Purim and Science
Posted on | March 19, 2008 | By Bob Miller | 23 Comments
There are those who have tried to combine Torah and Science, with varying degrees of success. Here is my humble contribution to the literature.
There is something called the “observer effect” which has often been connected, maybe inaccurately, with the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. Background on this effect is found here, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect
One section of the above article describes a few of its psychological aspects:
“Use in the social sciences
In the social sciences and general usage, the effect refers to how people change their behavior when aware of being watched (see Hawthorne effect and Observer’s Paradox). For instance, in the armed forces, an announced inspection is used to see how well soldiers can do when they put their minds to it, while a surprise inspection is used to see how well prepared they generally are.”
Now what does this have to do with Purim? After a little wine, this secret might be revealed even better, but here is one example:
My father described his sisters’ attempt to document his mother’s recipe for hamantaschen. Grandma Gussie was a cook from the old school, brought up in Galicia and trained further in cooking by her Hungarian mother-in-law. Nothing was ever written down. Like any artist, she improvised a little in each cooking performance as the spirit moved her. Nevertheless, because her hamantaschen tasted so good, Aunt Ruthie and Aunt Shirley decided they had to get the recipe down on paper. So, Grandma Gussie started making her recipe from scratch, as one aunt took and weighed each ingredient from her as it was ready to go into the mix, and the other aunt wrote down its weight. The result was a batch of hamantaschen that was maybe world class, but not nearly as good as usual. The observers unwittingly spooked the process!
I should wind up here with the actual recipe, but I don’t have a copy, and maybe it’s been lost. At any rate, the hamantaschen used a milchig (I’m pretty sure) dough that was soft but flexible and not crumbly after baking. Not the hard, cookie-like type you buy in stores. The usual filling was prune. The side of each big triangle was around 4 inches long (~10 cm).
While the combination of Torah and Science is often called Torah uMada, or TuM for short, eating many of these hamantaschen never made us need Tums.
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March 19th, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Try Reading “Mind over Matter” for a great study of how and why Torah and Science do not contradict one another.
It is based on the teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
March 19th, 2008 @ 11:51 am
Ah, but Purim Torah u’Madda yields PTUM
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/PTUM
Can’t you find the recipe?!
PTUM!
March 19th, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
Isn’t that the thing on an esrog?
March 19th, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Bob Miller,
How does your grandmother’s hamentaschen recipe compare with your cholent recipe?
March 19th, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
Bob! You have uncovered the meaning of ad d’lo yoda!!!
March 20th, 2008 @ 8:47 am
This article is well written thought provoking as usual. In my humble opinion Torah may be able to compliment science at times however, my opinion, it ultimately does not. Faith will never be science and science will never be faith. They are polar opposites but both have good doughs- the prunes,apricots, poppy seed filings are greatly different though.
Any place the group recommends to get world class hamentashen- off course not as good as Grandma Gussie
March 20th, 2008 @ 9:10 am
Saul, I thought this video or mp3 by Rabbi Mordechai Becher was a good treatment of the synergys between Torah and Science.
March 20th, 2008 @ 9:45 am
Good article. I can’t agree with Saul’s “polar opposites” comment. That is a “religious” view – but not from Judaism. It could also be that the “science” in this equation is popular pseudo science. From my modest dip into Rambam, Ramchal and Tanya it seems clear that Judaism strongly proposes a continuum approach. This says align with the commonly used scientific paradigms whenever possible and use “faith” as s gap filler if forced to do so because a logical link is missing. I have not read Søren Kierkegaard but have the impression that Sauls’s “polar opposites” view equivalent to the “Leap of Faith” view. It is ethical and philosophical and commonly assumed to the the only religious view. OTOH, Jewish philosophers propose the continuum.
March 20th, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
1. RC asked, “How does your grandmother’s hamentaschen recipe compare with your cholent recipe?” In my opinion (that’s the only one I have), they’re both good, but my tuna cholent is too advanced to get any respect. Others may, and always do, disagree.
2. Ymr, it was really neat how you put the authentic slanty line through Kierkegaard’s first name. Ho do you do that?
3. What physical or historical evidence is there that anything about Haman (boo!) was triangular?
4. Is there a yeridas hadoros problem with hamantaschen?
5. Ron said, “Bob! You have uncovered the meaning of ad d’lo yoda!!!” Ron, you are right! Or maybe wrong!
6. Maybe Saul and Ymr’s arguments are like the two theories of light (waves vs. particles) that can be harmonized by some fancy footwork.
March 20th, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
above, s/b 2….How do you do that?
March 20th, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
>like the two theories of light (waves vs. particles) that can be harmonized by some fancy footwork
The Mordechai-Haman duality theory!
What is the greater manifestation of Hashem’s Hashgachah in this world: the downfall of the rasha (arur Haman) or the elevation of the tzaddik (baruch Mordechai)? This is adei lo yada.
Wave/particle duality: The growth of a tzaddik, or Klal Yisrael for that matter, is in waves, like the moon’s phases. But like photon particles, the rasha’s life is a short quantum burst of success followed by extinguishing.
Both aspects of this light – the light of realizing Hashem’s Presence in the world – are reflected in the rasha’s downfall and the tzaddik’s success.
How does one attain this knowledge? Through Talmud Torah, the prism that reveals the hidden light.
Science can be used to bring one closer to God in appreciation of His creation, whereas the highest level of love of God is attainable through Torah study (see Rambam Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:2 and Hilchos Teshuvah 10).
Although science is one end of the polarity, and religion the other end, the harmonizing discipline of Talmud Torah unifies them into a unified field theory.
Talmud Torah is the third side of the triangle, hence, we have a rigorous proof that:
My hat it has three corners.
Three corners has my hat.
And had it not three corners,
It wouldn’t be my hat.
March 20th, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
>2. Ymr, it was really neat how you put the authentic slanty line through Kierkegaard’s first name. Ho do you do that?
The sneaky way is to google his name and then copy and paste from something like Wikipedia.
March 20th, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
The Persians were dualists, which was bad.
March 26th, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
Careful here as we draw too close to Haredi fundamentalism and away from our secular open-minded sensiblities. Where is this contuimum you speak? Are we not BTS. I belive religion will always be a polar opposites with science however on the same coin. One gives off moon beams of light and the other one studies it.
March 26th, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
These discussions rarely end. Sooner or later, somebody will continuum.
March 26th, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
We have certainly been accused of being unduly moonbeam-affected, I will say that, Saul!
March 26th, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
This thread actually illustrates the difference between goyishe science and the Yiddishe kind. They have cats that may or may not be dead*; we have hamantaschen with different fillings! Ours sure is alot yummier!
____________
Schrödinger’s cat
March 26th, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Tal, part of your link didn’t show properly.
I’ll try it again:
Schrödinger’s cat
March 26th, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
Never an admin around when you need one, huh.
March 26th, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
Links fixed
March 26th, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
Nu, and how about rechts?
March 27th, 2008 @ 9:09 am
Tal, did Schrödinger’s cat ever eat your homework?
March 27th, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
“Tal, did Schrödinger’s cat ever eat your homework?”
It did and it didn’t.