How many years has it been since Noah, Abraham and Beginning of Time?
Question submitted to “Ask the Rabbi” by:
Name: Jonathan Stadler
City: Lincoln, NE
Full Question:
“This yr is 5775. Is that computed from Noah or Abraham?”
Rabbi Tully Bryks responds:
Neither. Noach (Noah) was born in the Jewish year 1056 and died in 2006. Avraham (Abraham) was born in 1948 and died in 2123.
5775 years is the count since Adam and Chava (Eve) were born, which was towards the end of the 6th “day” of creation. So on the first day of the current year, the age of the universe was essentially 5775 years old plus 6 1/2 “days”. For potential definitions of those original “days” and a few different approaches to computing the age of the universe, please see my article on Science and Torah.
6 Comments
You say Adam and Eve were born?
I probably should have used the term created. Adam and Eve were actually created (born) as adults. So when someone asks, “what came first, the chicken or the egg,” the answer would be the chicken. From a traditional Jewish perspective, G-d created a complete world, including, adult humans, adult trees and animals, and a world that ready for life (which may mean that G-d did several billion years worth of world development in just 6 days).
For more details about this concept, see my article on Science and Torah – https://rabbiwithanswers.com/age-of-the-world/
בצלמנו (our likeness?) Who is He talking about, He said, “Let us make man in OUR likeness?
The Torah sometimes uses a plural term for one of the names of G-d, on in describing Him. the Torah must be trying to teach us something. Here are some possibilities:
1. His “presence rests” in multiple places, people and things. As Rabban Gamliel in Talmud Sanhedrin said about G-d, “He’s like one sun that shines through many windows.”
2. Since G-d is the creator of everything in the universe, everything in the universe is unified through G-d. So the name Elokim conveys that all the individual things in the world, although they may seem unconnected, are really all unified through G-d.
3. Being that one of the plural nems of G-d (Elokim) represents nature, the plural aspect hints at both the vastness of nature through which G-d is seen in many different forms.
Man didn’t even last a whole day?
The story comes after GOD has rested on the seventh day. So, naturally I assumed the fall was on the eighth day. And that helps me explain why the eighth day is so Holy. Why GOD told Abram to circumcise all males on the eighth day as a blood covenant for the sins of their ancestors. And why the land was from river to river just like the garden they forfeited. Blood for blood. One to cover them [Adam and Eve] and one to trim away their flesh to remind them that life is more than flesh, but GOD’s love for us.
In the article above, I don’t believe I addressed when the original sin took place. I was just stating that mankind was created on the 6th day of creation and that the Jewish calendar system of years starts the counting process from that time, in the middle of the 6th day, and not on the 1st day of creation. And this certainly fits in with the chronology of the Torah (Bible). The birth of Adam is described in chapter 1, verse 27, while G-d’s “resting” is depicted in chapter 2, verse 2.
Furthermore, a careful reading of this verse would seem to indicate that Chava (Eve) was also created on the 6th day together with Adam, as the verse says, “G-d created ‘Adam’ in His image, male AND female He created THEM.” (For more details about that, see my article on Finding your Soul Mate – http://rabbiwithanswers.com/find-your-soul-mate/).
In addition, it would seem that the 1st chapter describes the creation story in general terms, while the next couple of chapters go back and elaborate on the central parts of creation. As such, the Talmud says that the sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden all took place on the 6th day as well! For a possible explanation as to how Adam and Eve could have sinned so quickly, please see my article on Adam and Eve’s sin – http://rabbiwithanswers.com/adam-and-eve/.