The creation tag has no wiki summary.
18
votes
7answers
693 views
Bereishit vs. science
How does Judaism deal with the differences between scientific evidence of the beginning of the world and the account(s) in Bereishit?
17
votes
2answers
535 views
When did we start counting the Year since Creation?
This year is 5772 / תשעב (Taf-Shin-Ayin-Bet) on the Hebrew Calendar.
What is the earliest reference to the Year counting from the Creation of the world?
15
votes
6answers
449 views
Why the vast difference of opinion about the age of the Universe?
5770 and 13,000,000,000 is a big difference!
I am looking for a good explanation to the difference opinion of the age of the universe. Please help me out!
13
votes
7answers
331 views
How did the moon shrink?
The Bavli, Chulin 60:2, says (in my own loose translation):
Rabbi Shim'on ben Pazi noted a contradiction: [B'reshis 1:16] says, "God made the two big luminaries" and "the big luminary… and ...
12
votes
5answers
401 views
Why is there so much stuff?
If the point of all of creation is for the Jewish people to accept and carry out the torah [I realize this is not axiomatic and may be a point of contention - see Shabbat 88a] what is the need for the ...
11
votes
2answers
258 views
Let there be light! But from where?
According to Genesis 1:3, "And G-d said, Let there be light; and there was light." What light is the Torah referring to if the sun which produces light by day was created only on the 4th day of ...
11
votes
2answers
195 views
Why name but five creations?
God is described as creating many things in B'reshis chapter 1: animals, people, stars, plants, etc. However, about only five of his creations does it say that he called them by a name:
"וַיִּקְרָא ...
10
votes
4answers
197 views
Reconciling Nature with Continuous Creation
I have always understood that when God created the universe, he subjected it to a natural order and process under which the universe can function. The laws of nature are those that govern the ...
8
votes
1answer
331 views
Is programming against Judaism?
I just recently learned about this site when I saw Judaism was one of the stack overflow topics. I have been Jewish all my life and two years ago I started programming.
I was wondering if there ...
7
votes
6answers
268 views
why create non kosher animals?
why did hashem create non kosher animals, was it to tempt us and see if we would control ourselves?
7
votes
2answers
2k views
Do religious Jews generally believe the serpent of Gan Eden was Satan?
Upon reading the recent CNN article, That Actually Isn't In The Bible, one not-really-in-the-Bible misconception they cite is the idea that serpent in the Garden of Eden was the Satan.
The article ...
7
votes
1answer
125 views
Why did Hashem create the world?
Some opinion say that Hashem created the world to bestow goodness on man (and couldn't just place him in the Garden of Eden because it would be "bread of shame" - that man would get things for free).
...
6
votes
5answers
152 views
Was the world created with din or with rachamim?
I remember Chazal saying somewhere that the world could not survive, had it been created with din/harsh judgement/strictness. However, in Bereshis, at the very beginning, it says:
בְּרֵאשִׁית ...
6
votes
1answer
72 views
What is the significance of the place from which Eve was created?
Bereshis (2:21-22) tells us that God created Eve from the rib (or 'side') of Adam. What is the significance, if any, of choosing this particular bone from which to form Eve, as opposed to any other ...
6
votes
1answer
95 views
Rosh Hashana can't currently land on a Friday, but the first one did
The current fixed calendar works in such a way so that the first day of Rosh Hashana can never fall out on a Friday, but this is the very day on which the first Rosh Hashana fell! What gives?
5
votes
3answers
907 views
What is the meaning of יוֹם (yowm) in Bereshit?
I've heard conflicting reports of how the creation days , יוֹם (yowm), in Bereshit are interpreted in the Jewish community. How do actual Hebrew scholars define day in Bereshit? six 24 hour periods or ...
5
votes
1answer
212 views
First year counted from creation
What is the first year for which there exists a record of it being dated according to the currently used system that starts counting from creation?
4
votes
3answers
203 views
Did God create color in Genesis?
Can I assume that every creation in this world was first manifested in the world during the first six days of the Genesis, which therefore includes color? So was color (the spectrum of hues and ...
4
votes
1answer
74 views
What is Shevirat Hakeilim?
Shvirat hakeilim seems to be a Kabbalistic concept denoting how the light was created within the Genesis account. However, I cannot seem to find information regarding it. Can someone please explain ...
4
votes
1answer
96 views
Better for Man to Not have Been Created
The Talmud in Eruvin 13b concludes that it were better for a man not to have been created than to have been created.
How can we understand this given that God is absolutely benevolent.
Wouldn't it ...
4
votes
3answers
197 views
Why is braiding hair “building”?
The gemarah in niddah (45) says that when the torah says that God "built" Eve out of the bone of Adam what actually happened is that God braided Eve's hair and presented her to Adam as a wife. This is ...
4
votes
1answer
83 views
Brachos Daf 2a - What does Creation have to do with Krias Shema?
The Gemorah in Brachos Daf 2a asks two questions right away after
learning the Mishnah. The second is: Why is it that the Mishnah
taught about the time at night for Krias Shema first - really we
...
4
votes
1answer
56 views
How did the trees deviate from God's command?
In Bereshis 1:11 God commands עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ however in the next pasuk where it happens we find וְעֵץ עֹשֶׂה-פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ, לְמִינֵהוּ. This discrepancy is explained by ...
4
votes
0answers
39 views
What were the arguments for and against man's creation?
Eiruvin 13b records a debate in which Beit Shammai says it would have been better for man not to have been created, while Beit Hillel says it's better that we were. What were the specific arguments ...
4
votes
2answers
139 views
How are pre-creation >4000 BCE human civilization and pre-flood >2300 BCE civilizations that continued reconciled with Judaism?
How does human history fit in with the Torah's timeline?
Not even worrying about why the universe and Earth look so old, there is extensive evidence of a human population and human civilizations from ...
4
votes
4answers
204 views
3
votes
4answers
140 views
How did Hashem hide the light from the wicked? What do Chazal mean by this?
Rashi says in Breaishis Chapter 1, Verse 4:
אף בזה אנו צריכים לדברי אגדה ראהו שאינו כדאי להשתמש בו רשעים והבדילו לצדיקים לעתיד לבא.
"Even this requires words of Aggadah, He saw that it was not fit ...
3
votes
1answer
73 views
What is חית ראמים?
In the Shabas table song "M'nucha v'simcha", God is credited as having created
חַיַּת רְאֵמִים
What does this mean?
It would seem to translate literally as "animal of ראםs". Now, we do find a ...
3
votes
1answer
56 views
Why did God take 7 days to create the world?
Generally we assume that God is omnipotent, and could have created the world in a single day\act, so He must have had a reason to organize creation into 7 days. Why?
In other words:
Why didn't God ...
2
votes
2answers
75 views
Can you explain the beginning of Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer chapter 4?
At the beginning of the 4th chapter of Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer, it states [my own translation]:
On the second day God created the heavens (rakiyah), the angels and the fire of flesh and blood ...
2
votes
1answer
85 views
Is a “Golem” the same thing as a person created through Sefer Yetzirah?
Is a "Golem" the same thing as a person created through Sefer Yetzirah? Please be clear with your answer.
1
vote
4answers
299 views
Why do we count years from the date of Creation?
Why do we count years from the date of Creation? I intend two sub-questions here, of which the second is far more interesting, so please answer it:
Whence did this tradition originate?
Why do we ...
1
vote
2answers
117 views
Number of days of Creation
How many days of "Creation" where there? If the answer is 7, then why is shabbos considered a day of Creation?
1
vote
1answer
80 views
What was the first Hebrew date of the first Molad?
If one were to represent the Molad Tohu as a date, comprised of a month, day, year, hours, minutes, seconds, and chalakim, what date would that be?
1
vote
0answers
32 views
Why did God create outer space? [duplicate]
Everything God does has a reason. He created the world for us to serve him. How does most of outer space help us serve God.
Or just plainly why was space created?
0
votes
1answer
186 views
How do Jews reconcile 6 days creation with light from stars 1 billion years ago? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why the vast difference of opinion about the age of the Universe?
I was surprised my self when I learned that light comes from stars that are millions or billions of ...
0
votes
3answers
191 views
Did G-d create evil? [closed]
Did G-d create evil? Scripture says that G-d created everything, right? So then if G-d indeed created everything, does that mean He created evil?
Is there Old Testament evidence for why He did or ...
0
votes
1answer
195 views
What is the torah view on the dinosaurs?
What is the Torah view on the dinosaurs? There's no mention of them in the Torah, only that the world was created in 6 days. If they existed, Adam and his descendants should have seen them. Yet ...
0
votes
1answer
153 views
How do we reconcile the order of creating animals betweeen Genesis and science?
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6932/does-the-torah-encoded-age-of-the-universe-match-science#comment53788_6932
The Genesis 1 creation account conflicts with the order of events that ...
0
votes
0answers
107 views
Refutation of Darwin's Random Evolution Theory [closed]
saw this refutation online of Darwin's Random Evolution Theory and cannot see any holes with the logic. Can anyone crack this simple refutation?
Refutation of the Theory of Random Evolution
As for ...
-1
votes
2answers
91 views
Why was this world created?
As I've researched, G-d has many creations, trillions of worlds before this world, and will create many after this world.
Why did G-d create this world?
