Parashat Va-Yetzei 5769--Einstein and Religion

I am currently reading the book Einstein and Religion by Max Jammer. The book was a gift from my father-in-law, a mathematician, and I find myself searching within its pages for clues about how something so deeply essential to me, my Jewishness, affected one of the greatest minds of past generation. As an educator, I am drawn particularly to the experiences that inspired Einstein’s youthful “religious paradise” (as Einstein himself called it).

In this week’s Torah portion, Va-Yeitzei, we read of our ancestor Jacob’s own youthful encounter with God. After stealing his brother’s birthright and fleeing his home, Jacob finds himself on his own quest to define his life. In this week’s parashah, Jacob arrives at a place unknown to him. He stops for the night, rests his head, and dreams of a ladder stretching up to the heavens, with angels ascending and descending. The Torah tells us that Jacob sees God on a journey, with a stone placed underneath his head. We can easily imagine the piercing darkness of the ancient night sky, ablaze with billions of stars. Is it any coincidence that Jacob saw God lying on the very dirt of our planet?

I have come to learn that Einstein, as a young boy, was also deeply affected by the natural world. We learn, “The pure joy of Nature entered into the heart of the boy, a feeling that is usually foreign to the youthful inhabitants of cities of dead stone. Nature whispered song to him, and at the coming of the spring-tide infused his being with joy, to which he resigned himself in happy contemplation” (Jammer 17, quoting Moszkowski, Einstein the Searcher). Einstein, like Jacob, opened himself to the whispers of the natural world and from them tapped into the Divine breath that animates all.

The story of Einstein’s youthful religiosity, though, is not as simple as a boy loving nature. What inspired a religious awakening in Einstein was a series of encounters; encounters with music, with nature, and with religious studies (Jammer 18). As a young adult, Einstein refused to become bar mitzvah. While he owned a set of tefillin, he did not regularly use them. There is no record of him ever attending services or participating in synagogue life (Jammer 26-27). And yet, contrary to what many believe, Einstein believed that religion was, indeed, connected inextricably to his work in the world; as he explained, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” (Jammer 31, quoting Einstein “Science and Religion”).

As a young boy, Einstein never saw angels on a ladder, ascending and descending. Throughout his life, Einstein challenged normative Jewish beliefs and traditions, and yet, Einstein, through metaphor and allegory, did believe in God and expressed his own Jewishness (Jammer 48).

Some of us, like Jacob, can point to a single radical moment or series of events in our lives, through which we come to know God. Others of us, like Einstein, struggle our entire lives, weaving together disparate experiences, which help us to understand our own place in the universe. Both, I believe, are journeys worth celebrating.

This week I am reminded that the Jewish people are colorful and varied. There is room within our ranks for Jacobs, Einsteins, and the rest of us. On this Shabbat, I invite you to consider your own (ongoing) exploration of God and Judaism. It is, I believe, not only what we see and believe, but also that which we don’t see and reject, which comes to define our spiritual selves. Let us open ourselves up to the totality of experience. Who knows what we might yet discover?

P.S. - If you want to read Einstein and Religion too, let me know. I’d love to gather a small group together to discuss the book over lunch.