Or haTzafun on Eternity (and the Conservation of Matter)
One of the conservation laws of Aristotelian and Newtonian physics was that the total amount of matter in the universe is constant. None is created or destroyed. But E = mc² is about how mass and energy interchange. And actually, the expansion of the universe means that more energy (of the “dark energy” sort) is constantly being created. And therefore potentially that new energy could be turned into new stuff.
But after all those new physics caveats, nothing is ever destroyed.
In Or haTzafun (“Nitzchiyus haTorah vehaAdam“, the only essay on the book of Devarim), R Noson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka (Kovno, Lithuania 1849 – Yerushalayim 1927) gives a theological cause for this permanence.
One of the central themes of the entire sefer is that “ה’ בְּחׇכְמָ֥ה יָסַד־אָ֑רֶץ — Hashem founded the world with wisdom” (Mishlei 3:19) And also, “עֹ֭ולָם חֶ֣סֶד יִבָּנֶ֑ה — the world is built of lovingkindness.” (Tehillim 89:3) In the Alter’s thought, Lovingkindness is Wisdom, and that “entity” is the stuff from which Hashem created the world. In particular, the human soul, but also our bodies, and the universe as a whole.
Hashem is beyond time. And thus, so is His Wisdom.
The sin of eating from the Eitz haDaas only caused us to lose sight of our inherent eternal nature. Both of the soul and the body. And mitzvos restore our ability to experience it.
Here it is in the the Ohr haTzafun‘s own words:
| ולכאורה יש להבין, איך אפשר לחייב את האדם שהוא קרוץ מחומר ובן תמותה לקלוט את קול ה׳ הנצחי המצוה עליו בכל יום? אולם הרי האדם נברא בצלם אלהים ונופחה בו נשמה נצחית שאינה נספית לעולם ובכוחו לשמוע את קול ה׳ שאינו פוסק לעולם ולקלוט תמיד את ציוויי התורה הנצחיים. ואף על פי שהוא נוצר בחלקו גם מעפר מן האדמה, גם חלק זה נצחי. הכתוב אומר: ״ה׳ בחכמה יסד ארץ״ (משלי ג), היינו, שגם הארץ יסודה בחכמה הנצחית של ה׳, ואם כן גם גוף האדם הנוצר מן האדמה הוא כוח רוחני נצחי, ומאחר שהתאחד עם נשמת החיים שנופחה בו ממעל, וכתוב בו: ״ויהי האדם לנפש חיה״ כלומר, שכל האדם נעשה נפש חיה, הרי בכוחו ומחובתו של אדם זה להקשיב תמיד לדבר ה׳ הנשמע ללא הרף ולקיימו כדיוטגמא חדשה שניתנה באותו רגע. | At first glance, we must ask: how can a human being — a creature formed of physical matter and destined to die — be expected to grasp the eternal voice of God, commanding him anew each day? Yet, the human being was created in the image of God, and a divine, eternal soul — which never perishes — was breathed into him. Through that soul, he has the capacity to hear the Hashem’s Voice, which never ceases, and to continually receive the Torah’s eternal commandments. And although he was formed in part from the dust of the earth, even that earthly element is eternal. As Scripture states: “Hashem founded the earth with Chokhmah” (Mishlei 3). That is, the earth itself is founded upon God’s eternal wisdom; therefore, the human body — fashioned from the earth — also possesses an eternal spiritual power. Since this body has been joined with the living soul breathed into it from above, as it is written, “And man became a living being” (Bereishis 2:7), meaning that the entire human being became a living soul — it follows that such a person both has the power and bears the obligation to listen constantly to the ever-sounding word of God, and to fulfill it as though it were a new decree given at that very moment. |
| ואמנם אמרו חז״ל (חולין קמב): ״אין לך כל מצוה ומצוה בתורה שאין שכרה בצדה שאין תחית המתים תלוי בה, שנאמר (דברים כב): ׳למען יטב לך ולמען יאריכון ימיך׳ לעולם שכולו טוב ולעולם שכולו ארוך״. מהו עולם שכולו טוב, שאין בו שום משהו של רע, ועולם שכולו ארוך שכל רגע שבו אין לו סוף? הרי זה העולם הנצחי. ואם האדם המקיים מצוה אחת – זוכה בשכרה לעולם נצחי זה, הרי שהתורה היא נצחית, וגם האדם למרות שהוא מורכב גם מחלק העפר, הוא נצחי. וזה פירושה של תחילת המאמר, שאין לך מצוה שאין תחית המתים תלוי בה, כלומר ערכה נצחי ושכרה נצחי. ואם מדובר בנצח, הרי אין בו אתמול ומחר אלא הכל הווה. | Indeed, our Sages said (Chullin 142a): “There is no commandment in the Torah whose reward is not stated alongside it, and there is no commandment whose reward does not depend upon the resurrection of the dead, as it is written (Devarim 22): ‘that it may be good for you, and that you may have long days’ — referring to a world that is entirely good and a world that is entirely long.” What is “a world that is entirely good”? — one in which there is no trace of evil. And what is “a world that is entirely long”? — one in which every moment has no end. That is the eternal world. If a person who fulfills even a single mitzvah earns its reward in that eternal world, then the Torah itself is eternal — and likewise, the human being, though composed also of earthly matter, is eternal. This, then, is the meaning of that teaching: “There is no commandment whose reward does not depend on the resurrection of the dead” — its value and its reward are eternal. And when we speak of eternity, there is neither “yesterday” nor “tomorrow,” but only the perpetual present. |
| ולפי זה פירוש הכתוב ״אנכי מצוך היום״, שכשם שה״אנכי״ הוא למעלה מן הזמן, כך ציוויו אל האדם אינם במסגרת הזמן ולעולם הם בבחינת ״היום״ ובכל יום ויום המה כחדשים. | Accordingly, the verse “I command you today” means that just as the “I” — the Anochi — is beyond time, so too His command to humanity is not bound by time, and is forever in the aspect of “today,” ever new and fresh each and every day. |
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