arrow of time

Rosh HaShanah—the Beginning of Change I

It’s All in the Name Rosh HaShanah is usually translated as the New Year. When translated literally, it means the “Head of the Year.” In this essay, I suggest an alternative (almost literal) translation that reveals a new meaning. The word "rosh" is cognate with "reishit," meaning “beginning.” The word "shanah" is cognate with "shinui," meaning “change.” Therefore, Rosh HaShanah can be translated as the Beginning of the Change. Aristotle equated time with change (Physics). Change itself is unthinkable outside of time as change can only occur in time—first, there was something, and then, it became something else. So, change and time are essentially synonymous. Thus, we can translate Rosh Hashanah as the Beginning of Time. Moreover, what is the beginning? Any process extended in time has the beginning, the middle, and the end. However, what is the [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2024-10-31T23:43:24-04:00October 2nd, 2024|Physics, Rosh HaShanah, Science, Symmetry, Time, Uncategorized|1 Comment

Time and Space as Emergent Phenomena — Abstract

The current Torah portion Beshalach tells about the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. As I discussed in my essay, “Collapse and Revelation,” the splitting of the sea is a metaphor for the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics. The Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, taught us to leiben min hatzait (“to live with the time,” that is, to leave with the current reading of the Torah). Maybe this is why, this week, when we read in the Torah portion Beshalach about the splitting of the sea, I finally understood where time comes from. This question haunted me for more than forty years. Finally, this week, I got it—time emerges through the interaction of consciousness with the universal wave function, causing the sequence of wave function collapses that we perceive as [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2024-01-25T23:30:32-05:00January 25th, 2024|Beshalach, Collapse of the wavefunction, Creation, Exodus (Shemot), Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Philosophy, Physics, Quantum Theory, Science, Shemot, Space, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|3 Comments

The Cosmological Problem of Initial Conditions and the Universe of Tohu

The Cosmological Problem of Initial Conditions and the Universe of Tohu

Now the earth was unformed and void.Genesis 1:2 We have a big problem in cosmology: the problem of the initial conditions of the universe at the time of the Big Bang.[1] Before we can explain this problem, however, we need to review some basic concepts of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics developed by Boltzmann and others[2] described the behavior of gases and liquids and the transfer of heat. A key concept in thermodynamics is entropy. Entropy is a measure of disorder, of chaos. The second law of thermodynamics states that in an isolated system, entropy always increases with time. The second law of thermodynamics explains universal decay. And entropy is the measure of that decay.[3] Shining stars produce entropy. Stars collapsing into black holes produce entropy. Evaporating black holes produce entropy.[4] Entropy is increasing in the universe.[5] Let us [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2022-09-14T22:36:17-04:00September 30th, 2021|Bereishit, Bereshit, Cosmology, Creation, Genesis, Kabbalah, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Sefirot, Thermodynamics, Time, Uncategorized|2 Comments

Jacob and Esau—Thermodynamics of Order and Chaos

Jacob and Esau—Thermodynamics of Order and Chaos

And these are the chronicles of Isaac… (Genesis 25:19) So Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives that he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife. (Genesis 28:9) This Torah portion is called Toledot. In Hebrew, toledot means “generations” or “chronicles.” Indeed, this Torah portion starts with the phrase, “These are the chronicles of Isaac.” This is not the first or the last time this word appears in Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures). It appears for the first time in the opening verse of chapter 2 of Genesis: These are the chronicles of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Eternal G‑d made earth and heaven. (Genesis 2:4) The second time it appears in [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2020-11-24T11:50:04-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Bereshit, Creation, Exodus (Shemot), Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Superposition, Symmetry, Thermodynamics, Time, Toledot, Uncategorized|2 Comments

Primordial Serpent—the Incurable Atomist

Primordial Serpent—the Incurable Atomist

Now the Serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Eternal G‑d had made. (Genesis 3:1) When G‑d placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He issued a decree: And the Eternal G‑d commanded the man, saying: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” (Genesis 2:16) Having commanded man to eat from every tree of the garden, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, G‑d qualified His command: “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) There appears to be some dissonance between verses 16 and 17. Verse 16 uses two words, akhol tokhel, each of which shares the [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2020-02-14T16:54:15-05:00February 14th, 2020|Atomic Theory, Bereishit, Bereshit, Genesis, Parshah, Pentateuch (Chumash), Physics, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction|3 Comments

Passover Seder—The Arrow of Time

Passover Seder—The Arrow of Time

The Passover Seder is called seder, i.e., "order" not without a reason. It is a highly structured and orchestrated ceremony that follows the ancient script—Passover Haggadah. The Seders is a play in four acts: Kiddush (sanctification), Magid (telling the story of the Exodus), Shulchan Orech (the festive meal), and Nirtzah (Hallel—the prayer for the Messianic redemption). This sequence sets the natural arrow of time past-present-future. The Past. During the Magid part of the Seder, we retell the story of the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt—the narrative of our history. Eating of the matzah, drinking four cups of wine and other "simonim" (symbols) of the Seder table—bitter herbs, an egg, a bone, charoset, etc.—are all symbols that have historical significance. This part of the Seder clearly represents the past. The Present. During [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2019-04-14T16:45:56-04:00March 30th, 2018|Passover (Pesach), Time, Uncategorized|1 Comment

On the Nature of Time and the Age of the Universe

Presented at the International Torah and Science Conference in Miami International University on December 18, 2005 Alexander Poltorak Introduction. This is the third in a series of articles, in which I attempt to sketch various approaches to reconciling a cosmological age of the universe currently estimated at 13.75 billion years with the Jewish tradition setting this age at less than six thousand years (5770 as of the day of this writing, to be exact). The first article [1] tackled this problem from the point of view of Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics suggesting that there were two distinct forms of existence—physical and proto-physical—and that the first conscious observers, Adam and Eve, collapsed the universal wavefunction, bringing the world from amorphous proto-physical existence into tangible physical existence. This approach leads to two distinct [...]

By Alexander Poltorak|2020-10-15T23:00:27-04:00August 15th, 2012|Age of the Universe, Cosmology, Spirituality, Time, Uncategorized, Wavefunction, Witnesses|8 Comments

The Cosmological Problem of Initial Conditions and the Universe of Tohu

Jacob and Esau—Thermodynamics of Order and Chaos

Primordial Serpent—the Incurable Atomist

Passover Seder—The Arrow of Time

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