Kedusha & Time Dilation
Exploring the Torah connection to Special & General Relativity
by David Bar-Cohn

Explaining Mikdash phenomena

We will start the discussion with two points of inquiry:

1. The “Western Lamp” of the Menorah stayed lit longer than the others, with the same amount of oil. (Shabbat 22b)
2. The Lechem Ha’Panim was known to stay warm and fresh all week, as if it had just come out of the oven. (Menachot 96b)

Questions such as these are typically approached either in the context of myth or miracle. Either there is no explanation because it is just a colorful story, or there is no explanation because G-d decreed that it should happen, period. Either way, neither approach lends itself to inquiry. We are going to employ a third approach – to take as a given that it happened and try to understand “how” it happened.

Facts of the case

Let’s take a look at the case. Both phenomena involve a form of preservation that defy normal expectations and took place on an ongoing basis. The oil was preserved, and the bread was preserved – but due to what? What produced this effect? The obvious place to look is the fact that both the oil and the bread were found in the Kodesh, the antechamber opposite the Kodesh Kedoshim, wherein sat the Aron, the Ark of the Covenant.

As an aside, regarding the Menorah we must also account for the odd detail that while all seven lamps were there in the same room, only the Western Lamp was subject to the preservation effect. The Gemara (Megilla 21b) states that all the wicks were facing the Western Lamp, and the Western Lamp was facing the Shechina (the “Presence” of Hashem in the Kodesh Kedoshim). The fact that it is the “Western” lamp also implies this, since west is the direction of the Kodesh Kedoshim (when standing in that room). So the tentative conclusion we might reach is that in fact the phenomenon of preservation is related to the proximity/connection to the Shechina, the place of most intense Kedusha.

How does it work?

Now we must ask, what is it about Kedusha that would cause things to be preserved? One might speculate that as Kedusha/the Presence of Ha’Kadosh Baruch Hu is life-imbuing and energizing that the oil and bread drew extra “Shefa” from this source, and were essentially “supercharged” as a result. (For more on the connections between Kedusha and energy, see Rav Chaim Zimmerman’s book “Torah and Existence” as well as my own article, “Dynamics of Kedusha and Bracha”).

One possible problem with the “energy thesis” in this particular instance is the following: Imagine bread exposed to some sort of energy/radiation for one week, such that it stayed warm. If our own experience with heat and time is any indication, the bread would hardly resemble something fresh out of the oven. It would be more like bread that’s been sitting in the toaster too long! Given this difficulty, an alternative explanation may go like this: If the bread is described as fresh and warm as if hardly any time elapsed, maybe in fact hardly any time elapsed. That is, the effect of preservation via Kedusha/Shechina is due to a local slowing of time. Or expressed as a rule: Time slows as Kedusha increases.

Testing the hypothesis

If this hypothesis has merit, we might ask: Are there other instances in Jewish sources that cite the phenomenon of preservation/longevity in proximity to Kedusha? The answer is yes, and here are a few examples:

• Moshe went 40 days/nights without food or water on Mt. Sinai.
• The Torah states that people’s clothing didn’t wear out in the desert.

Both cases involve proximity to the Clouds of Kavod (the Shechina), which traveled with Bnai Yisrael in the desert. In Moshe’s case, he was actually inside the cloud itself when on Mt. Sinai. So perhaps for Moshe, time slowed such that only a few minutes or hours elapsed, whereas the people experienced that same duration as 40 days.

• The Torah gives lifespans of close to 1000 years for people in the early generations.

One could speculate that this phenomenon was due to residual Kedusha left over from Eden – in particular, proximity to the Etz Chaim. This slowed people’s biological clocks in relation to the rest of the world, resulting in long life. But this residual Kedusha diminished over time, yielding gradually shortened lifespans, until such time as people’s internal clocks ticked in time with the rest of the world, whereby the maximum lifespan for a human being was 120 years. One implication of this theory is that if Adam had been allowed to stay within proximity to the Etz Chaim, he would have lived forever (relatively speaking – see below).

• We have the idea that Olam Haba (Olam HaNeshamot) is an “eternal realm.”

First of all, what do we mean when we talk about other “realms” or “planes” or “worlds”? Second, what does it mean that a realm is “eternal” or “beyond space and time”? How can anything exist or happen in such a realm? For an event to take place, you by definition need a time or place in which it occurs. If we start with the assumption that Olam Haba is a space/dimension of maximal Kedusha, whereby time slows nearly to a stop, we may have some answers.

Enter Relativity

We can say that Olam Haba does exist in space & time, only it is a different space-time continuum. That is to say, it only looks eternal when viewed from our perspective. Time-dilation in Special/General Relativity is experienced as follows: A observes B’s clock as running slower, while B experiences a normal passage of time (and in fact perceives A’s clock as running faster).

So Olam Haba is “eternal” when seen from our perspective. We observe Olam Haba’s “clock” slowed down to nearly a dead stop. Someone standing in Olam Haba however, sees time as running normally. On the other hand, our world/history (Olam Hazeh) goes by in the blink of an eye from the Olam Haba perspective. As it says, “1000 years in Your eyes are like a bygone yesterday” (Tehillim 90).*

Also, we have the idea that Hashem is Rishon & Acharon (sees the entire picture). There is also the notion that Adam Ha’Rishon in Eden saw from one end of the world to the other. All of these can be explained if we speak in terms of time dilation, where Olam Hazeh time runs exceedingly quick from the vantage point of Olam Haba.

Space, Time & Olam

Time-dilation by definition comes with a corresponding space-dilation. In Special Relativity, space is shortened in direction of travel. In General Relativity, space is curved around point of gravitation.

The Word “Olam” itself connotes both space (ha’olam) and time (l’olam). Thus discussion of different Olamot (Hazeh/Haba or Asiya, Yetzira, etc.) definitionally speaking refers to differences in space & time. When we speak of an Olam that is more “ethereal” or “eternal”, a “higher realm”, we can define this quantitatively as an alternate space-time continuum, one which runs on a slower clock.

Also regarding the space-time connection, the Talmud describes the Aron with its winged Kruvim as being too big to fit in the Kodesh Kedoshim (Bava Batra 99a). That is to say, since the Gemara essentially cites space-dilation, we should expect time-dilation. In fact we find that time-dilation in the preservation of the oil & bread.

Thus, the concept of space-time dilation helps to demystify Kodesh spaces and phenomena. Rather than describe them in metaphysical terms such as “eternal” and “holy” we can use the language of energy and space-time. And the explanation appears to fit the Torah material, which is an important litmus test.

Other suggestive Relativity/Torah parallels

In Relativity there are two ways that time slows:

1. As velocity approaches speed of light, or...
2. With stronger pull of gravity (lower gravitational potential)

In Torah there are two primary descriptions of Kedusha/Shechina:

1. “Ohr” – light/energy (e.g. Ohr Elyon, Ohr Ha’M’sovev), or...
2. “Kavod” – weightiness/gravitas = weight/gravity (e.g. Kevod Hashem, Ananei Ha’Kavod)

In other words, the two principal aspects of Kedusha (Ohr & Kavod) parallel the two factors in Relativity Theory responsible for time-dilation (Light & Gravity)!

Kedusha, Bracha & Shabbos

“Shabbat Kodesh” (& the festivals/mikra’ei kodesh in general) refers to the time-dilation effect. Shabbat is referred to in the tradition as “Me’ein Olam Haba,” similar to Olam Ha’Ba. How so? From what we said above, we might conclude that Shabbat runs on a slower space-time continuum, but not to the degree of Olam Ha’Ba*

*We have the tradition that Shabbat is 1/60 of Olam Haba. If Olam Haba runs at 1 day per 1000 years of Earth time, Shabbat could be said to run at 60 days for every 1000 years of normal Earth time (i.e. 60 times slower). This would equate to 99.99999864890222% the speed of light, or approx. 299,792.45594951074 Km/sec.

One is not supposed to prepare on Shabbat for the coming week. Some even have the custom not to wear a watch on Shabbat, to say that time has no meaning on this day. Why? Because Shabbat is “eternal” relative to the week – i.e. there is no “coming week” on Shabbat. We also speak on Shabbat of “ohra v’simcha”, the notion of light and slowed-down time.

We have spoken about the Kedusha of Shabbat, but one might ask the question why the verse in the Creation story mentions “Bracha” in addition to Kedusha? In physics, ALL objects can be understood to travel through 4 space-time dimensions at speed of light. For an object sitting still, all motion is going through time dimension. But for an object that moves through space, some of the motion through time dimension is diverted to other 3 dimensions. Thus motion through time slows down.

We might then conclude the following: Kedusha (“vay’kadesh oto”) refers to time being slowed down on Shabbat, whereby motion is being diverted to spatial dimensions, which is expressed as Bracha (“vay’varech E-lohim et yom ha’shvi’i”). Bracha refers to expansion within space (motion in the 3 spatial dimensions). We see in the Torah that indeed the word “bracha” carries the connotation of expansion, proliferation, movement through space, as in “p’ru u’rvu” – be fruitful and multiply and fill the land.

So to sum up:

• Kedusha = decrease in temporal motion
• Bracha = increase in spatial motion

Thus, “vay’varech” and “vay’kadesh” go hand-in-hand by definition.

Nevua & local space-time shifts

A long-standing question is how does Nevua (prophecy) work? What is happening when a Navi has a “vision” of the future? As we said above, in “higher” (slower) Olamot one can see Olam Ha’zeh (i.e. all of human history) in a very short span of time. Once again, greater kedusha = greater slowing of time.

Perhaps a Navi is able to temporarily shift into another Olam (a slower time continuum) and catch glimpses of Earth in the future. But we have a slight problem. If I travel at nearly the speed of light for several months or years and come back to Earth, everyone I know will have long since died. How then does a Navi catch a glimpse of the future and yet manage to come back to the time he or she was in previously? Perhaps we can answer this and at the same time resolve the “guf-neshama” (body-soul) duality.

How do we understand the “guf-neshama” duality aside from metaphysical terms? We can say that they exist in two different space-times, yet there is a portal/wormhole called the “mind” that connects the two, allowing us (in a body) to access the neshama. What a Navi does is enter into a state of mind whereby he or she connects to the Neshama, thereby being able to shift Olamot temporarily and still stay “tethered” to this world (i.e. this space-time continuum).

Something to think about related to Nevua is the story of King Sha’ul when he was chasing after David to kill him. David hid with Shmuel Ha’Navi. Sha’ul sent delegation after delegation to Shmuel, but whenever they got to Shmuel and his troop of Nevi’im, they kept involuntarily falling into the state of Nevua. Finally Sha’ul himself went, and he too fell into a state of Nevua. From this story, we may conclude that when the mental state of Nevua is concentrated enough, it can actually produce a field that will shift unwitting passersby into a different space-time continuum.

Summing up

The hypothesis is that Kedusha has time-dilation effect, which means we can better understand it by looking at Special/General Relativity. It offers a way to explain preservation-related phenomena such as:

• Ner Ma’aravi
• Lechem HaPanim
• Moshe not eating for 40 days
• Lifespans in the Chumash

It also offers an entry to explain the concepts of:

• Olam – Olam Ha’zeh/Olam Ha’Ba, 4 Olamot
• Gan Eden as eternal
• Ohr & Kavod – as light and gravitation
• Shabbat as Me’ein Olam Ha’Ba
• Bracha – in relation to Kedusha
• Guf-Neshama
• Nevua

Aside from what it explains, this approach gets us away from metaphysics, mysticism, and symbolism. It updates the language of discourse from medieval science/philosophy to 20th C physics. It is a shift into thinking in terms of “how does it work” instead of ascribing everything up to nissim and unknowables – and does not take away from the utterly fantastic nature of Hashem’s Creation. On the contrary, it helps us to greater appreciate and understand it!

© 2008 David Bar-Cohn | Comments? Email the author.