The Root of Everything

“In the beginning Hashem created”… (Bereishit 1:1) 

The Scientists of Chelm 

There is a parable that frames the faulty logic of modern-day scholars and scientists: 
 

When the train was first invented, the world was flabbergasted. It was simply revolutionary and would change everything. Until this invention came along, the world traveled by carriages and wagons either pulled by horses and donkeys or pushed by people. The idea that a row of cars can move on their own accord was bewildering for most people. 
 

When the community in the legendary village of Chelm heard about the train – how there was this row of cars that would move without a donkey or horse – they could not believe it. They decided to send a group of their so-called wise scientists to Warsaw, the capital, to investigate this miracle of innovation for themselves and to figure out how it worked. 
 

They spent a few weeks in Warsaw examining, inspecting, and studying the train. They observed it moving along the tracks, and to their amazement it operated without the assistance of any people, horses, or donkeys. 
 

They returned to Chelm and were greeted by everyone in town, a true hero’s welcome. When the crowd’s cheers and applause died down, they addressed the crowd saying: “After extensive research, we were able to understand how the train works. Each car is pulled by the one in front of it. The tenth and last car is pulled by the ninth, the ninth by the eighth, the seventh by the sixth, the sixth by the fifth, the fifth by the fourth, the fourth by the third, the third by the second, and the second car is pulled by the first.” 
 

The entire town was elated with their delegation’s report, and it erupted with roars of jubilation. Except for one young man who shouted out: “And how does the first car move!?” 
 

The group of scholars answered: “Good question. You see, the first car would make a tremendous amount of noise and smoke and then start moving. However, we were unable to understand exactly how that car moved. But we understood how the rest of the cars moved. With all our success explaining the rest, it doesn’t really matter if one small detail is unexplained”…   
 

Explaining Everything but the Beginning 

The lesson from this story is clear: 
 

The scientific community is full of “scholars” who spend their lives studying the world and nature. Their research and experiments are exhaustive, and they believe that their results are conclusive and that everything can be explained. 
 

However, they are only studying the outcome defining how things in nature work without ever asking the most pertinent question: how did the laws of nature become established? How does the “first car” move? They are only trying to understand the effect, while ignoring the cause, the original source of everything, developing theories and hypotheses to try and explain the creation of the world. However, they cannot explain the very first moment upon which everything else evolved. 
 

Hashem created the world so that people can decide if they want to choose good and to believe and see the power of Hashem. That process required that Hashem conceal Himself within the laws of nature and burying His existence beneath layers of physicality. The world and its natural order can distract someone from making the right choices and from believing in Hashem’s presence. 
 

However, a person must pause for a moment and realize that everything they see in the world, everything they experience, and the very laws of nature are just outcomes of that initial moment when Hashem empowered all of creation with the gift of life and existence. They would understand that Hashem created and continues to sustain all of creation continually. While they see the “cars” being pulled, there is that first car that leads to it all. 
 

There are many scientists who want to deny Hashem’s existence. They are trying to explain the world through their lens of science. Even when they see a clear miracle, an event that completely contradicts their laws of science, they try to find natural explanations. Instead of these events intensifying their belief in Hashem, they try to explain away the unexplainable, when actually even according to their explanation, at the end of the game the cause which they explain also comes clearly from Hashem.   
 

An Earthquake? 

An example of this was Kriyat Yam Suf, the splitting of the Red Sea. Over the years there have been countless scientists who try to explain this event through the laws of nature. They claim that maybe the water receded and was pulled away because of an earthquake or a tsunami, which happens naturally in some places, once in a period of hundreds or thousands of years. They continue to try and discredit the miracle by explaining how it possibly happened naturally. 
 

There is an incredible story about the Baal Shem Tov zt”l (Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah, Beshalch, 7): A student, who had heard a reasonable explanation Kriyat Yam Suf, decided to ask the Baal Shem Tov. Before he managed to ask the Baal Shem Tov his question, the Baal Shem Tov went to the shul and requested that everyone in the village gather immediately. The Baal Shem Tov explained that through the work of scientists, the miracle of Kriyat Yam Suf was even more incredible and an even greater revelation of Hashem’s presence. According to their explanation of how the sea split naturally, you can clearly see how incredible Hashem is, that when He created the world, he created the Red Sea with such a nature, that at the exact moment the yidden needed to cross the sea, it would split! Benei Yisroel had such a miracle that the laws of nature were originally created to allow them to pass on dry land (as the Rambam explains the mishna in Pirkei Avot 5:6).   
 

The Beginning of Everything 

Perhaps this is the reason that the Torah begins with the word בראשית- “in the beginning”, because this is a fundamental concept in Yiddishkeit, that the yidden constantly consider the “beginning” and source of everything. 
 

You cannot be like the scholars who study nature and science but are only trying to explain the outcome of a series of events, a chain reaction’s product and neglect to realize that there was a very first moment of creation that was the course and root of everything that has followed. 
 

We must always focus on the idea that Hashem is the First Cause that created every effect. A yid must live with the knowledge that the world was created by Hashem, for a purpose, for the goal of uncovering Hashem’s presence and adhering to a life of Torah and mitzvot.  

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The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years, and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. You can sign up at www.kaalov.org.