emotional

When I was an Orthodox Jewish fundamentalist theist, one of the major emphases in my fundie indoctrination was the doctrine of creationism. Like Christian fundies, Orthodox Jews are literal six-day creationists, and they believe the universe is (as of year 2002 GE (Goyisher Era)) 5763 years old. (Thass right, 5763 and not 6000. Although Judaism and Christianity share the same Genesis account)

Rabbi Amnon Itschak, a fundie preacher comparable to Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell in Christendom, explained why it was impossible for pious Jews to believe in evolution: "because apes did not receive Torah from Sinai".

Upon being asked about million-years-old rocks and fossils, Rabbi Amnon Itschak answered: "As Adam the First Man was created to be as if he was 30 years old on the first day of his life, so too the rocks were created to appear millions of years old 5760 years ago". Nice <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalos_hypothesis" target="_blank">Omphalos argument</a> here! But what about the Last Thursday theory? No answer.

Of course, there are loads of Orthodox Jewish creationist articles in the fundoOrthodox Jewish world. These, you should know, are just ICR or AiG articles translated to Hebrew with any reference to Jesus/NT/FallOfMan stuff snipped out. Includes usual references to polonium halos, information theory, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Noah's Ark and all that yang. Whereby the "[it's just a] theory" of evolution is debunked, and the Biblical scenario of "And God said, 'Let there be thingy', and, POP! There was thingy" is automagically made true! The source of the damned theory of evolution, say the rabbis, is none other than the sitra ahara - the Other Side, which is an euphemism for the satanic realm.

Orthodox Jewish creationists do not believe in geocentrism or a flat earth. They just ignore those passages in the Hebrew Bible (or the Talmud) that point to geocentrism or a flat earth. But they cling tenaciously to literal six 24-hour-day creationism. Once upon a time, when Pepsico launched a campaign showing a monkey evolving into a Pepsi Kid, the Orthodox rabbinate banned Pepsi because of the "sacrilegious connection of apes and mankind" made in the campaign, so Pepsi had to scrap the campaign altogether.

Anyway, the Theory of Evolution was proposed by a sheygetz, and sheygetzim don't have God's truth, so it's easy to see how he was misled. The Chosen People have received God's revelation from Sinai (a key argument in Judaism), which means the Torah is true. Among less fundamentalist believing Jews, there is the usual scope of interpretation to fit the Torah account: Day-Age, Gap, Progressive etc.

callmejay

I'd just like to point out, having grown up "Modern Orthodox" myself, that there are plenty of Orthodox Jews who DO believe in evolution. Many of them use the Day = Era rationalization, as devnet said. I personally know a bunch of scientists (biologists, chemists, physicists) who are Modern Orthodox as well.

For those who don't know, Modern Orthodoxy is an unofficial (I guess) movement which attempts to be completely observant to the Torah laws while still placing a high value on secular knowledge. Of course, less modern Orthodox point to people like me as examples of why kids shouldn't be raised "modern."

Apikorus

To amplify jay's point, Orthodox Judaism is not as monolithic as most gentiles (or even most Jews) think. There is an immense gulf between the Modern Orthodox, who very much participate in our pluralistic society (e.g. living and working among a diverse population) and insular groups like the Breslover Hasidim. Like Jay, I know many scientists who are Modern Orthodox, and I know one in particular who works on models of evolution. These people fully believe that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, that natural selection is the principal mechanism of speciation, etc.

In general, the traditional Jewish (= rabbinic) hermeneutic has often stretched the plain sense of the text of the Hebrew Bible. Midrashic expansion can take the same bit of text and move from there in wildly different directions. There is ample precedent to look beyond the plain sense (= peshat) of the text. Even within the Hebrew Bible itself, this sort of reinterpretation occurs. E.g. Jeremiah's predicted 70 year exile was elucidated in Daniel to have a subtler meaning of 70 weeks (of years = 490 years).

In general, Judaism has not placed so much emphasis on confessional belief in "Scripture" as has Christianity. The systematization of a Jewish creed didn't occur until Maimonides in the 12th century. (See <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rambam13.html" target="_blank">"The 13 Articles of Jewish Faith</a>.) The foundation document of Rabbinic Judaism is the Talmud, rather than the Hebrew Bible (though the former is of course intimately connected with the latter). While the Talmud certainly does discuss some credal issues, the rabbis of the Talmud were more concerned with halakha (= Jewish law) than with confessional stance.

Virtually any Orthodox rabbi will tell you that it is important for a Jew to perform mitzvot even if he doesn't understand why. The parade scriptural citation for this position is from Exodus 24:7:

While the biblical text itself does not necessarily connote temporal separation, it is common among rabbinic circles to impose such a reading on the boldfaced words, naaseh venishma = "we will do and we will listen/obey". The primary emphasis is on doing, not on understanding - understanding can come at a later time.

That being said, devnet's points are all quite valid as well. I think the oftentimes silly positions taken by the Orthodox rabbinate (in Israel and in America) are really more a matter of social control, rather than an attempt to save Jews from "sinful thinking". It isn't sinful within Judaism to believe that humans evolved from lower life forms, but if you start thinking along those lines then pretty soon you may find yourself watching TV on Shabbat or (gasp!) dating a shiksa. I think the social control issue is also the principal factor behind corresponding silly pronouncements by Christian clergymen. The difference, though, is that most Christians believe that wrong thinking is in some way sinful.