There is a pleasure that some have overlooked lately – for it has taken a backseat to the entertainment industry. The pleasure of thinking.

Go to the Beit Hamidrash / House of Study in a Yeshiva to see partners debating fine points in the Talmud. They question their partner’s point of view, their initial understandings and even their own point of view to determine whether they make sense or not. They ask “is it logical?” The Talmud is the ultimate masterpiece of logic of all time.

Questioning is never inhibited because the entire goal is to get to the truth. Please don’t believe because of faith – believe because of fact, actual experience and logic – Judaism encourages questions.

When falsity exists people push questions under the rug. The truth is not afraid of questions.

At times, people would rather stick to their guns and accept things absurd because it interferes with their pleasures or their lifestyle.

This is not the way of Judaism. Judaism is open-minded in that it discusses all matters of life and delves into finding the truth of ethical, philosophical and legal issues.

All issues are evaluated thoroughly to assure that all the ends are tied.

The question we’re treating today is : Does Evolution Makes Sense?

It’s a very important question to ask because children in schools are are indoctrinated (… oh, sorry, that wouldn’t be politically correct …) I mean taught it daily – without protest or the bat of an eyelid. Respected Scientists and news media take it for granted, they quote – “a new incredible fish was discovered that is covered with eyes …” – a wonder of billions of years of randomness??!

Let’s look at it in a mock conversation that illustrates the point of view of evolution according to evolutionists:

The first two amoebas in the world were talking together.

They got into an argument.

Amoeba A – “I’m telling your mother”

Amoeba B – “I have no mother – I was formed through random molecules that just happened to form me and my perfect DNA Helixes. so what are you going to do now – you one celled creature

Amoeba A – “That’s interesting the same exact thing happened to me. What a coincidence?! You better apologize – because if not in a billion years i am going to become a lion and you will will see.

Ever think of the following…

If the first amoeba was formed through random molecules – it wouldn’t be alive. It would be a physical object like a chair without life.

The probability of a random creation of actual bacterial product is greater than 1:10^120 (1 with 120 zeros following it) (text 2001principle.net site) Would you bet a million dollars on a horse that had those odds of winning?

Statistics prove the probability of evolution decreases the more cells there are because the probability of 2 cells being created by randomness is much less. Multiply that by all the cells in the world from the beginning of time and you find evolution is impossible.

Perfect DNA strands that are similar in all life forms formed by random molecules?

Where did these molecules come from? Who created them?

Do Amoebas have a will to evolve?

Do inanimate cells have a will to form into different parts of the body?

Can something physical have a will? Or can a chair want something?

What is the physical difference in something that is living and dead?

Can uniformity and beauty in all nature come from randomness?

What about a perfect balance between the whole natural ecosystem?

What about all the other creatures in the world, their existence and development – through randomness?

Perfect interaction between male and female genders through randomness?

Creation of a male and the perfect counterpart – the female – with randomness?

Perfectly formed Babies through randomness?

The conception, incubation and birth process perfectly coordinated through randomness?

Body parts and systems (respiratory, circulatory, nervous, skeletal, etc.) perfectly formed through randomness?

Body parts and systems (respiratory, circulatory, nervous, skeletal, etc.) perfectly functioning through randomness?

Einstein knew this scientific problem. He said “G-d does not play dice with the universe.”

Darwin himself – said that his theory is difficult to accept because the complexity of a human eye cannot be explained by randomness.

So some scientist will say that aliens came from outer-space to plant seeds here. So where did the aliens cells come from? And their seeds? You have the same question.

Still make sense to you? Draw your own conclusion – you are intelligent.

The lost art of thinking.

The initiators of the quarrel against Moses were four. Korach, Ohn son of Pelet, Datan and Aviram.

At the time of the showdown, further on in the parasha / Torah reading (Korach), Ohn is not mentioned.

What happened to Ohn?

His wife reasoned him. She said :
“In any case you gain nothing from the quarrel. If Korach wins, you will be secondary to him. You are already secondary to Moses. So what do you gain?”

He agreed, but didn’t know how to back out.

“Let me take care of it,” she said. She made him fall asleep with wine.

When they came to pick up Ohn, she sat in front of her tent with her hair uncovered.

The men were dissuaded from entering the tent when they saw her thus. So they went to the showdown without him.

In the end all involved in the quarrel died. Her intelligence saved her husband.

A wife has great power to make her husband righteous.

Once two righteous people were married. They divorced. Both married an unrighteous person. In the end the righteous man became unrighteous. The unrighteous man became righteous. Wives have the power to help their husband reach their potential. It is one of their purposes to achieve in life. Smart women influence husbands for good according to Torah values.

It says in the Torah, that just like the Jews were redeemed from Egypt due to the righteous women of that time, in the time of the current exile we will be redeemed due to the righteous women of our time.

How? I don’t know.

But perhaps it is by the wives influencing their husbands to do Mitzvot and learn Torah.

A woman gets half of the reward her husband’s Mitzvot in the next world. Torah study is one of the greatest Mitzvot. Want a better house there? Send your husband to a Yeshiva or shul regularly to learn Torah instead of letting him kill time.

You have the power.

Life is easier observing Judaism.

Torah Observant Jews have higher levels of well-being than their counterparts of every other group in America, according to new data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Observant Jews Scored a 71.2 in the composite score of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Why?

1. Relationship with Hash-m

A Torah Observant Jew has an added dimension in his life. He is in regular communication with Hash-m, when praying, saying blessings, expressing hopes to help him get through the day. We always have Hash-m to turn to at any time or any place. Belief in G-d gives us more strength to overcome challenges of everyday life. Your prayers are answered.

2. All Our Acts are Purposeful and Elevated
Some may say, I want to do what I want when I want, I don’t need rules. But Each physical act done as a Mitzvah elevates the act to doing the will of the Creator and also gives us purpose in each act that we do. The act has an effect on our personal character traits. By doing and achieving our purpose, we believe in ourselves and become ourselves and live a more meaningful life.

3. Your Questions are Answered.
If you want to know what is expected of you just look in the Torah.
Want to know the why of anything? Look in the Torah.
One realizes that life has a purpose. His purpose is clear and he spends time achieving it – rather than being in doubt of what it is.

4. Know What is Right and What is Wrong
When the average person, has an ethical dilemma or any other question in life, they ask professors, family, friends, neighbors, or thinks tanks – till they get answers – not necessarily the same or correct.

The Torah, given 3,300 to the Jewish nation, by Hash-m, at mount Sinai – the only time in History that G-d appeared to an entire nation (no other people or faith can say this) gives you all the answers. What is right and what is wrong according to Hash-m not society.

Here is a dialog of a person and a Rabbi to illustrate the Problem of Relying on Society’s Values :

Rabbi: Once I taught a class of college students about ethics. I asked them a simple question. “Why in general is one allowed to kill animals but it is not right to kill humans?”

Daniel: That’s simple. Men are more intelligent.

Rabbi: So are you proposing that killing of unintelligent people is acceptable?

Daniel: No. Not at all… Killing is not good for the society at large.

Rabbi: So if it is “good” for the society – like to save money of health care costs – can you condone killing?

Daniel: No. So what is the answer?

Rabbi: It is an absolute truth that it is wrong to kill people – because G-d said it is wrong. Any reason that you can come up with besides that one – you can justify genocide. Because if society determines what is right and wrong they can justify murder, like the Nazis did. Society can change it’s mind about the law. G-d does not change His “mind” or the Law.

A person wants to do what is right. Their problem lies in 1) knowing what is right 2) knowing if his plan of action is proper for his particular situation and 3) doing it. A Torah observant Jew knows what is right from the Torah. He just has to grapple with 2) knowing if his plan of action is proper for his particular situation and 3) overcome the challenge of doing the right thing.

5. Easier to Cope and Feel Good About Yourself
Many precepts of Judaism make you feel good about yourself. On the path of the Torah, you know you are going in the right direction. Hash-m has faith in you. You can always do Teshuva (return). (see “You are Special” card in our Freebies section)

6. It Structures Your Life
Daily Structure
A Jew’s life is well structured. He or She wakes up in the morning says Modeh Ani (expressing Hash-m’s faith in us), washes hands, says the Shema, the morning prayer and eats a bread breakfast.

When eating we recite blessings on the food.
After our needs, we recite Asher Yatzar – Blessing of the wonderful creation of man.
Before retiring we recite the Shema Yisrael – expressing our belief in Hash-m.

Weekly Structure
At the end of the week we desist from creative activity on Shabbat, allowing us to rest, spend time with family and reflect on our purpose and goals in life.

Yearly Structure
Every year we are privy to various Holidays allowing us to spend time with family.

Our diet is managed by allowing us Kosher foods.
Our clothes are managed by Torah specifying appropriate clothes (Non-Shatnez (mix of wool and linen); Laws of Tzniut (Jewish Modesty for women)) Being Tzanua (Modest according to Jewish Law) allows a woman to be appreciated for her inner beauty.

(cards for Shema, Food Blessings, Asher Yatzar, Tzniut are available in freebies section)

7. Pleasure with Meaning – Judaism Makes Soul Happy
People have an Idea that if you have pleasure you will be happy. If you don’t you will not. The obvious question is – according to that is alcoholics should be the happiest people. Or all the rich should be the happiest. This is not the case.

Judaism does not encourage asceticism. On the contrary, it proposes reaching the spiritual heights through happiness and enjoying the world. There are some pleasures that please the soul and others that depress it. Those that please it are usually associated with doing kindness and Mitzvot and the opposite are those that depress it.

The Real you is your soul. Thus becoming happier is much easier. Just do pleasures that please the soul. Those are easily found in the Torah.

8. Judaism and Kids
One of the greatest pleasures in life is up bringing kids. One of the greatest pains in life is upbringing kids. The pain contributes to the pleasure – like an athlete who trains thoroughly experiences more pleasure for victory than one that did not. Like it says in Pirkei Avot “According to the Pain is the Reward.”

Some say that they refrain from having children because they do not want it to impinge on their pleasure. It is a Mitzvah to Have Children. The principle is that the greater pain the greater pleasure. The greater pain in raising the children – the greater pleasure.

Following Judaism, there are many opportunities and responsibilities for children. In the end they grow up happier and more satisfied in Life. (like shown in the well-being survey.)

We also see this pleasure in effect, with people who are careful to provide “kosher” activities to children. Their scope of activities is more limited but in the end they gain.

If a person turned off his TV for a month and then started watching it again, he would realize the excessive violence and impropriety. Those who have avoided it for the sake of their kids (and themselves) gained much satisfaction (nachat) by being occupied with constructive and self-building activities.

9. Happier Kids & Parenting
A proof to the fact that children are happier observing Judaism and going to Jewish Day schools, is that 98% of children that attended a Jewish day school – married Jewish.

I believe that there is no salesman alive that convinces 98% of his prospects to buy his products.

Some reasons why statistics say the Torah observant received the highest happiness and well-being score.

Believe in Yourself and Feel Good about Yourself.

Walking down the street in Manhattan, I was immersed in thoughts. Con Edison – the electric company – doing work, barricaded the sidewalk. There were two barriers on the sidewalk, with a gap between them wide enough to walk through. I did not pay attention, so I walked through them.

The Con Edison Worker yelled “You See the Barriers and You Walk Right Through Them!”

This is one of the properties of being part of the Jewish Nation. We see the barriers, but with proper effort and Tephilah / Prayer, we walk right through them.

Everyday, Hash-m sends us messages. We have to be able to pick up on them. Doing so we blossom.

We have tremendous potential to do good. We just have to believe in ourselves.

This is what is meant in the Torah (Parasha / Weekly Torah Reading Lech Lecha) when Hash-m says to Abraham to count the stars and then says such will be your descendants. One explanation is that just like you attempt to do the impossible and succeed, so will your descendants. Click here for a short audio on the subject

Be Proud and Succeed.

What do you do?
A Natural Reaction is to become angry and shout “”Be careful! I told you no ball playing in the house!!”

Let’s Reframe.

Your priority in life is your family.

You have a job to support your family, not the other way around.

You work to help them have what they need to develop into the best people they can.

Your spout of anger will train them to follow your example.

So getting angry went against your priorities.

You can overcome it. Believe in yourself.

Here are Jewish Self-help links on anger management:

Article
Anger the inner teacher

Book
Anger the inner teacher – From Artscroll

Anger the inner teacher – From Amazon

Story
There is a story about how great our ancestors were in controlling themselves in
an Audio by Rabbi Akiva Tatz called Levels of the Spirit – Sins of the Great. One story he mentions about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein can inspire us to follow his example.

Providing a Solid Torah Education is one of the many Responsibilities of Jewish Parents.

Not only does it give a Child a happier life, but it also assures Jewish Continuity.

Here is One Site that talks about the importance of a Jewish Education

The Jewish Education Network

I found a site that shows the statistics of Jewish Continuity:

Jewish Growth Rate Chart

The Torah is the Divine Guide given to man to conduct himself properly and gain the maximum from life. Have a dilemma? A Question on Ethics? A question on proper conduct? The Torah provides the answer that G-d approves of – He wrote it and gave it to man 3,300 years ago – for us to maximize our potential in life.

What does the Torah say regarding cremation?

The Soul sees after it leaves the earth. It experiences tremendous pain when it sees it’s former body burning.

There are 13 Principles of Fact that a Jew Should Believe that were compiled by the RamBam (Maimonides). (We offer a free card – the Happiness card – that lists them – see Freebies Section). A Person who has creation denies one of them – that the dead will be resurrected. Since they believe that they will not be resurrected – they create their version of reality – and they thus will not be resurrected.

General Question
Ask the Rabbi

Should You Listen to Parents Request?
Parents, Obeying to Violate Commandment
Burial and Cremation in Jewish Law / Halacha

Ultimate Distortion of a Mitzvah

Aish Hatorah Articles

Cremation: A Burning Issue

by Rabbi Avi Shafran
Even after death, the body is a holy vessel that deserves respect.

The Jewish View of Cremation
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Death involves not just the body, but also the soul.

Cremation or Burial? A Jewish View
by Doron Kornbluth
Why Jewish burial is important — for you and the soul of the departed.

Letter from Head of Jewish Burial Society

Burial Society Articles

Working a 7-day work-week leave you cold? Well once upon a time this was the norm. But the Jewish nation in their tenacity of following the laws of Shabbat changed this.

Thank G-d for Judaism. (TGFJ)

To Arrive at belief in Judaism, one must answer three questions –

1. Does it make more logical sense to believe that G-d Exists or that He does not?

2. Did He give a divine law for people to follow?

3. Which law is it?

Let’s just deal with the first question for now.

Judaism’s Belief in God explains that there is One G-d, that is Omnipotent (all-powerful) and Omniscient (all-knowing), who has no physical or spiritual form who directs and creates the world every moment.

Those who do not believe say that the world was always here or there was a an explosion (the big- bang) and in the 15 billion years of the world, randomness produced order.

What makes more sense?

Let’s take the possibility that an amoeba was formed from random atoms floating around in space in the last 15 billion years (assuming their calculation of the universe’s age). Let’s underestimate this possibility to be 1 out of 1,000,000,000. What does this mean? That the probability of the creation of another cell attached to it is at least 1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 = 10^18 power. (assuming that the first cell would still be alive at that point). The probability for the next cell to form would be 1 out of 10^27 power. Factor into this the number of cells in existence from time began and you have an impossible probability.

Let’s make it simpler to understand – if randomness takes 15 billion years to form one cell, the appearance of the second cell in history would appear another 15 billion years later.

Also how do you explain the existence of atoms themselves, molecules, electrons, cells, light, order in nature, order in the universe, laws of physics? Order cannot come from randomness.

Someone once asked Rabbi Meir Baal Haness to prove the existence of G-d. Rabbi Meir said to return to him tomorrow. The next day the man wanted his answer. Rabbi Meir said before I answer I want to to read this poem. The man was impressed by the beauty of the poem. He asked who wrote it. Rabbi Meir replied, I was sitting by the table and the ink spilled by accident on the parchment and out came this poem. The man replied “impossible, something so beautiful cannot be formed like that.” Rabbi Meir then said – this is your proof of the existence of G-d. Such a perfect and orderly world cannot come to existence through randomness.

Below are some interesting links on the subject:

The Presentation of the 2001 Principle

Home Page of 2001 Principle

2001 Principle – text of probability of randomness creating order

Once one believes in G-d it makes sense to explore Judaism.
The Torah has Commandments for all humanity and for Jews:

The commandments for all humanity are the seven Noahide Laws
For More infor regarding Judaism click here.

Interesting Stories of Interest to Jewish families are found weekly in a popular Jewish Magazine called – Mishpacha (Family).

The Magazine contains several magazines – one of news and current event stories, One for Kids and Teens, One for Women, and occasionally one that deals with intellectual public interest stories, named Kulmus. Kulmus recently had an articles on Quantum Mechanics and the Torah and one on an American Ambassador to Israel that converted to Judaism. It keeps the family up to date and occupied with news and activities. It contains stories on international interests, business, science and Jewish world news.

It’s high standards of reporting and advertisements allows one’s family stay have a wholesome alternative to other news media.

Here is the link

Mishpacha Magazine – a magazine for news and wholesome Jewish fun