that the world is billions of years old, and that life as we know it today did not always exist, and base this view on statements in the Kabbalah (receceived Jewish mysticism). The tree of life Kabbalah (קבלה Reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah) is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality; or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ...

Jewish views in reaction to Darwin

With the advent of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory, the Jewish community found itself engaged in a discussion of Jewish principles of faith and modern scientific findings. Charles Darwin, about the same time as the publication of The Origin of Species. ... Judaism affirms a number of basic principles of faith that one is expected to uphold in order to be said to be in consonance with the Jewish faith. ...

By the early 1900s, the majority of Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism came to accept the existence of evolution as a scientific fact. They interpreted Genesis and related Jewish teachings in light of this fact. Orthodox Judaism offered significantly more resistance to this idea, with many Orthodox rabbis developing rejections of evolution that exactly paralleled the rejections in the Christian community. Orthodox Jews who rejected evolution held that the scientists were mistaken, were heretics, or were being deliberately misled by God. Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United... Conservative Judaism (or Masorti Judaism) is a denomination of Judaism characterized by: A positive attitude toward modern culture The belief that traditional rabbinic modes of study, and modern scholarship and critical text study, are both valid ways to learn about and from Jewish religious texts. ... Reform Judaism (also known as Progressive Judaism while in the U.K. Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism together make up Progressive Judaism) is a branch of Judaism characterized by: The belief that an individuals personal autonomy overrides traditional Jewish law and custom. ... Orthodox Judaism is one of the three major branches of Judaism. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ...

Post-1800 Kabbalistic views of compatibility

In his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Bahya ben Asher (11th century, Spain) concludes that there were many time systems occuring in the universe long before the spans of history that man uis familiar with. Based on the Kabbalah he calculates that the Earth is billions of years old. Bahya ben Asher or Bahya ben Asher ben Halawa also known as the Rabbeinu Behaye, born about the middle of the thirteenth century at Saragossa, died 1340 was a 13th century rabbi and scholar of Judaism. ...

Rabbi Israel Lipschitz of Danzig (1800s) gave a famous lecture on Torah and paleontology, which is printed in the Yachin u-Boaz edition of the Mishnah, after Massechet Sanhedrin. He writes that Kabbalistic texts teach that the world has gone through many cycles of history, each lasting for many tens of thousands of years. He links these teachings to findings about geology from European, American and Asian geologists, and from findings from paleontologists. He discusses the wooly mammoth discovered in 1807 Siberia, Russian, and the remains of several then famous dinosaur skeletons recently unearthed. Finding no contradiction between this and Jewish teachings, he states "From all this, we can see that all the Kabbalists have told us for so many centuries about the fourfold destruction and renewal of the Earth has found its clearest possible confirmation in our time." A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, Repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, the earth) and λογος (logos, word, reason)) is the science and study of the Earth, its composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape it. ... Species Mammuthus columbi Columbian mammoth Mammuthus exilis Pygmy mammoth Mammuthus jeffersonii Jeffersonian mammoth Mammuthus meridionalis Mammuthus primigenius Wooly mammoth A mammoth (Russian mammant) is any of a number of an extinct genus of elephant, often with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. ... Orders Saurischia    Sauropodomorpha    Theropoda Ornithischia Dinosaurs are reptiles that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for most of their 165-million year existence. ...

When scientists first developed the theory of evolution, this idea was seized upon by rabbis such as Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, known as the Netziv, who saw Kabbalah as a way to resolve the differences between traditional readings of the Bible and modern day scientific findings. He proposed that the ancient fossils of dinosaurs were the remains of beings that perished the in the previous "worlds" described in some Kabbalistic texts. This today is the view of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817- 10 August 1893) was a rosh yeshiva (dean of a yeshiva) and author if several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania. ... Aryeh Kaplan (1934 - 1983) was a noted rabbi and author, who had a background in both physics and Judaism. ...

In the late 1880s, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, an influential leader in the early opposition to non-Orthodox forms of Judaism, wrote that he did not fully embrace all the ideas of evolutionists, but concluded that the basic idea of common descent (that all life developed from one common organism through natural selection) were valid for a religious Jew to hold, and may even cause one to be more reverent of God by understanding His wonders (a master plan for the universe). Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... Rabbi S.R. Hirsch Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (June 20, 1808 - December 31, 1888) was the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. ... A group of organisms is said to have common descent if they have a common ancestor. ... In biology and ecology, an organism (in Greek organon = instrument) is a living being. ... Alternative meaning Natural Selection (computer game). ... The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. ...

This will never change, not even if the latest scientific notion that the genesis of all the multitudes of organic forms on earth can be traced back to one single, most primitive, primeval form of life should ever appear to be anything more than what it is today, a vague hypothesis still unsupported by fact. Even if this notion were ever to gain complete acceptance by the scientific world, Jewish thought, unlike the reasoning of the high priest of that notion, would nonetheless never summon us to revere a still extant representative of this primal form as the supposed ancestor of us all. Rather, Judaism in that case would call upon its adherents to give even greater reverence than ever before to the one, sole God Who, in His boundless creative wisdom and eternal omnipotence, needed to bring into existence no more than one single, amorphous nucleus and one single law of "adaptation and heredity" in order to bring forth, from what seemed chaos but was in fact a very definite order, the infinite variety of species we know today, each with its unique characteristics that sets it apart from all other creatures. (Collected Writings, vol. 7 pp. 263-264)

Orthodox Jewish views

Many Orthodox rabbis, such as Abraham Isaac Kook, saw evolution as compatible with Jewish theology. Over time a growing minority of Orthodox rabbis and laypeople came to accept the existence of biological evolution as a fact. However, the majority of Orthodox rabbis and laypeople seem to have regarded the idea as false. Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America (Haredi Judaism), states that "If one teaches that the human being is just an evolved ape, and that our consciences and sense that we have a soul and free will are just phantasm—that road leads to amorality. It leads to it being impossible to say that any particular way of living is right or wrong." Abraham Isaac Kook (1864 - 1935) Known in Hebrew as הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, and by the acronym HaRaIyaH The first official Ashkenazi Israel), he established the foundation of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Rabbanut, and Israels national rabbinical courts, Batei Din, that... Agudath Israel can refer to any of several related organizations, including: an international movement, the World Agudath Israel an American organization, Agudath Israel of America an Israeli political party, Agudat Israel This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

One can find an array of Orthodox views on the age of the universe, the age of the earth, and views on evolution, in Challenge: Torah Views on Science and Its Problems edited by Aryeh Carmell and Cyril Domb, and in Gerald Schroeder's Genesis and the Big Bang. These works attempt to reconcile traditional Jewish texts with modern scientific findings concerning evolution, the age of the earth and the age of the Universe.

Prominent Orthodox rabbis who affirm that the world is billions of years old, and that life has evolved over time, include Aryeh Kaplan, Israel Lipschitz, Sholom Mordechai Schwadron (the MaHaRSHaM), Zvi H. Chajes, and Abraham Isaac Kook. To be sure, these rabbis do not accept the views of strict evolutionists, such as Richard Dawkins, who hold that evolution has no room at all for God. Rather, each rabbi proposes their own understanding of theistic evolution, in which the world is billions of years old, and that life does evolve over time in accord with natural law, yet also holding that God has a role in this process. Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS (born March 26, 1941), better known as Richard Dawkins, is a British zoologist, born in Nairobi, in Kenya. ... This article focuses on the monotheistic concept of a singular God. ... Evolutionary creationism encompasses the concept of theistic evolution, a synthesis of the religious belief in a creator God with the scientific theory of evolution. ...

Resistance to accepting any form of evolution is strong within much, but not all, of Haredi Judaism. As recently as 2005, some Orthodox rabbis who wrote about evolution have had their books banned, one recent case being Nosson Slifkin, popularly known as the "zoo rabbi," for his writings about animals in Jewish thought. Haredi Judaism, or Charedi Judaism, also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

One of the most prominent writers on this subject in the Orthodox Jewish community is Gerald Schroeder, an Israeli physicist. He has written a number of articles and popular books attempting to reconcile Jewish theology with modern scientific findings that the world is billions of years old and that life has evolved over time. (Genesis and the Big Bang: The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible) His work has received approbations from a number of Orthodox rabbinic authorities. Dr. Gerald Schroeder is a former professor of nuclear physics at MIT and member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. ... Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (phusikos), natural, and φύσις (phusis), nature) is the science of nature in the broadest sense. ...

Sources

• Abrams, Nancy Ellen, and Joel R. Primack. "In a Beginning...: Quantum Cosmology and Kabbalah." Tikkun, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 66-73.
• Aviezer, Nathan. In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science. Ktav, 1990. ISBN 0881253286.
• Carmell, Aryeh, and Cyril Domb (editors). Challenge: Torah Views on Science New York: Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists/Feldheim Publishers, 1976. ISBN 0873061748
• Kaplan, Aryeh. Immortality, Resurrection, and the Age of the Universe: A Kabbalistic View. Ktav, 1993.
• Schroeder, Gerald L. The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom. Broadway Books, 1998. ISBN 076790303X.
• Tigay, Jeffrey H. "Genesis, Science, and 'Scientific Creationism.'" Conservative Judaism, Vol. 40(2), Winter 1987/1988, p. 20-27.

Tikkun is an English-language opinion magazine published quarterly in the United States since 1986. ...

External links

• Various Orthodox Jewish views - The Soc.Culture.Jewish FAQ (http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/12-03.html)
• Orthodox rabbi banned as heretic over accepting evolution (http://yussel.blogspot.com/2005/02/evolution-and-zoo-rabbi.html)
• Yashar Books Blog: Orthodox Judaism and evolution, and the recent banning of books (http://www.yasharbooks.com/Blog0501.html)
• Evolutionary creationism by Susan Schneider (http://www.orot.com/ec.html)