Episode #8 The Prehistoric Period

In this episode, Rabbi Reinman demonstrates that the historical period began on the sixth day of creation, and he discusses the condition of the world during the prehistoric period.

Chapter 8

The Prehistoric Period

History began with creation. God created the universe ex nihilo, existence from non-existence. He created space and time, matter and energy. In fact, He created the very concept of existence as we understand it, which bears no resemblance to the existence of God. He created the universe and set history into motion in two stages, as stated in the opening chapters of the Torah.

In the first stage, God created the natural world, an incredibly beautiful and magnificent tableau that would also serve as the setting for societies of intelligent beings capable of recognizing the Divine Painter. He created it ex nihilo, existence from non-existence. The story of the creation is presented in the Torah the broadest of strokes, and it is impossible to derive from the narrative the particulars of the creation process.[1] In the second stage, God created the human race with the expectation that it would populate the world and that, despite the challenges and distractions of life, it would ultimately recognize the Divine Painter.

The Torah states that God formed humankind from the dust of the earth.[2] The process of forming humans from the dust of the earth is also unspecified, and it is impossible to know if the source material was actual dust or metaphorical dust.

There is a difference of opinion among the Sages of the Talmud regarding when the world was created. One Sage contends that it was created at the beginning of the month of Tishrei, while the other contends that it was created at the beginning of the month of Nissan.[3] According to the commentators, the disagreement relates to the completion of the creation process with the appearance of humankind. The actual creation ex nihilo occurred six days earlier.[4] Clearly, both Sages agree that for all practical purposes history begins with the appearance of human beings and that everything before is essentially the preliminary period of history.

So, what is the line of demarcation between the prehistoric period and the historic period? Certainly, the appearance of humankind marks the beginning of history. But there is also another major difference between the two periods.

There are two schools of thought among geologists − uniformitarianism and catastrophism. Uniformitarianism maintains that the present is the key to the past. Geological changes occur through the gradual, continuous action of the same processes we observe today, such as erosion, sedimentation and plate tectonics. The progression of geology is glacial and directionless.

Catastrophism maintains that the earth’s surface was shaped primarily by sudden, short-lived cataclysmic events such as tidal waves, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Geological features like mountains, canyons and rock formations were created by these one-time occurrences. The progression of geology is rapid and convulsive.

Both theories agree that there were periods of gradual change and periods of catastrophic change. They disagree regarding which periods were primarily responsible for the world as we see it. Consequently, they also disagree regarding the age of the earth. According to the uniformitarian geological clock, the earth is about four billion years old. According to the catastrophist geological clock, the earth may be only thousands of years old. Although scientists are generally inclined toward uniformitarianism, there are anomalies and inconsistencies in both theories.

According to the Torah, which we accept as the truth, the entire period from the creation of material existence until the appearance of humankind lasted only six days. How can this be reconciled with the geological record? Rashi’s commentary provides an answer.

The Torah’s creation narrative concludes, “And the Lord completed on the seventh day the work He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done.”[5] Rashi addresses a seeming contradiction in the verses. Previously, we had been told that all the work was done in six days. We also find elsewhere, “For in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all they contain, and He rested on the seventh day.”[6] Clearly, the work of creation had been completed in six days. Why then are we told that God completed His work on the seventh day?

One of the solutions Rashi offers is that after the six days of creation the world was missing just one thing. It was missing rest. When Shabbos arrived, rest arrived.[7] This explanation is obviously problematic. Rest is the absence of activity, a negative. The cessation of the activity of creation was concurrent with the end of the sixth day when all the work was complete. Since there was no activity after the sixth day, how can the cessation of activity be considered to have taken place on the seventh day?

It would seem that this verse suggests that the process of creation was at an exceedingly accelerated pace. If, for example, it takes twenty years for a tree to reach full growth through natural processes as we observe them, the same processes may have taken five minutes during the six days of creation. The world was in manufacturing mode, and all the forces of nature were moving at hyper speed. On the seventh day, however, rest in the form of normal speed was introduced to the forces of nature, something that had not been there during the six days of creation.

During the six days of creation, the world was not moving forward on autopilot. God was actively wielding his palette and forming the world. There were ice ages and continental separations. Mountain ranges rose from the plains. Valleys, canyons, rivers and lakes appeared. All forms of species emerged, roamed the earth and became extinct. There were dinosaurs, mammoths and neanderthal hominids that walked on two legs, that had a certain low intelligence similar to dolphins and chimpanzees but were not human. They definitely did not belong to the human race which was created “in the image of the Lord.”[8]

According to the Rambam, the image of the Lord means a living intellect, although human life bears no resemblance to divine life and human intellect bears no resemblance to divine intellect.[9] Intellect, which means the ability to reason and express abstract thoughts, did not appear until humans were created at the end of the creation process.

If you put pieces of fruit and some liquid into a bowl and stir them uniformitarily with a sharp knife for days and weeks, the ingredients will eventually dissolve into a fruity blend, assuming that they don’t rot before you’re done. If you place the same mixture into a blender, however, you can produce that very same smoothie in a matter of seconds. During the six days of creation, the world was in a blender, so to speak, and God was producing the results He desired in days rather than in billions of years.

Why did God need all those intermediate life forms that went into extinction before the appearance of the human race? It is impossible to know why the Divine Painter chose to wield His palette in this way. When we are faced with these kinds of inscrutable questions, the answer is always that such was His will.[10]

[1] Ramban, Bereishis 1:1.

[2] Bereishis 2:7.

[3] Rosh Hashanah 8a.

[4] Tosefos; Pesikta Rabasi 46.

[5] Bereishis 2:2.

[6] Shemos 20:11.

[7] Rashi, Bereishis 2:2.

[8] Bereishis 1:27.

[9] Guide for the Perplexed, Part I, Chapter1.

[10] Ibid. Part III, Chapter 17.