The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded recently.
It went to John Mather of the NASA Space Flight Center.
His research is credited for confirming the Big Bang Theory.
And here’s what Stephen Hawking said about Mather’s research.
“The discovery of the century, if not of all time”!
… What does this have to do with the Torah Minute?
Everything!
Synagogues all over the world start the Torah over again this Shabbat.
“In the beginning”.
Until not very long ago, there was a problem here.
What beginning!
Because from the time of the Ancient Greeks through most of the 20th Century?
Science “knew” that wasn’t true.
The world was always here. There was no beginning!
And the notion that something came from nothing defied the laws of physics!
… Then things started happening.
An interesting fellow named George Gamow came up with a theory in 1948.
The world actually began with a tremendous explosion of energy.
A Big Bang!
Since then the universe has been expanding.
And the Big Bang was so hot that its radiation would still fill the universe.
Some day we would find it. The “Echo of Genesis”!
The reaction of the scientific community?
“He’s a meshuganah”!
The idea was preposterous. And impossible to test.
The fact that Gamow was an amateur cartoonist who wrote children’s books?
Probably didn’t help him!
And Albert Einstein dismissed the possibility!
It wasn’t looking very good for Gamow. And not for the Book of Genesis.
… Fast forward to 1965.
Arno Penzias, now an observant Jew, shares the Nobel Prize in Physics.
For discovering the radiation from the Big Bang!
Fast forward to 1990.
Recent Nobel Laureate John Mather addresses the American Astronomical Society.
He presents ‘the most dramatic support ever” for the Big Bang theory.
The audience breaks out in thunderous applause.
And the meeting’s chairman comments.
“It seems that the audience is in favor of the book of Genesis.
At least the first verse or so, which seems to have been confirmed.” (Boston Globe)
… My conclusion?
If the first three words of the Book are so amazing?
Can’t wait to read the rest!
All the best,