Post #3: Rosh Hashana 5787

תֹּ֥לֶה אֶ֜֗רֶץ עַל־בְּלִימָֽה

One of the praises of G-d we say over the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur prayer services is “He hangs the earth over nothing”. For hundreds of years, the simple meaning of this verse was that G-d hangs the earth in space, so-to-speak (not literally, but a praise that G-d maintains the world in empty, cold, space). Particle physics, however, has introduced a whole new dimension to this verse.

We used to think that matter was 100% solid — a closer look has revealed a very different reality. All matter that we see is really composed of atoms. 99.99% of this atom’s mass is in its nucleus: this nucleus, however, only takes about 0.01% of the atom’s space. The rest of the atom is filled by a nebulous electron possibility cloud that has almost no mass. This means that if you were to blow up the nucleus of an atom to the size of a marble, there would be an electron cloud the size of a football stadium surrounding it. The great majority of everything we see is truly made up of a nebulous cloud with almost no substance to it. 

G-d hangs the entirety of reality over nothingness. What we see and experience as stable physicality is a workable illusion: this is not mysticism but scientific fact. In truth, this scientific discovery is simply the expression of a deep reality that has been expressed by Jewish mystics for centuries. The physical world, that we take so for granted, is truly not as solid as we take it to be. 

This idea can easily take us down a topsy, turvy, mystical, rabbit hole — which is not for now. What I wanted to pull out of this is not philosophy or metaphysics but rather a moral question, one G-d asks us every year. Where are you? What are you investing your energy in? What are you living for? This physical world is a platform for us to do good and share with others — but when we mistake the means for the end, we end up with a whole lot of nothing.