From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Heleocentric Cosmosology
Date: 11 Oct 92 19:48:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnews.1992Oct11.194849.16970
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio

In article <IepT_hi00WBM44poVw@andrew.cmu.edu> Jason Ari Goldstein <jg3o+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>I have been taking a History of Modern Science (Aristotle - 1900) this
>semester and we are discussing the changes in science between Aristotle
>and Kepler.  An important discussion has been the Church's response to
>the Heleocentric model of the universe as proposed by Copernicus and
>later Galileo and Kepler.  We all know the Church's response - they
>excommunicated Galileo.  My question is this, how did Judaism deal with
>this then and what is the common viewpoint now?  (ie. How do Jews

Is it even worth pointing that the Church  that came down on "modern
science"  wasn't particularly nice to the Jews either?

And certainly the Church and the Pope didn't posken [ render an
opinion on Jewish law ] for us.

>reconcile the fact the world does not revolve about man)
>
>What I am really looking for is twofold,
>    1 - Official Jew Viewpoint
>    2 - Your Personal Viewpoint
>

Jason:

I'm not a rabbi, so I won't attempt to state an oficial Jewish
viewpoint, but I can say what I believe.

I  son't see the world revolving about man.  Rather, the world --
the definition of world can encompass the entire physical univcerse,
as Dr. Herman Rubin often writes in this newsgroup  -- revolves
about G-d.  G-d gave us the world to be its caretakers.

In a few short days, Jews all over the world will complete the
annual reading of the Torah scroll by reading tha last words of the
5th Book of Moses (Deuteronomy) and will immediately rewind the
Torah scroll and read the initial verses of the 1st Book, Genesis.

From Genesis I:28  And G-d said [ to Adam and Eve ] 
                   Be fruitful, and multiply, and
                      replenish the earth,
                      and subdue it,
                      and have dominion over ...
                          [ every living thing ]

In the Hertz Chumash, the late Rabbi Joseph Hertz notes:

   This is the first precept (mitzvah) given to man ... the
   first of the 613 commandments of the Torah.

   "And Subdue It" -  'The secret of all modern science is
   in the first chapter of Genesis.  Belief in the dominion
   of spirit over matter, of mind over nature, of man over the
   physical and the animal creation, was essential to the possession
   of that dominion'(Lyman Abbott).
   'WHat we call the will or volition of man ... has become a power
   in nature ... which has profoundly modified not only Man's own
   history, but that of the whole living world, and the face of the
   planet on which he lives'(Ray Lankester).

Simply put, the very first commandment in the Torah is to subdue
and have dominion over the world -- as caretakers.  And we cannot
subdue or have dominion over that which we don't understand, and
so we are commanded to understand the world.  And so Science is
really part and parcel of the first commandment.
   

I think a very much related idea is that we are taught to seek the
truth:

   "Rabbi Simeon ben Gamlielel said: The world is established on
   three principles: Truth, Justice and Peace ..."  [ Mishna Avot I ]

(or was that Truth, Justice and the American Way .....  Nah ...   :^)

Our search for Truth clearly includes the realm of scientific inquiry.

>I just want to state that I am not asking you to do my homework for me
>because though I do need to do a paper I think the subject is going to
>be on how come people thought the world was flat when Aristotle pointed
>out it was a sphere 2000 years earlier.  Anyway, I consider myself to be
>a Jew, but unfortunatly I feel to uneducated about Judiasm and thus I am

It is never too late to learn.  The great rabbi, Hillel, said:

   "... do not say: 'When I will have some leisure I will study'
    for you may never have leisure." [ Avot II ]

If this newsgroup is a way to start, that's a good beginning.
If you need references from CMU's Hillel, I hope they can help you
too.

Chag Sameach.
-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish