Questions tagged [creation]

Questions about the creation of the world.

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4 answers
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Why did God take 6 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 6 days. Why? In other words: Why didn't God ...
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32 votes
11 answers
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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? (This is not about why the universe and Earth look so old.) There is extensive evidence of a human population and human civilizations from ...
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1 vote
0 answers
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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?
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7 votes
2 answers
762 views

What were the arguments for and against man's creation?

The gemara in Eiruvin 13b teaches that for two and a half years there was a dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel - these said that it was better for man not to have been created than to have ...
9 votes
1 answer
299 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
2 answers
955 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 ...
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1 vote
11 answers
5k views

How do we reconcile the order of creating animals betweeen Genesis and science?

https://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 ...
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0 votes
2 answers
269 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?
6 votes
1 answer
153 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 ...
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6 votes
2 answers
238 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 ...
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4 votes
1 answer
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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.
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5 answers
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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. You'd think the existence of a former world of huge alien creatures would ...
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1 vote
1 answer
374 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?
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7 votes
1 answer
693 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?
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2 votes
1 answer
489 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 light ...
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12 votes
1 answer
793 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 ...
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2 votes
2 answers
123 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 (aisho ...
6 votes
3 answers
834 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 ...
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16 votes
3 answers
339 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 ...
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5 votes
1 answer
320 views

First year counted from creation [duplicate]

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?
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5 votes
5 answers
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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 ...
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20 votes
9 answers
1k views

Why is there so much space and matter in the universe?

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 maybe a point of contention - see Shabbat 88a] . What is the need for ...
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5 votes
1 answer
387 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 ...
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3 votes
5 answers
1k 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 ...
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10 votes
2 answers
437 views

What is the proof that HaShem's purpose in creation was to bestow good?

Rabbi M Ch Luzzatto in Derech HaShem (1:2:1) gives HaShem’s purpose in creation to “bestow of His good to another”. (Translation Aryeh Kaplan.) The translator in his notes gives several sources/...
14 votes
1 answer
880 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). ...
17 votes
7 answers
1k 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… ...
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8 votes
5 answers
980 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 ...
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21 votes
3 answers
3k 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?
4 votes
1 answer
241 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 ...
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6 votes
5 answers
6k 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 ...
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20 votes
2 answers
15k views

Do religious Jews generally believe the serpent of Garden of 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 ...
3 votes
3 answers
472 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 ...
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12 votes
5 answers
417 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 universe,...
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4 votes
4 answers
319 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 ...
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18 votes
6 answers
620 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 ...
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1 vote
2 answers
198 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?
7 votes
7 answers
682 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?
9 votes
4 answers
356 views

Does HaShem need rest?

Why did HaShem create Shabbos? He doesn't need rest!
31 votes
9 answers
2k 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 for the different views of the age of the universe, [the Tanakh's view and astronomy's view.] Please help me out!
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40 votes
13 answers
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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?
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