Supernatural or Scientific Stick ? by Dr. Chaim Gershon

 

Shemos Beshalach Chapter 15

25. So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord instructed him concerning a piece of wood, which he cast in into the water, and the water became sweet. There He gave them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them.
There He gave them: In Marah, He gave them some sections of the Torah so that they would busy themselves with them, namely [they were given the laws governing] the Sabbath, the red cow, and laws of jurisprudence. — [from Mechilta and Sanh. 56b]

 

Science versus Torah is a misnomer and this week’s parasha Beshalach explains how.

 

There are various mefarshim that connect this piece of wood mystically to the Tree of Life, Etz HaChaim and Etz Hadas, first and foremost being Sefer Ha Bahir and many other sources such as Ishbitz (Beis Yaakov) and Chabad.

 

 

 

More modern explanations give scientific explanations that explain that a bitter substance added to bitter water does not sweeten it by causing a miracle but by producing a chemical reaction,the net result being is sweet water via ion exchange, taste modifiers etc. The most interesting is by Nobel Prize Chemist Ronald Hoffman in Old Wine, New Flasks, in a chapter devoted specifically to this.

 

See as well the following non-traditional explanations:

http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/old_website/ndwc/ndwc_dwh_1.html

 

http://www.articlesbase.com/online-education-articles/a-miracle-of-prophet-moses-or-a-chemistry-connection-661768.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=IM-yNiUXwO4C&pg=PA271&lpg=PA271&dq=bitter+water+marah+scientific&source=bl&ots=iEb_rJmx2u&sig=Wc10FRMrViM5_D0qcYO_59gipDk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fG4pT_75Ioba0QHKtum8Ag&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=bitter%20water%20marah%20scientific&f=false

 

http://www.borhatorah.org/editions/10/abstract-goldberger.htm ( this one is essentially Pseudoscience)

 

 

There has been attempts to reconcile these two approaches.

 

 

It occurred to me that Rashi in the next passuk is not referring to the two types of laws that the Jews were given at Marah, the supernatural chukim and logical mishpatim, see here and here,

but to the chok and mishpatim of the previous passuk. Perhaps it is saying that there are the two types of explanations of the piece of wood making the bitter waters sweet, the supernatural and the scientific! Thus “Science” is one of the facets of Torah!

After I made this connection, I figured someone must have said this idea before and I made a scientific/supernatural reach to the seforim shelf. Lo and behold, and the first perush I opened, Abarbanel gives a commentary consistent with my perush! Nachshoni points out that this approach  taking "chok umishpat" not as two separate entiies but a thing that is both a chok and mishpat at the same time was first used was first expressed by Rabbenu Bachaye who stated that the wood/herbs might have worked as either a chok or mishpat and Chasam Sofer uses the same approach.

 

Avakesh: I believe that this approach was also used by R. Yosef Engel who quoted Chazal that the mitzva of Kibud Abv V'Eim was given in Marah(Sanhedrin 56b. How did they know that? Because Kibbud Av V'Eim includes both rational aspects (mishpat) and super-rational aspects(chok). For example, there is the obligation of grattitude(hakaras hatov) while they are alive, which is rational, and of honoring parents after their death, which is super-rational (chok). The source of such usage is Bareishis 47:29, where Rashi explains, "Chessed V'Emes" as "Chessed shel emes", in other words, something which is at the same time, kindness and truth. Another example is in Bareishis 3:16, "Etsvoneich V'Haroneich". This is explained in Dikdukei Rashi by YitzhakAvineri, who calls it "Vav Hasmichus".

 

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