It is uncommon for the People of the Book to ban books - but that is precisely what three prominent rabbis of Bnei Brak have done. The ban was especially surprising considering who was responsible for the ideas in the banned book.
The creation of Adam, from Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel. Did God fashion man from a lesser, ape-like creature?
Rabbi Gedalia Nadel, who passed away a year and a half ago, was recognized in his lifetime as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, students of the Hazon Ish, Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, the undisputed spiritual leader of haredi Lithuanian Jewry in the Holy Land in the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, Rabbis Michel Yehuda Lefkovitz, Nissim Karelitz and Chaim Kanyevsky, three of the most respected spiritual leaders in the haredi world, felt the need to issue a warning.
"The greatness of Rabbi Gedalia Nadel, may this righteous man's name be a blessing, was known to all," wrote the rabbis.
"His genius was incredible and he was an exemplary model of Torah scholarship. As a student of the Hazon Ish he had an unwavering grasp of the truth of the Torah. Yet few could plumb the depths of his thoughts... Therefore we fear that ideas found in unauthorized texts or recordings will be published in his name. We hereby warn not to rely on any book published in his name by any other than Rabbi Nadel's family and students."
Betorato shel Rav Gedalia is the name of the book referred to by the Bnei Brak rabbis, which was published posthumously by Rabbi Yitzhak Shilat based on Nadel's taped lectures. Shilat writes in the preface that everything that appears in the book was approved by Nadel himself.
The book, banned last December, seeks to resolve apparent contradictions between science and Torah. Offensive ideas include sentences like this: "Regarding his [Rabbi Ovadia Sforno's] approach, that the creation of man in the image of God marked the end of a long process which started with a non-cognizant animal which gradually evolved until this creature was given a human mind... this is an accurate description. Darwin's proofs, and those of geologists, for the existence of early stages of mankind, seem convincing."
Nadel sees nothing wrong with accepting Darwin's theory of evolution. Even the proposition that man and ape have a common ancestor presents no theological problem for Nadel.
He also rejects biblical literalism in favor of science: "It is a mistake to think that all of science [e.g. carbon dating, geology] is wrong. Regarding issues of life and death - some of the most stringent laws in the Torah - we rely on the scientific method without doubts. When a doctor gives a drug that was produced based on scientific methods of inquiry or when a surgeon operates on the eye or the brain with the aid of sophisticated scientific equipment we rely on science. We do not suspect that these doctors are lying. There is no reason to believe scientists are lying about the age of the world."
THE PUBLICATION and subsequent ban of Betorato shel Rav Gedalia was followed just a few months later by another, similar ban. Three books by Rabbi Natan Slifkin - Mysterious Creatures, The Science of Torah and The Camel, the Hare and the Hyrax - were declared heretical by many leading haredi halachic authorities and educators, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the most respected living halachic authority for the Lithuanian haredi community.
Like Nadel, Slifkin argues that Judaism does not contradict evolution. But unlike secular scientists, religious Jews believe the evolutionary process is guided by God. What appear to be seemingly random, natural processes are in reality the way God governs the world.
"We believe God is behind everything, but that does not mean that there cannot be things that seem superficially random," says Slifkin.
The other critical distinction for Slifkin that religious Jews need to make when embracing evolution is that man is fundamentally different from other creatures.
"The problem with evolution for many religious Jews is that man is depicted as nothing more than an animal. Judaism believes there is a qualitative difference between man and other living things.
"Our soul, our free will to choose between good and evil, make us different. Still, it is not problematic to say that physically we evolved from a common ancestor with apes as long as we believe we have a soul, a spiritual component, which apes lack."
Or, as Nadel put it: "Darwin's mistake was in his general perception, which dodged the question of how the stages of evolution were initiated. But with the recognition that the will of God is realized in nature, via God's messengers, there is no need to reject the description of natural history as presented by science."
Prominent Orthodox rabbis of the last century or two who affirm that the world is billions of years old, and that life has evolved over time, include Rabbi Israel Lipschitz, author of Tiferet Yisrael on the Mishneh, Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Schwadron [known as the MaHaRSHaM], Rabbi Zvi H. Chajes, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin.
Popular books in English such as Challenge: Torah Views on Science edited by Rabbis Aryeh Carmell and Cyril Domb and published by Feldheim back in 1976 made the same point.
Slifkin's books received approbation from several mainstream haredi rabbis including Yisroel Belsky, Aryeh Carmell, Yitzchok Adlerstein, Mordechai Kornfeld, Aharon Lopiansky, Chaim Malinowitz, Shmuel Kamenetzky, and Shalom Kamenetzky.
In Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox circles in Israel and abroad it is widely accepted that there is no contradiction between science and Torah.
Dr. Yitzhak Malka, a religious physicist from Hebron, trains teachers in state religious high schools to reconcile religion with science. Malka laments the lack of thought given to the integration of science with religion in the state religious school system.
"I first got started training teachers close to 10 years ago, after I realized that no one was teaching in ways that integrated science with religion. In most schools religious studies and science are taught as if they were two separate, unconnected subjects.
