Dear Jewish Response Staff,

The Talmud contains much obsolete scientific information. The sky is 500 years journey away, the earth is 500 years wide and so on. Do you really believe all this stuff nowadays?

Kevin

Dear Kevin,

The distance from the earth to the sky is 500 years journey (Chagigah 13a). The Talmud gives one days journey as 10 parsangs or about 25 miles. 500 years journey is thus about 4.5 million miles. To us, with our knowledge of science, even this large number seems like a gross underestimate. The sun is 93 million miles away and the nearest star is more than a light year (6 trillion miles) away.

What are the Talmudic sages really saying? Let us look at the entire passage:

When that wicked man [Nebuchadnezzar] said, I will go up on the highest of clouds, I will be similar to the Most High (Isaiah 14:14), G-ds voice replied to him, Wicked man, son of a wicked man, descendent of Nimrod the wicked who made the entire world rebel against Me during his reign! How long does a man live? Seventy years& The distance from the earth to the sky is 500 years journey. The thickness of the sky is 500 years journey, and the same is the separation between each of the seven levels of sky. On top of that, the feet of the angels called chayos are as big as everything else combined. Their ankles are as big as everything else combined. Their shins are as big as everything else combined. Their knees are as big as everything else combined. Their thighs are as big as everything else combined. Their bodies are as big as everything else combined. Their necks are as big as everything else combined. Their heads are as big as everything else combined. Their horns are as big as everything else combined. On top of that, the foot of the Throne of Glory is as big as everything else combined. The Throne itself is as big as everything else combined. Atop all this dwells the King, the Living and Everlasting G-d, high and uplifted. And you said, I will go up on the highest of clouds, I will be similar to the Most High? You will only be brought down to Hell, to the nethermost pit.

If G-ds point was that Nebuchadnezzar would never be able to travel so far, why did he have to preface it by calling him a wicked man, son of a wicked man and so on? The answer is that the Talmud is not discussing physical distance here. The Talmud is discussing coming spiritually close to G-d. G-d is not a million miles away or even a trillion. He is everywhere, even right here, if we work on knowing Him and coming close to Him.

Of course, we can not really know G-d. G-d is infinite and unfathomable to humans and even to angels. The prophet Ezekiel (1:14) described the angels as follows: And the angels ran to and fro, like the appearance of a flash. The Sefer Chareidim explains that humans are finite and physical in nature, and their imaginations work spatially. Whenever we learn of the existence of something, we automatically imagine its size. But G-d is infinite and cannot be quantified. The angels are able to comprehend a little of G-d, more than humans. But as soon as they reach that comprehension, they leap backward, fearing that their intellect, like that of humans, will want to impose a limit on G-d.

It takes 500 years to reach some knowledge of G-d. We know that Abraham first realized that G-d existed when he was in his third year of life. Add Abrahams 173 remaining years to Isaacs 180 and Jacobs 147, and you get 500. The Midrash Rabba (Bamidbar 18:21) compares this 500-year period to the 500 years separating heaven from earth, thus indicating that it is not the physical distance that is 500 years; it is the spiritual journey.

Furthermore, it took the world 500 years to reach the revelation at Mount Sinai, starting with the birth of Abraham. Abraham was 100 years old at Isaacs birth, and from Isaacs birth to the Revelation at Sinai was 400 years, a total of 500.

We find the number 500 years again in the Midrash Rabba (Bereishis 15:6), where it says that the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden had a span of 500 years journey. This means that the path to eternal life  knowledge of G-d  is five hundred years long. The same can be said of Chagigah 12a, where it says that the earth is 500 years journey from one end to the other. It means that Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, who lived a total of 500 years, spread the knowledge of G-d from one end of the earth to the other.

When a Jew begins his prayers, he addresses G-d as the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchok and the G-d of Yaakov. He is saying, I approach You not on my own, but based on the tradition I have received from my forefathers  based on the closeness achieved by them.

But Nebuchadnezzar wanted to reach G-d on his own. He did not want to convert to Judaism and share in the knowledge of G-d that had already been accumulated by the Jewish people over hundreds of years. He said, I will go up on the highest of clouds. I will go up like the Jewish people, which is compared to the clouds, as it says, Who are these who fly like the clouds (Isaiah 60:8). He said, I will be similar to the most high. I will achieve knowledge of G-d and thus be like the Jewish people, who are called the most high of all nations (Deuteronomy 26:19).

G-d therefore told him: You are starting from scratch! You are a wicked man, the son of a wicked man. You have nothing to build on. So how much can one man accomplish in one lifetime? It takes 500 years even to begin to come close to Me.