Intro
Shortly before this past Yom Kippur, I started reading an incredible book on physics called The Fabric of the Cosmos. Unfortunately, I’ve still not found the time to complete it, but from the chapters I’ve covered I’ve learned the basics around Einstein’s Special and General theories of Relativity, as well as the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. Whilst these topics are vast and I have only a beginners grasp of the subject, I composed the following vort that analyses how miraculous the gift of Tshuva really is after taking into account the mechanics of the universe.
Tshuva
סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו
Abarbanel explains this Tefilla, which we recite during the ‘Al Cheits’, as going from a lower to higher level of forgiveness. סלח לנו means ‘give up the right to punish us for the sin’, מחל לנו means ‘to not even hold a grudge against us for the sin’ and finally כפר לנו means ‘to completely wipe away the sin as if it never existed’.
The seforim explain at length that it should not really be possible to do Teshuva - after all, the past is the past, and what has happened has happened. The fact that Hashem ‘changes’ the past as if it never existed is a big chiddush - here, we find a new layer of depth to this idea.
Special Theory of Relativity
In 1905, Albert Einstein published the Special Theory of Relativity. showing that time is not fixed for everybody, but can run slower or faster for different people, depending on how fast they are moving. See a short article here that gives an example. Additionally, in 1915, Einstein introduced the General Theory of Relativity, which introduced gravity into the equation, showing that objects subject to strong gravitational forces had their time move much quicker relative to an object not under those forces. Whilst unintuitive and hard to believe, it has been proven true many times over through various real world experiments, including this one.
Accordingly, if two people moving at different speeds were to both see an event happen, they would record the event happening at different times, and both would be, quite literally, correct. If the speed difference between them was very large, then the time differential would be too. This is best conceived as an angle - they are viewing the event happening in the same area of space, but from different perspectives of time, and thus their perspectives are at an angle relative to each other.
And if the distance between is very great, then something interesting occurs. Even if that angle was minimal, say 0.1 of a degree; as the angle lengthens, the perspectives grow increasingly apart. Picture a triangle - even if its point has a tiny angle, still the longer the triangle is, the greater the width between points at the base.
What does this mean for the concept of time? Before Einstein, we would assume that time only exists in the present, and every conscious human experiences the present together. The past would not exist anymore, the future wouldn’t exist yet. But per Einstein, if two conscious humans were 10 billion miles apart, and they were both motionless, then yes, their conscious perspective of the present would align - both of their ‘nows’ would be at the same time. But if one started walking (in the direction away, or further from, the first human), then their motion through space, though at negligible speed, would be magnified by distance, like in the triangle - and their version of ‘now’, their conscious perception of the present, would now be aligned with the past version of the other human. And vice versa, if they walked towards the other human, then their ‘now’ would align with the other’s future now!
It appears, then, that though we humans only consciously perceive one moment of the present, from the Universes perspective, all moments of time exist at the same time - the universe is like a gigantic ice block of frozen space time, and our consciousness (somehow) flows through it.
A Gift of Love
Whilst Hashem created us humans with only one moment of conscious perception of the present, from His perspective, being outside of time, all of time really does exist at the same time.
The Rambam teaches that when Hashem created the world, he set in place the natural laws that govern the creation, and He prefers to never interfere with them. Famous interferences, like the Mabul, Yetzias Mitzrayim, Kriyas Yam Suf and Ma'amad Har Sinai are very special occurrences - Hashem actively interfered with the natural laws in order to influence world events. But these are very limited, and considered great, open miracles.
Conversely, we also know that Hashem actively runs the world through Hashgacha Pratis. But, with this method, Hashem does not change the laws of nature. Instead, He subtly uses messengers, like ensuring the cancer patient meets the right doctor at the right time, to guide the world. These are the minor miracles that accompany us every day.
With Einstein’s explanation of the natural laws, we see that fundamentally, the past exists eternally, forever frozen in place. So how do we reach Abarbanel's level of כפר לנו, which means ‘to completely wipe away the sin as if it never existed’?
It must be that Hashem interferes with the fundamental natural laws. He wipes away the past as if it never existed, even though the natural laws of the universe show that cannot be. Hashem overrides the natural laws! And per the Rambam, this rises to the level of a great, open miracle!
With this, we can appreciate the immense, miraculous nature of Teshuva, and the love that Hashem has for us to provide us with such a treasured gift. May we be zoche to take advantage of this proffered gift and achieve and complete Teshuva.