By the Grace of G-dChanukah, 5722

Blessing and Greeting:

This is to follow up our conversation when you were here, and to reiterate my hope that you have had an opportunity to contemplate on the subject of our discussion, and that it has had some beneficial practical results along the lines which we touched upon during our conversation.

I want to take advantage of the present auspicious days of Chanukah to emphasize its timely message and inspiration. As you surely know, the events which brought about the miracle of Chanukah had to do with the battle against the Greek power and influence over the Jewish people. In those classical days of Greek art and philosophy, etc., so-called Greek culture had conquered the whole world, except for the tiny area of Eretz Yisroel and the Jewish people. The Greek attack on the Jewish people was not directed against the study of the Torah per se, or against the observance of the Mitzvoth in general. But their attack was aimed at the study of the Torah as G-d’s Torah, and against the Chukkim as the statutes of G-d’s will, as we emphasize in the text of Ve-al Hanissim. In other words, the Greeks did not object the Torah as a “science,” nor did they object to the observance of the Mitzvoth as a pure “ritual,” but they wanted to eradicate the Divine source and Divine authority of the Torah and Mitzvoth, insisting that the human intellect is sufficient to discover all truths. At that time the Jews, who were few in number and “weak,” not only physically but also in the dialectic ways of philosophy, decided that the only true reply to follow the time-honored Jewish approach of Naaseh v’Nishma, that is to say, the readiness to adhere to the Torah and Mitzvoth without question, even at the very peril of their lives. Consequently, since this approach was not a “logical” one, their victory was also not a logical one, and the few and the weak could deal a smashing blow to the many and the strong. Herein lies the real miracles of Chanukah, as it is perpetuated by the lighting of the small Chanukah candles.

Fortunately, we live in a country and society wherein there is religious freedom and where everybody can follow his religious convictions, not only without being subjected to persecution or ridicule, but, on the contrary, being respected for it. And when a Jew is firmly determined to follow his convictions, regardless of the difficulties, it soon becomes apparent that the difficulties are not as insurmountable as they had appeared at first, and with every step along the path of truth, the going becomes easier and easier.

I trust that you will also follow this approach, and you will soon attain that harmony and peace of mind which you so crave.

Wishing you a happy and inspiring Chanukah,

With blessing,

By [Secretary]

It is with some surprise that I learned the difficulty which you face in taking the right direction is in apparent contradiction which you see between science and the view of the Torah, particularly on the question of the age of the universe.¹ I say “apparent,” because there is no real contradiction, as no contradiction is possible for the following reasons:

1. The various so-called scientific theories regarding the age of the world are, first and foremost, no more than theories. Furthermore, among all the scientific theories, the theories on the age of the universe are the weakest, which scientists themselves will be the first to admit. Add to this the fact that the various scientific theories on the age of the world are mutually contradictory in the extreme, that is to say, the result of a theory proposed by one branch of science invalidates the result of a theory by another branch of science. But the basic thing is to bear in mind in reference to all scientific theories is that, as already mentioned, they cannot be regarded, and are not so regarded by scientists, as absolute and immutable truths or laws, but only as conjectures.

2. I also understand that one of the difficulties which troubles you in this matter is the so-called Carbon 14 dating test. But this again will further serve to illustrate the above point of the inherent contradictions among scientific theories. For, as you surely know, the limit of the carbon dating does not exceed 50,000 years, while the so-called geological criteria go into the millions of years.

3. As already indicated, it is important to bear in mind that science deals with theories and not with absolute truths. Even the so-called “exact” sciences in physics and chemistry, the modern scientific view is that physical and chemical phenomena can only indicate the most probable results under given conditions, but cannot guarantee the certainty of such results on the basis of past experience. In other words, if the result is entirely different from the anticipated, this would not contradict science, but would itself become a part of science and further scientific investigation. If this is so in experimental science, how much more so in matters which are beyond experimentation, and which lie in the dim past, of something that happened thousands of years ago, as in the matter of the origin and age of the world. It is only because the scientists are bereft of the truths of the Torah that they come up with all sorts of theories, since any theory, no matter how fantastic, is better than none. We, on the other hand, to whom the absolute truths have been revealed in the Divine Torah, cannot seriously consider scientific theories or deductions as posing any challenge to the absolute truth. The unfortunate part is, however, that many young people are confused about the issues, and especially about the true aspects of science on the one hand, and of the Torah on the other. It is a pity that you did not bring up the subject during our conversation, since it would have been much easier to discuss the subject orally than in writing.