[Avodah] Torah precheit?

[H Lampel]

On 11/7/2017 6:05 PM, MIcha Berger wrote:
> ... that the universe was created at some point in the nearer
> past, eg 5778 years ago -- or Last Thursday -- and everything before that is
> fake. ...is the position of ... R' Avigdor Miller.

He certainly is not of the opinion of last-Thursday-ism. (I suspect RMB did not really mean that.) His opinion is based on the mesora.

Re: ''and everything before that is fake. ...is the position of ... R' Avigdor Miller''

To clarify, R' Avigdor Miller's position is not that fossils, for example,
were planted merely as a test of our emunah.

> Why should the [dinosaurs] need explanation any more than the
dodo, the passenger pigeon, or any of the other species which
> have become extinct, some even in our time? The huge
> animals of ancient times, as well as many small animals,
> became extinct each in the due time decreed by the timetable
> of Heaven. ... Their existence is a fact which does
> not help th theory of Evolution in any manner.

(Rejoice O Youth, pp. 47-48)


However, that Adam was created as a 30-year-old (as Chazal say), with, for example, a full mouth of teeth? Yes. Because:

>     ''Creation means that the Universe began at once in full-blown development.
>     The First Man immediately had trees whose fruit he could eat.
>     But fruit trees must beforehand be pollinated by bees, and bees need beehives with all their
>     paraphernalia. So you understand that Creation implies that
>     everything came into existence without benefit of time."
>
>     "Trees have in their trunks a number of concentric rings,
>     each ring denoting a year of existence. If the First Man had
>     sawed off a tree, would he have found rings inside?"
>
>     "Since he had trees, they were what we know a tree
>     to be."
>
>     ...thousand-year redwood trees...?"
>
>     "Creation included everything. Just as the First Man
>     had mature fruit trees at the first moment, so also the world
>     possessed mature lumber trees which were created at the
>     same time."
>
>     "[So]... all animals and insects and bacteria were created,
>     including those which need rotting old logs and crumbling old
>     rocks for their habitat or sustenance. Thus, it is self­
>     explanatory that the world possessed 'aged' materials from the
>     very outset, including vegetation and animal carcasses with low
>     carbon-14 content and rocks with heavy lead content.''
>
> (Ibid. pp 45-46) 

Zvi Lampel

PS--Again, this is to clarify Rav Miller's position, and hopefully will not evolve (;)) into a discussion of it. Been there, done that, and no time.

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