I don't usually quote the sources for the concepts I share in this blog. This is because I often feel that the ideas as expressed are my filtering the words of others, and I fear I may not be representing their words exactly as they meant them. In this piece I will do differently. The reason is due to the great controversy in the Charedi world as to the Age of the Universe. Without getting into the details of the controversy right now which are well documented elsewhere, I want readers to be aware that my source for this piece is someone who was very highly respected and revered in the Charedi world.
This comes from Rav Elya Weintraub's work Nefesh Eliyahu. There is a bit of irony in that he was a leading opponent of Natan Slifkin,
Rav Weintraub writes that there was a concept and passage of time even prior to Creation as described in the Torah. He explains that the time frame of Creation as described in the Torah is a time frame that introduces human consciousness, but it does not purport to be the beginning of time in general.
Furthermore, he says, that when Kabbalists speak of time outside of our time zone, we should not understand it with our conception of time. For example, in a dream, one can experience what seems to be many years in only a few moments. Time works differently in a different state of consciousness.
So, too, although they may express the earlier (and later) times of Existence - the years that are not part of human consciousness - in terms of thousands of years, they may be referring to time periods in which millions of years actually have passed.
This comes from Rav Elya Weintraub's work Nefesh Eliyahu. There is a bit of irony in that he was a leading opponent of Natan Slifkin,
Rav Weintraub writes that there was a concept and passage of time even prior to Creation as described in the Torah. He explains that the time frame of Creation as described in the Torah is a time frame that introduces human consciousness, but it does not purport to be the beginning of time in general.
Furthermore, he says, that when Kabbalists speak of time outside of our time zone, we should not understand it with our conception of time. For example, in a dream, one can experience what seems to be many years in only a few moments. Time works differently in a different state of consciousness.
So, too, although they may express the earlier (and later) times of Existence - the years that are not part of human consciousness - in terms of thousands of years, they may be referring to time periods in which millions of years actually have passed.
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