J. D. B. News Letter

Tracing the influence of the Jewish monotheistic conception on the Einstein theory and showing similarity in the newest conception of matter and energy to the terminology employed by Jewish thinkers, Nahum Sokolow, Zionist leader and famous Hebrew scholar, spoke on the Einstein theory before a gathering at the Temple Mishkan Tefila here. The speaker also made reference to the fears expressed by Cardinal O’Connell of this city that the Einstein theory may lead to atheism.

“Echad (one) is the essential idea of the quantum theory,” he said. “The expression quantum means with reference to physical action very much the same that atom means, or used to mean, with reference to ‘matter.’ An atom was believed to be an indivisable particle of matter; a quantum means an indivisible quantity of ‘action (‘action’ here means energy multiplied by time.) Now, according to the quantum theory, action is not something that flows, continuously, so to say, and is capable of being taken in any quantity you like. No. There is an indivisible unit of action. You can have a whole unit or a number of such whole units; but you cannot have a fraction of one.

“Thanks to the amazing ingenuity of mathematicians and physicists, the vast range of physical phenomena had been reduced to two main systems, namely, the electromagnetic system and the gravitational system. Einstein’s latest contribution to science consists of an attempt to bring the two together into one system. This wonderful achievement marks the climax of the field-physics of Faraday and Mazwell and of the non-Euclidean geometry of Riemann and others, in the development of all which Einstein has played a most important part. Nearly all the physical phenomena, it would appear, will now be capable of being adequately described by means of one and the same geometry of space-time.

“Haiah, Havaiah (to be, to happen) are familiar Jewish terms,” Mr. Sokolow continued. “The present tendency is to think of reality in terms of ‘events’ rather than ‘things,’ and not as consisting of matter which fills space and endures in time, but rather as composed of quanta of action. Einstein’s theory, although purely mathematical and physical, without any relation to metaphysics, is in its synthetical character an application of the ideal of Monotheism, this greatest ideal of the Hebrew genius, to the phenomena of nature. The substitution of one kind of quantum of action for some ninety different kinds of atoms of matter is clearly a vast gain in simplification and unification. Moreover, the old conception of matter as essentially inert and dead is got rid of

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once for all, and thereby a way is prepared to bridge the traditional chasm between the living and the lifeless. But most important of all is the fact that the quantum theory, by helping to discredit the old classical mechanics, is also helping to discredit the fatalistic determinism that was wont to go hand in hand with it. This is something of first-rate importance, as it ought to go a long way to set the world free for the purpose of ideals. It is dynamic and optimistic like Judaism.

“One of the forerunners of Einstein was, to a certain extent, another great Jewish scientist, Heinrich Hertz. After Hertz in the eighties of the last century had confirmed the existence of the electro-magnetic waves and displayed their identity with light by means of his magnificent experiments, the great intellectual revolution in physics gradually became complete. People slowly accustomed themselves to the idea that the physical states of space itself were the final physical reality, especially as Einstein points out-after Lorentz had shown in his penetrating theoretical researches that even inside ponderable bodies the electro-magnetic fields are not to be regarded as states of the matter but essentially as states of the empty space in which the material atoms are to be considered as loosely distributed. This reminds us of the ‘Khalalo shel Olam’ (the empty space of the Universe) and ‘Nishmatin d’azlin artilain’ (Kabbalistic, Aramaeic: the loosely distributed, naked souls).

“All great prophets, scientists and inventors are bound to work havoc with some of the basic conceptions of the ordinary man. Einstein seeks to destroy the ordinary man’s ingenuous and practically adequate views of space and time, and offers him instead a very clever thing labelled ‘spacetime,’ compounded of co-ordinates and co-efficients and issuing in ‘events’ which bear no resemblance whatever to those which that simplex rubs familiar shoulders in his daily life. In spite of all mathematics, the plain man plods his weary way with his spatial and temporal obsessions quite intact. It would almost seem as if, by some subconscious instinct of recalcitrance, he plunges more deeply than ever into his hallucinations, just as he used to kick stones when philosophers talked to him of the unreality of matter. He is protesting and sneering as long as he does not realize the practical use of the new idea. He undoubtedly denied and ridiculed Hertz’s electric-magnetic waves; now he enjoys the radio and is broadcasting his own wisdoms.

“Religion, true religion, has nothing to lose by the Einstein theory. If it is compatible with the laws of Newton, it is not less compatible with Einstein. The belief in God Almighty does not depend on the atoms, neither does it depend on the quanta. Religion is truly an affection, a sentiment, a need of the heart rather than a speculation of the intellect; the tide of sorrow or of joy, the influence of a blessed example, tend more than many pro-religious philosophical view to revive and confirm it. It is true that the physical universe has been vastly extended, but there is no logic in those who contend that for that reason the conception of religion is obsolete and that the Ten Commandments are outgrown. There is nothing in the progress of science about protoms and electrons to compel us to modify our view of the Decalogue. One can be very scientific and very reliigous at the same time.

“We are proud of Einstein. This seeker of Truth is a successor of Maimonides, of Grescas, of Gersonides, of Spinoza, of Solomon Maimon, of Hertz, he is an embodiment of our national genius. In service of science, he is doing God’s work. This is true of religion,” Mr. Sokolow concluded.