The Wisdom of Rav Hirsch zt"l

Here are some quotes from Rav Hirch that you will not see on R. Slifkin's blog (here). In direct contradiction to the evolutionary dogma of common descent, the Torah tells us that the Biblical types are immutable:

With this eleventh verse we enter the sphere of organic life. We see דשא, the vegetation that sprouts from the soil, the seed-bearing plants and the fruit trees that bear fruit. We learn that all these countless varieties of creation are governed by one and the same law: למינהו, למינו. Each of them is to work only for its own species and to develop only within the circumscribed sphere assigned to its own kind. We read the momentous sentence, the key to understanding the plant world: ויאמר אלקים תדשא הארץ. By God’s Word, the earth sprouted vegetation; He is the One who decreed the law of למינו, which governs every plant as regards material and form; and God’s Word still activates, reveals itself in, and powerfully governs every plant and every seedling.

   This Divine law of  למינו, which governs the whole organic world, renders two different species “כלאים”; the two species are כלואים, closed, one to the other, do not combine or unite. Each species preserves its reproductive energies only למינו, for its own species, and only human caprice would force it into unnatural, that is, unlawful unions. If left to itself, each seedling will belong to its own species as exclusively as did its earliest ancestor, concerning which and concerning all of whose descendants the Creator first proclaimed His law: למינהו!

   Let us look further into our verse: עץ פרי עשה פרי למינו אשר זרעו בו על הארץ, “a fruit tree that bears fruit for its species, (fruit) in which its seed (of the tree, or of the species) is above the earth.” The first tree was produced by the earth, but from then onward the seed of trees was taken away from the earth, to mature על הארץ, above the earth. Henceforth, the earth is to receive the seed, develop it, and dispense it. (RSRH to Gen 1:13, emphasis added)

On the sixth day man is created, not from an ape-like hominid, but directly from the passive earth.

   So we read here: וייצר ה' אלקים את האדם עפר מן האדמה ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, meaning: The Creator and Director of the world wished to bestow favor upon, and to elevate, His world. Hence, He formed man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his countenance the breath of life, and thus man became a living personality.

   At the creation of all other creatures, Scripture says: תוצא הארץ נפש חיה, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures.” The earth was active in their creation, just as it was active in the creation of plant life; and the earth brought forth their life, just as it brought forth their body. The earth brought forth the living individual. Not so at the creation of man. The earth was passive in his creation, even in the creation of his body. The earth’s activity for the creation of man ended before his creation.

   But even after his body was formed from the earth, he was still merely עפר. It does not say: God formed man מן העפר, from the dust of the ground, but, rather: וייצר ה' אלקים את האדם עפר מן האדמה. He formed him, dust of the ground; man originates from the earth – only to the extent that he is עפר, that he comes from the earth and, like dust, will return to the earth. But man’s life and vital soul do not originate from the earth. The body that was formed for man lay lifeless like עפר; ה' אלקים then breathed into his countenance the breath of life, and only thus did man become a living personality. (Gen 2.7)

The body of man was not a living hominid that evolved into a human. Rather, the body of man, formed directly from the earth, lay “lifeless” until G-d breathed into his countenance the breath of life (see Ramban).

   Clearly, then, תולדות השמים והארץ are the products of heaven and earth; they include everything that is produced after Creation, as a result or “product” of the interaction between heaven and earth. … Heaven and earth stand in passive – not active – relation to their products; they are not creating gods, but are themselves creations. Their products seem natural, because they are produced according to the laws of their nature, which appear to be fixed and stable. But this nature of theirs is itself something that was created; the laws by which they function, produce and develop were implanted in them at their creation. All תולדות שמים וארץ were determined בהבראם; their origin is in their creation. (Gen 2:4)

A creation “day” is not a long period of time period or an allegory, but rather a known unit of time consisting of an earthly period of night followed by an earthly day.

    ויקרא אלקים לאור: יום! ולחשך קרא לילה!. This קריאה is not name-giving, for the words light and day are by no means identical. Rather, “day” – as a unit of time – denotes the measure of time in which light rules over the earth; and “day”, as a natural phenomenon, denotes all the phenomena of life that materialize as a result of the light during that measure of time. (Gen. 1;5)

 A creation “day” is divided into hours and minutes in anticipation of the Jewish Holydays.

   Regarding the time-function of the light-bearers, Scripture adds: ולימים ולשנים. The regular paths of the heavenly bodies divide our time intoמועדים ; and the day, too, is divided into hours and minutes. But the days are not equal to one another, and they form smaller and larger periods, in accordance with the position of the earth vis-à-vis the moon and sun. ימים and שנים are formed: ימים are smaller periods of days, viz., months; שנים are larger periods of days, viz., years. Or: ימים, periods of days, viz., years, and שנים, periods of years, viz., cycles. (Gen 1:19). 

During the six days of creation, nature itself was brought into existence. This is why it is illegitimate to make vast backwards extrapolations from what we currently observe. The six days of creation was a unique one time sequence of creative events in which new laws, creatures and formations were directly brought into existence by the word of G-d. Any laws currently in effect cannot be used to describe this six days of chidush haolam. The essential purpose of the Sabbath is to celebrate the complete cessation of all new creative activity, and the initiation of a new phase in which G-d guides the universe in accordance with the laws of nature He proclaimed. This is why we do not see any fundamentally new laws and entities popping into existence.

   ויכלו השמים והארץ וכל צבאם. This verse is the concluding statement of the history of Creation, and it parallels the opening statement. The opening of the Creation history shows us heaven and earth, and proclaims of them: בראשית! From the very beginning God created these! Now the conclusion again shows us heaven and earth, and proclaims of them: ויכלו! Heaven and earth were brought to this completion! They had not always existed, but, rather, were brought into existence. And before they were brought into existence, they existed as an intention in the thought of their Creator. The heaven and the earth and all their host, were, at one time, merely a thought in the mind of their Creator, and the actualization of this thought was the purpose of their creation. The cause of the existence of heaven and earth does not lie in themselves; they are not the cause of their having come into existence – a view that is self-contradictory, irrational and absurd! The cause of their existence lies outside of themselves; and they are not the result of some force working blindly, but the creative work of a lone Creator, Who created them with intention and purpose, ויכלו!

   The Sages define this concept in greater clarity: המעשים היו מותחין והולכים (Bereishis Rabbah 10:5), the matter and forces which had been called into existence were in a state of continuous development – until God called out ויכלו! and set a limit to their development. He acted as שקי – i.e., שאמר לעולמו די; He called out to His world: די. שאלמלא לשמים וארץ די עד עכשיו היו מותחין והולכין, “Had He not said to heaven and earth: ‘Enough!’ they would still today be in a state of continuous development” (ibid. 46:2). (כלה is also synonymous with כלא, and means “to stop, restrain, fence in,” as in לא יכלה ממך (below, 23:6); ואת בניהם כלו בבית (Shmuel I, 6:10). These are all different nuances of the same concept: to set a limit.)

   The ending of creation, the cessation of formation of new creations – in a word: the present Sabbath of creation – is a greater revelation of the Creator than the very existence of heaven and earth. If, as the materialistic outlook on the world has taught throughout the world has taught throughout the ages, the origin of the world was due to physical causes not founded on thought and free will; if the world originated from forces of nature that are inherent in the world – why, then, has there been a Sabbath in creation for thousands of years? Why have these forces ceased to function and to produce with great power new creations? Why has the cause – which still exists – ceased producing the effect? What has put an end to its creative power? We see that for generations upon generations creation has ceased, and Sabbath has reigned in the world. This teaches us that the present Sabbath was preceded by purposeful, all-powerful creative activity, and that the universe is not a physical result of blind forces of nature, but a moral work of a Creator endowed with supreme wisdom, free will, and unlimited power. ...

Thus, ויכלו protests against any materialistic world view that denies the existence of a free Creator. ויכלו attests to the creation of the world by a free, wise, and almighty God. (Gen 2.1)

The belief that the world is eternal or that its creation is dependent upon any pre-existing aspect of nature is “not only a metaphysical falsehood, a misrepresentation of the origin of the universe, but even worse: it undermines all morality, and denies all freedom in both God and man”..

From the same essay in Collected Writings quoted on R. Slifkin's blog (The Educational Value of Judaism, vol. VII), Rav Hirsch writes:

If anyone were to claim that a font of type carelessly dropped from a type case could rearrange itself to compose an Iliad, or Schiller's Lied von der Glocke, or even an ABC primer, it is certain that the entire scientific community, even today, would commit him to a lunatic asylum. The same fate would befall anyone who would argue that an accidental convergence of materials could produce a building with symmetrical proportions, or a laboratory instrument, or a machine capable of specified functions, or even one little screw that could be used as a functional part of such an instrument or machine. Physiology has not succeeded thus far-and until we receive proof to the contrary we dare say it will never succeed in explaining the creative force behind the origins of a specifically-oriented cell structure, not to speak of the impulse that triggers the union of specific cells into functional organs or the union of functional organs into specific, homogenously coordinated forms of life. We can say with certainty that the nearer a physiologist in his research comes to that sphere which the nonphysiologist perceives as "freedom," the more often he will encounter, even in studying the most primitive forms of life, sphinxlike mysteries that defy easy, clear-cut solutions.

Rabbi Hirsch anticipated many of the problems that continue to plague evolutionism today, including the vexed problem of the origin of life and the staggering implausibility of pre-biotic chemical evolution. The essay argues that biology “will never succeed” in explaining the sphinxlike mysteries behind the creative forces responsible for the origin of complex coordinated organs.

It may be easier for him, given the wonders of spectral analysis, to obtain information about the physical composition of the sun or of even more distant stars than to use the formulas of mechanics and physics to explain that "something" which everyone can sense deep within his own soul, which remains untouched by the physical changes around it, which alone makes consciousness possible and which non-physiologists presume to define as "the spirit." It is equally certain that every bodily organ functions in accordance with specific physiological laws. Thus, the functions of the eye, for instance, are subject to the laws of physiology and optics. Yet, to continue with the analogy of the eye, the focusing of its functions upon a specific objective, the viewing and examination of a specific object, is subject to an act of free will of which we are all conscious. We could compare this – forgive the analogy – to the operation of a steamship engine. The operation and fueling of the engine are governed by the laws of physics. But the steering of the ship, its movement away from one shore and toward another, its landing in a given harbor, is not accomplished by the puffing of the steam, or the noisy thrust of the pistons, nor even by the stokers who sweat as they feed the fires, but by the firm pressure of a hand, guided by a will and an intelligence, at the helm of the ship, quietly and soundlessly directing the seagoing giant and all the energies operating within it to a predetermined destination. As certain as all these facts are, so certain is it that, with all the progress recorded by the natural sciences, the timeless truths of Judaism remain unaltered. Indeed, each discovery in the natural sciences only confirms the fundamental truth first set forth by Judaism: There can be no thought without a thinker, no order without a regulator, no law without a lawgiver, no culture without a creative spirit, no world without G-d and no man without the gift of free-willed morality.

R. Slifkin has been very critical of ID (Intelligent Design). These are the folks who are skeptical of common descent via blind mindless processes, and who argue that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not undirected processes (such as random mutation and natural selection). Rav Hirsch's position is that the realization that there must be an omnipotent Creator and Ruler of the world, would come to anyone who thoughtfully contemplates nature.

At the end of Psalm 18, David announces that the dissemination of the knowledge and worship of the Lord, to be effected by means of his songs, would be his main purpose in life and the fruit of his sorely-tried stay on earth. Here we have perhaps the most significant example of such a psalm. It has as its theme the sources from which one could come to recognize the Lord and worship Him. To David these sources are the book of nature, from which he derives his knowledge of G-d, and the Torah, from which he has learned how to worship Him. David states that the revelation at Sinai was not essential for the recognition of the fact that there must be someone Who is the omniponent creator, regulator and ruler of all the world. The realization that there must be a G-d could come to anyone who thoughtfully contemplates nature and the heavens in particular (RSRH to Psalm 19, Verses 2-7)