G-d Must Surely Be Smiling Down On His Creatures!

HIGGS BOSOM - A God Particle?: As We Believe, "There Are No Coincidences"

A scientific rendering of particles smashing at the Geneva accelerator

Amazing: Scientific Discovery Affirms the Alter Rebbe's Words

[But, does it?]

[Crown Heights info:] The science world went crazy over the (possible) discovery of the Higg's Boson, also called “the God particle,” which confirms the existence of 'dark energy.'

In that very day's Hayom Yom, the Rebbe writes in detail about a Maamar the Alter Rebbe privately said in this week's parsha that disputes science's understanding of the function of gravity.

The scientific discovery of dark energy proves that gravity alone is not the force that keeps everything in its place, as the Alter Rebbe explains in that Maamar!

Without getting into any scientific discussions, the mere fact that: 1. The Alter Rebbe said this Maamar in Parshas Balak, and 2. The Rebbe writes about it in the Hayom Yom (14 Tammuz) - is nothing short of a miracle.

Read the HaYom Yom.

What is most interesting about whether this analogy is accurately understood follows in the comments section of this post, as the Hassidic minds grapple with scientific correlations to Chassidus.

For example, one commentator wrote:

"“The scientific discovery of dark energy proves that gravity alone is not the force that keeps everything in its place” This is nonsense. Not only isn't it right, it's so nonsensical that it's not even *wrong*. And it certainly is gravity, and *only* gravity, that keeps us (no matter where we live) attached to the ground. Without gravity there is no such concept as “up” or “down”. As for the Alter Rebbe's maamar, there has never been such a “kushyas hatochnim”; no astronomer has ever asked such a question. And the AR's “answer” adds up to saying, correctly, that the question makes no sense."

And another:

"If you look up the source of the Hayom Yom, you will see that the Alter Rebbe was not discrediting gravity - he didn't mention it! He was disputing another theory - that each element is drawn to its element, and that man - being from earth - is drawn to earth. This, the Alter Rebbe says, is not true. The Alter Rebbe's explanation is perfectly in tine with the theory of gravity, in fact explaining the spiritualistic side of it."

And another:

"1. The Higgs Boson particle is NOT what is refereed to as “dark energy”.
2. the Alter Rebbe says that the reason that the people in America dont fall off, is because we are on a sphere. and there is no top and bottom on a sphere. that is NOT what the scientists have learned from the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs Boson!
3. the confirmed existence of the Higgs Boson explains how anything in the universe has mass. gravity is a result of mass. no scientist will tell you that the confirmation of the Higgs disproves gravity!
4. science today very much believes in gravity! The question was: if the strength of gravity is dependent on the size of the mass of the two objects, what in general gives any object which is made up of atoms etc. its mass?
Where does mass come from?
it is that last question that scientists have answered and confirmed with the confirmation of the Higgs.
IE the Higgs particle explains how all the sub-atomic and atomic particles in the universe get their mass. once mass exists at the atomic level, the more atoms that are grouped together (IE a big planet or star) the stronger the mass will be... the stronger the gravitational force will be...
5. So in actuality the hayom yom and the scientific discovery have nothing to do with each other.
6. This is not to be taken as taking sides between the Alter Rebbe and science. Chas vesholom! but that doesn't mean they are saying the same thing?! "

Another:

"'Without getting into any scientific discussions...' I would agree with the author if what the Rebbe wrote in Hayom Yom had any correlation with the discovery of the Higgs Boson. The Higgs Boson may explain the existence of mass but it doesn't do much for explaining why people on one side of the earth don't fall head first into space (not to mention what keeps planets in orbit). The explanation in Etz Chaim for this phenomenon seems fairly esoteric and Hayom Yom doesn't really explain its meaning. Yes, it's intriguing that the discovery was announced on the same day as the mention of gravity in Hayom Yom. But 'nothing short of a miracle' seems a bit excessive."


And a response from the original author of the post:

"Not exactly how I put it. (I understand that you need to trim the article down, but...)

Dark energy was discovered in the last few decades. The Alter Rebbe zt“l spoke about this 210 years ago (parshas Balak) when he said that their opinion (on gravity) is 'not emes'. (As confirmed by the NASA links I sent you.) The possible discovery of Higg's Boson (which turns physics on its ears) supposedly confirms existence of a particle closer to what we call in Chassidus ”Koach Hayolee“.

The key points though are that:
1. The Rebbe zt”l elected to write about this topic EXACTLY on this date in Hayom Yom.
2. The Alter Rebbe zt"l spoke about this science on this Parsha and used America as an example. And CONTRADICTED the [widely believed] gravity theory, back then.

This issue is important because it strengthens our emuna and demonstrates that Tzadikkim not only understood Science a magnitude greater than all scientists combined, they also with their kedusha, foresaw world events decades and centuries into the future. (Obviously they have access to *God's particle*!) On that note, I once saw in a sefer (forgot the name) a detail remez on the exact date when man will land on the moon. On the posuk where Hashem created the moon!"

And, A translation by chabad.org of the HaYom Yom:

"The Tzemach Tzedek notes in one of his discourses: “On Tuesday of parshat Balak 5562 (1802) our master,1 of blessed memory, said to his sons as follows: To understand the problem posed by the astronomers, that since the earth is round and spherical like an apple, why do not those people fall who live on the side of the globe opposite to ours, 'down below,' in America?... Their answer is not the true one... Our master,1 of blessed memory, said that the answer lies in explanation of the Etz Chaim that the Nine Spheres are nurtured by that state termed igulim, 'Circles,' and in a circle there is no above or below. For this reason those who live opposite us, 'down below,' have their heavens high above them arching in one continuity with the heaven above us, and the earth there is below, relative to the heavens over it.”"

Still another:

"With the theory of gravity, Issac Newton was able to give apikursus an ideological foundation. The conecpt is as follows: If there is such a thing as gravity, then this means that the earth is a far away planet in a lost corner of the universe. It also implies that the earth orbits the sun, and that the sun orbits the center of the milky way galaxy, and that the milky way galaxy orbits the center of the universe. According to this theory, even if there was a g-d, he long ago ago forgot about us and we are now on our own. May the strongest win. Obviously, this runs counter to everything in Torah. The problem with the theory of gravity is that it has never been proven to the point it can be integrated into the other three fundamental theories that underly quantum physics (the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and electromagnetism).

For the past hundred years science has been looking for the answer to this conondrum. Dark matter is only the latest attempt to justify the theory of gravity. They are trying to prove that the unexplained forces that hold the universe together (and cannot be explained by the theory of gravity) are in fact invisible i.e. dark matter. This is genius. If no one can see it or measure it, then no one can say it's wrong. No matter how long they search for a way to support the theory of gravity, they will never succeed. Thet is because the theory is flawed. Etz chaim explains why things “Fall Down”. But if you accept the explanation in Torah, then you also have to accept that the earth is the center of the universe and that every action we do has a profound effect. you can no longer behave immorally. This is the real reason for the zealotry shown by advocates of gravity. They dont want to have to modify thier behavior. They would rather go on for the next hundred years looking for the “Missing Piece” to the theory of gravity."

All the comments are here:

Addenda

The author of Rationalist Judaism presents, in summing up,

" [T]he Higgs-Boson is significant in that it fills a major gap in our knowledge and ties together disparate entities. As such, it plays a crucial role in understanding the overall unity of the universe. Not only did modern science emerge from monotheism, it continues to support monotheism insofar as it discovers the unity present in the universe. As Rav Hirsch writes:

"In light of the foregoing, would Judaism not be justified in viewing this idea of a universal unity, which inquiring minds have already pieced together from the textbook of the universe and which man’s consciousness yearns to express, as nothing less than the long-awaited triumph of the truth of Judaism? This is the truth with which, thousands of years ago, Judaism first appeared in the midst of a chaotic multitude of gods, proclaiming that there is only one, sole God in heaven and on earth, and that all the phenomena of the universe are founded upon His Law. This idea, the concept of the Unity of God, is the truth for which Judaism has endured a course of martyrdom without parallel in world history.""

Wikipedia explains:

"[in part:] "Because of its role in a fundamental property of elementary particles, the Higgs boson has been referred to as the "God particle" in popular culture, although virtually all scientists regard this as a hyperbole. According to the Standard Model, the Higgs particle is a boson, a type of particle that allows multiple identical particles to exist in the same place in the same quantum state. Furthermore, the model posits that the particle has no intrinsic spin, no electric charge, and no colour charge. It is also very unstable, decaying almost immediately after its creation."

What Is The Question?

What presumably presages this debate: A book entitled, The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?:

"The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi. The book provides a brief history of particle physics, starting with the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus, and continuing through Isaac Newton, Roger J. Boscovich, Michael Faraday, and Ernest Rutherford and quantum physics in the 20th century. Lederman said he gave[citation needed] or his editor gave the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, ..." See List of Chapters.

Where do some of the most intelligent Israeli minds figure into this scientific endeavor?

"Scientists at Geneva’s European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) – where scores of Israelis have worked for decades to bring the discovery nearer..."

JPost article from the Health & Science section: Israelis Rejoice Over Discovery of 'God Particle': "Theoretical and experimental physicists see the groundbreaking discovery of a new subatomic particle – announced Wednesday in Geneva – as even more of a technological and scientific achievement than America’s first landing on the moon. But unlike the astronauts’ romp over the dusty lunar rocks in 1969, the new breakthrough is so intangible that it leaves the general public clueless. ..."

"Knesset Science and Technology Committee chairman Ronit Tirosh said Wednesday that she was “very proud of the contribution of Israeli scientists [to] the discovery.” Astrophysicists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Tel Aviv University, the Technion-Institute of Technology in Haifa and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been active in the massive effort, which involved CERN’s particle accelerator – the largest machine in the world, costing over $10 billion."

"Prof. Yaron Oz, dean of TAU’s faculty for exact sciences, who worked on CERN’s multinational team at Geneva for four years and has made numerous visits since, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that the huge facility “is like the UN should be.""

"Prof. Aharon Levy, who is modern Orthodox and has headed a research group in Hamburg: "As a religious person, Levy said the discovery “does help us understand how much we don’t understand about the universe. A religious Jew might say the discovery shows the orderliness of nature that is evidence that the universe was created by a Divine power, but we don’t get involved in this.”"

I have extracted only portions of the JPost article, please read it in full about the: discovery of new sub-atomic particle.

G-d Must Surely Be Smiling Down On His Creatures!