The Endless Scope Of The Torah

Chag Shavuot, Matan Torah, is the holiest day for am Yisrael. Let’s understand a little bit more about the Torah. Rav Shimon bar Yochai says that the Torah includes all the wisdoms and science in the world.

I saw something interesting about science recently regarding genetic engineering and the theories that the DNA includes all the information of the entire body, which means each cell has a DNA that has the information not only of this specific cell, but it has the information of the entire body as was made known in the famous cloning experiment of the sheep, Dolly. The idea is that when Hashem created humankind, He put in every cell of the body the information not only for one particular cell, but also for all the other details of the body.

I visited a lab in Eretz Yisrael where they are developing bones from the fat of a human being. If someone went through an accident and crushed their bones, the lab is attempting to create a new one from their fat. It is amazing to see how the cells of the fat understand that in certain conditions they should develop bones instead of fat. Afterwards, the lab is surgically attaching the bones to the accident victim. The bone then adjusts and reconnects like there was never an accident altogether.

The Zohar HaKadosh talks about this idea, that all of creation is included in just one iota of whatever Hashem has created. Similarly, in just one word of the Torah, all of creation is explained. Rav Shimon bar Yochai wrote an entire sefer on the word Bereishit and noted how all of creation is included in this very word. Beyond the blueprint of the world, every detail of the life of every human is written in the Torah. This means that every step of a person’s life - from when they were born until the day they passed away – is recorded in the smallest of details in the Torah.

Now, imagine how many human beings we have in the world since the first day of the creation, when Adam Harishon was formed, until the end of generations; everything is written in the Torah and everything is written in just one word. That is unbelievable. To grasp a small sense of this concept, we learn from Chazal that each letter of the Torah has six ways to be read. Take the word Bereishit and think about how many ways there are to read it. Remember that each letter can be read in six ways. Sometimes an aleph is a taf, a beit is a shin, or a gimmel is a reish, and oftentimes the opposite.

In the world Bereishit there are six letters and this is calculated as close to 30,000 ways just to read this one word. Then we must understand the deeper meaning of each word in the Torah, and finally connect the sentences to form a paragraph. In all, there are endless ways to read every word. The length of the Torah is so long that if you were to add every centimeter on Earth, it would be, let’s say, 1,000,000 miles, similar to how each centimeter on a map is represented by 100 miles. The depth of the Torah is endless. This Shavuot let’s remember the vast knowledge held within the Torah.