About 30 years ago, a rabbi and a physicist sat on opposite sides of a stage. Each expert set out to persuade the other that his understanding of how the universe was formed was the obvious choice.
I wish I could remember who those two scholars were (anyone recall?). But I have always loved what they had to say. God is the life force, ineffable, unseeable yet present in everything, said the rabbi. You can feel it if you close your eyes and notice the cosmos within you and everywhere. Or, the universe was begun with a mighty explosion of energetic chemical and other science-based elements, countered the physicist. Just look at what we are learning through astronomy!
To summarize: Tzimtzum (Isaac Luria in the Kaballah) vs “dark soup of particles, (NASA).
While I have never been so comfortable with God-language, I love science, which offers obvious explanations for how the universe works to me…for example, the basic law of energy is the time/space/effort engagement. Which happens to be a good way to describe dance. I also love the idea of being held in the forever interacting cosmos of beyond-knowing spirit.
They were both right! For me, a dancer, it’s all about movement! So I’ve been wishing everyone a Happy Energy Force this year. But wait – let’s say that Ha Shem and Science are but two forces that are constantly interacting with each other, in a timeless vibration. Hmm…