Rav Richard

'Aharon'

Chaimberlin

The Creations
of AdonaiIn today's world, it is often assumed that humans evolved from creatures that inhabited this planet millions of years ago. Evolution is usually taught in our public schools as a scientific fact, not a mere theory. My wife took a sociology course in which evolution is an assumed fact, and a primary key to understanding human society. Other fields such as geology and biology also usually assume evolution to be a reality.

     I'm not opposed to the teaching of evolution. However, I do object to the fact hat such teaching is extremely biased. There is a considerable body of evidence against evolution which is almost totally ignored. There is also a sizable number of scientists who maintain that the theory of evolution is unscientific and contrary to the fossil and geological evidence. However, these scientists are rarely if ever consulted by those who publish the textbooks that our children are required to study.

     Like most Twentieth Century Americans, I grew up believing in evolution. I believed what I was taught by so many different sources: school, books, movies, other people, TV. The Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels famously boasted that if any lie was big enough and said often enough, that eventually it would be accepted as factual. Considering the horrendous lies that were successfully foisted upon Europe during World War II, he may have been right.

     Micro-evolution is indeed a fact. For instance, the wolf is said to be the ancestor of all of the dog breeds that we have today. Most of the dog breeds have come about by humans doing selective breeding to develop various desirable characteristics. However, you can do all the selective breeding you want, and the end result will still be a dog. It will never become a cat, monkey, or human. There is genetic variety within the species. However, one specie does not become another specie, as would be the case with macro-evolution.

     People today have been sold the big lie called evolution. Like myself, they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. The purpose of this article is to present some of the evidence which stands in stark contrast with the theory of evolution, which is, after all, a theory, not a proven fact.

     A theory that I personally hold to is the so-called "Gap Theory." B'reisheet (Geneis) 1:1-2 reads, "In the beginning, Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void (tohu v'vohu)." The underlined word "was" could also easily be translated "became," as in Genesis 19:26 ("she became a pillar of salt"). There is a common shoresh (Hebrew root word) used in both of these verses. I believe that there is a time gap between Genesis 1:1 and the following verse, hence, the name of this theory is called the "Gap Theory." There may have been an earlier creation, perhaps even several of them, prior to the current creation described in Genesis chapter one. This prior creation (or creations), for reasons unknown to me, was destroyed. "And the world became formless and void." Isaiah wrote, "For thus saith YHWH, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place (tohu), but formed it to be inhabited), I am the LORD, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:18)."

     Beginning in Genesis 1:3, we are told the story of the current Creation, which took place in a literal six-day period. Concerning each day of Creation, we read, "And there was evening and morning (Gen. 1:8,13,19,23)." This would discount the idea that these days were eons of time. And this is also why each day begins at sunset and ends 24 hours later at sunset. This is the biblical reckoning, as well as the Jewish reckoning of time for Shabbat and the Holy Days of Leviticus 23, although the Rabbis often add some extra time onto Shabbat and the Holy Days. Finally, on the sixth day of Creation, "God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Genesis 1:26)."

 

Fossil Evidence for Prehistoric Man

There is the "problem" of fossils depicting so-called "ape-men," and various other upright beings, which seem to indicate that your great grandfather might have been a chimpanzee. Curiously, centuries before the discovery of these fossils, the Jewish sages knew of prehistoric beings virtually identical to modern man. Did they know something that scientists began to discover less than two centuries ago?

     When I was a kid, we learned that modern man was descended from the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. These were upright beings that had a brain capacity comparable to modern man, so it seemed a reasonable assumption. It was assumed that truly modern man first appeared in Europe, and then spread throughout the world. Recent discoveries reveal that modern man first appeared in Africa. Perhaps the best source for these discoveries is Jeffrey Goodman, Ph.D. in anthropology, as well as degrees in geological engineering and archeology. He wrote the book, The Genesis Mystery, published by both Times Books and Crown Publishing in 1983. (See pages 184 to 223 of this book.) The discoveries of the late 1900s and in this century reveal that man in the modern form appeared on the world scene even before Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man arrived about 100,000 years ago. Also, humans were on the American continents long before Mongoloid tribesmen first arrived via the Bering Straits in Alaska several thousand years ago.

     However, the Genesis account describes a new Creation, kind of like the Master Planner crumbling up His work and starting over again. Why? Don't ask! I don't have the answer.

     Rabbi D.H. Hertz, a former Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, wrote the Pentateuch & Haftarahs Commentary.[1] He wrote, "Several of the ancient Rabbis, followed by later mystics, believed in successive creations. Prior to the existence of the present universe, they held, certain formless worlds issued forth from the Fountain of Existence and then vanished... In contrast to these abortive creations, the medieval Jewish mystics maintain, ours is the best of all possible worlds." [2]

     The fossil evidence seems to indicate the existence of Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, and even fully modern humans dating back tens of thousands of years ago, if not much further, if (and that's a big if) the current dating methods are accurate. Yet these beings never progressed much beyond a simple animal existence, despite having large brains. There were never any civilizations that arose among these hominids for tens of thousands of years. Suddenly it seems, civilizations arose in various parts of the world less than 6000 years ago. Curiously, this is in keeping with the Jewish calendar, as well as Christian reckoning of time, which dates Creation to about 6000 years ago. Scientists have noted that substantial difference between the Homo-Sapiens  of 50,000 years ago, and the Homo-Sapiens of today. They came up with a whole new classification, called Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The humans of 50,000 years ago, although fully human in appearance and brain capacity, were not human in terms of intellectual achievement or spirituality.

     Torah states that both the body of Adam and the bodies of animals were formed from the dust of the earth. "And Adonai Elohim formed man (adam) from the dust of the ground (adama)... (Genesis 2:7)." Later, we read, "And Adonai Elohim formed from the ground (adama) all the animals (Gen. 2:19)." Although the same English word "formed" is used in both verses, the Hebrew words are slightly different. The Hebrew word "formed" is vayyitzer in verse 7 when describing the creation of man, and vayitzer in verse 19 when describing the creation of animals. The Hebrew letter yod (י) is transliterated by the letter "y." The double yod (יי) is an abbreviation for God's explicit Name (YHWH). The Torah is telling us that although both man and animal share a common origin, there was an extra divine input into the creation of man. The extra yod, according to the Rabbis, also tells us that man alone is endowed with both a yetzer tov (good impulse) and a yetzer ra (evil inclination). Both yetzers begin with a yod. Genesis 2:7 continues:

     "... and (YHWH) breathed into his (man's) nostrils the neshama (breath) of life, and the adam   [3] (man) became a l'nefesh chayah (living soul). The lamed ("L") before nefesh is unnecessary from a grammatical viewpoint, so it must be there to teach us something. According to Nachmanides in the 13th century, the lamed (meaning "to") meant a change from a lower form to a higher form. In other words, man is a higher form of life than the animals which came before him. There were also other forms of life before Adam that may have looked human, but weren't. There are ample Talmudic references to such creatures (called "beasts" in the English translations) that lacked only the divine spark - neshama to make them truly human. The formal name for such creatures was "rulers of the field." Maimonides also mentions these not-quite-human creatures in his Guide for the Perplexed, Part 1, Ch. 7.

     The Talmud says that there were these not-quite-human beings in Gan Eden (Garden of Eden), the nature of which is not described. One of them is a female named Lilith. Maimonides said that these beings "were not human in the true sense of the word. They had not the image of (the spirit of God in) mankind... It is acknowledged that a being who does not possess this image is not human, but a mere animal in human shape and form. Yet such a creature has the power of causing harm and injury, a power which does not belong to other creatures. For those gifts of intelligence and judgment with which he has been acquiring perfection ... are used by him for wicked and mischievous ends."

     I do not advocate accepting the Talmud as Scriptural truth. However, it is interesting to note that long before paleontologists were digging up prehistoric skeletons, Jewish scholars already knew about these "almost" human creatures. Religious Jews were not caught by surprise by modern revelations of very ancient "almost" humans. These discoveries confirmed what many had thought to be simply Rabbinic legends, little more than Jewish "fairy tales." The Rabbis weren't so dumb after all!

     Scientists have been struggling to support their ailing theories of evolution in recent decades as new fossil evidence comes to light. Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, an anthropologist, recognizes that fossils of the Neanderthals and other "homo erectus" creatures were "dead end," and did not evolve into modern man. He is close to admitting the necessity of a Supreme Creator, although he hasn't ruled out other possibilities such as extra-terrestrials. These are quotes from Dr. Jeffrey Goodman's book, The Genesis Mystery, published by Times Books and Crown Publishing in 1983:

 

u "We are learning the rudiments of the powers of genetic engineering in laboratories today, and a super-intelligent intervener may have been a past master of science."   p. 277

u He mentions ancient spacemen: "Once settled in, our space fathers then roll up their sleeves and got down to some serious genetic engineering to bring about fully modern man." p. 279

u He quotes Einstein: "Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a Spirit is manifest in the Laws of the Universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble."   p. 278

u He mentions "hitchhiking spirits" from other planets: "As the theory goes, these visiting spirits hitched a ride within existing hominids to enjoy the physical pleasures of wine, women, and song. After many nights of reveling, they soon found themselves stuck within their physical vehicles. The only release was through death, but once addicted, many insisted on returning through reincarnation for just one, and than another, and yet another ride."

 

     I'm not really doing justice to Dr. Goodman by quoting these far-out theories of his. He is really an excellent scientist, seeking answers to the origins of modern man, knowing full-well that the theory of evolution no longer supplies adequate answers. The simplest - and best - explanation is, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

 



[1] Soncino Press, (c) 1937, London and New York.

[2] Ibid. page 194.

[3] The other word for "man" is "ish."