Torah and Science

Why did Laban accept that Rachel could not rise before him when she said, “For the way of women was upon me”? Why does the Torah forbid sexual relations during menstruation? Nahmanides’ answers place him at the crossroads of medieval science and mysticism.

Study science to fall in love with God is the message of the Song of Songs according to both Maimonides and Gersonides. Whereas Maimonides believed it was forbidden to make the hidden meaning accessible to the average person, by the time Gersonides was writing a century later, the philosophical reading of the Bible was well known. Thus, he not only explicates the text but also quotes Aristotle 49 times to make his points.

Does a woman simply receive and nourish a man’s seed? Or does she also produce her own seed to conceive a child?

Warning: Using contemporary science and philosophy to explain the Torah may soon render your interpretation obsolete.

Be it against Egypt or Israel, YHWH unleashes locusts as a divine retribution. Scientifically, grasshoppers metamorphose into locusts as a response to environmental disruption.

History according to Rashi, science according to Maimonides. In Maimonides’ view, the Sages knew that hidden behind the allegorical language of the creation account is Aristotelian physics. This knowledge was lost until he (Maimonides) figured out the secret on his own.

The Torah describes God creating through speech, midrash mores specifically understands creation through the letters of the aleph-bet, and the kabbalists envision it as a series of divine emanations, contractions, and primal pairings. What meaning can we find in these ancient creation myths in light of evolution?

Weighing the historicity of the exodus story entails more than addressing the lack of archaeological evidence.

How do they differ? What are their respective goals? And why the two should not be confused.