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In 1963, Professor Velvel Green of the University of Minnesota
was a rising star in the celestia of science. Acclaimed as
a pioneer in his field of bacteriology, he was invited by
NASA to join a select team of scientists studying the possible
effects of space travel on human life. The requests to lecture
at various forums and symposiums kept pouring in, and soon
the young scientist was visiting dozens of universities throughout
the United States each year.
Nineteen-sixty-three was also the year in which Professor
Green first came in contact with Rabbi Moshe Feller, the Lubavitcher
Rebbe's emissary in Minneapolis. Up to that time, Velvel and
his wife, like many American Jews of their generation, had
little use for their Jewish heritage; observances such as
Shabbat, kashrut and tefillin struck them as old-fashioned
if not primitive, and certainly without relevance to their
modern lives. But their association with the Fellers changed
all that: in the young Chassidic couple they saw a vibrant
and fulfilling outlook and lifestyle, one which filled a deep
lack in their highly successful but rootless lives.
At Rabbi Feller’s suggestion, Professor Green wrote
to the Rebbe; the Rebbe's warm and engaging reply was not
long in coming. The two developed a steady correspondence,
and the young scientist was soon taken by the Rebbe’s
phenomenal mind and passionate devotion to his calling. With
each letter, the Professor Green found himself further encouraged
in his journey of spiritual discovery and his growing commitment
to a Torah way of life. Soon the Greens were establishing
a kosher kitchen in their home and groping their way through
the rudimentaries of Shabbat observance.
In one of Velvel's discussions with Rabbi Feller, the issue
of “Creationism versus Evolution” came up. Here
the Professor proved his old, scornful self. “You know
that I have great respect for the Torah,” he said. “Its
teachings and observances now fill a most important role in
my life. But regarding this issue, you people are still stuck
in the Dark Ages. It amazes me that you still take the story
of a six-day creation literally, in face of all that science
has discovered about the age of the universe and how it developed.”
“I must concede that my scientific knowledge is greatly
limited,” said Rabbi Feller, “I certainly cannot
discuss this with you on your level. But the Rebbe wrote a
lengthy letter on the subject, in which he demonstrates how
the theory of evolution is just that, only a theory, and a
poor one at that---fraught with contradictions and lacking
any sound scientific basis.”
The professor was incredulous, “The theory of evolution
is accepted by virtually every serious scientist alive! But
show me the letter---I'd like to see what the Rebbe writes”
After reading the letter, Velvel was still unconvinced. When
he presented his objections to the Rebbe’s thesis to
Rabbi Feller, the latter again professed himself unqualified
to argue science with a scientist. “Why don't you write
the Rebbe?” he suggested.
This Professor Green did, penning a no-holds-barred critique
of the Rebbe’s arguments. “Because I greatly respected
the Rebbe,” Professor Green recalls, “I dropped
the condescendingly forgiving tone that scientists usually
assume with laymen, addressing the Rebbe as I would a colleague
whose ideas I rejected. I bluntly stated that he was wrong,
specifying what I saw as faulty and unscientific in his arguments.
I concluded my letter by saying that the Rebbe had best stick
to his field of expertise, Torah, and leave science to scientists.”
The Rebbe's next letter resumed their correspondence where
it had originally lain---in Velvel’s spiritual quest
and his Jewish identity. Of the evolution issue---not a word.
The Professor assumed that the Rebbe had been chastised and
was conceding that in matters of “empirical fact”
Torah must defer to current scientific thinking. With this,
he considered the matter closed. His progress towards a Torah-true
life continued, and in the course of the next year-and-a-half,
he reported to the Rebbe each of the milestones he and his
family were passing in their journey: full Shabbat observance,
observance of family purity, etc. The Rebbe responded with
words of encouragement and blessing, and, on one occasion,
a gift of a pair of tefillin which Velvel began to put on
each day.
Then came the letter in which the Greens told the Rebbe that
they had decided to place their children in a yeshivah, a
Torah day school that would provide them with a full Jewish
education. The Rebbe’s reply was especially warm and
encouraging, as befitting the turning point in their lives
that such a move indicated. Then, at the end of his letter,
the Rebbe added, “By the way, concerning what you wrote
me in regard to the Torah’s account of creation...”
and proceeded to refute, point by point, Professor Green’s
objections to the Rebbe’s “unscientific” treatment
of the subject.
“You are probably wondering,” concluded the Rebbe,
“why I waited this long to respond to your remarks on
the matter. But my job in life is not to win arguments. My
job is to bring Jews closer to the Torah and its mitzvot.”
Author’s note (Yanki Tauber): I have taken some
liberties in imagining the words and feeling attributed above.
Otherwise, the names, characters and exchanges in this story
are all true to life, taken from Kfar Chabad Magazine's account
(Cheshvan 5745) and my own interview with Professor Velvel
Green.
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