Even the most fundamentalist orthodox Jewish viewpoint maintains that Torah and science do not conflict. Humankind must use its creative intelligence to resolve conflict and to figure out from the “basic” principles of Torah what is right and never to be blinded by dogma. A good example is the orthodox Jewish view of creation and the concept of the big bang. Most physicists today believe that the universe is approximately 13 billion years old. That would seem to conflict with the biblical notion that the universe was created in 6 days, and on the seventh day, God rested. However, MIT physicists have studied this concept of the Big Bang mathematically using basic principles of the relativity of time and velocity popularized by Einstein.

As an object is proceeding at or near the velocity of light, time slows down dramatically in relation to a fixed observer. Einstein originally postulated that if you were to travel in a spaceship at the speed of light for thousands of years and then return to earth, you will not have aged significantly, but back on Earth it will be thousands of years later. Time simply gets slower the faster your velocity in relation to a fixed observer. If God and the universe are considered one, a basic Jewish postulate, and the universe is expanding near the speed of light, then the 13 billion years which astronomers measure as the age of the universe mathematically comes out for God to be approximately 6 days. Thus, there is no conflict between our observation that the universe is approximately 13 billion years old, and the traditional biblical view that the universe was created in 6 days. This is one example of the firm belief in Judaism that science, observation, and study do not, and should not conflict, with religion and spirituality. That is not considered to be God’s wish. The orthodox view of the most respected rabbinic minds is that Torah should be a window to view the universe with an open mind and should not be a wooden shutter.

Thus, the strictest orthodox Jewish theology maintains that the Torah is not in conflict with reproductive technologies. In fact, it is actually a religious obligation for orthodox Jews to preserve their fertility and their ability eventually to “be fruitful and multiply.” For cancer patients of reproductive age, Jewish law ultimately requires every effort to safeguard the possibility for future parenthood.

By Rabbi Sherman J. Silber