Shalom friends,

One of the most faith affirming books that I have ever read is "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.  Hawking is proclaimed to be the greatest theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein.  In his book, Hawking seems to be searching for an explanation for the origin of the universe  without acknowledging the existence of a Creator.  Each new and promising theory eventually takes him right back to HaShem and he has to abandon that theory for a new one.  I was left with the profound sense that the origin of the universe could not be explained without acknowledging the existence of a Creator.

On October 13, Rabbi Pinchas Winston of Aish HaTorah spoke about faith and vision to a gathering of Ephraimites at the Mt. Zion Hotel in Jerusalem.  In his talk, he mentioned how scientists have been searching for signs of life elsewhere in the universe; and how they are frustrated at not finding anything.  He also mentioned something from Hawking's book:  When scientists measured the amount of noise (in the form of radio waves) emitted by the stars, they discovered that everywhere they pointed their dish in space they came back with identical results.  The conclusion was that matter is distributed equally in all directions; the implication being that our solar system is the center of the universe.

Another interesting thing from Stephen Hawking's book (which Rabbi Winston had not mentioned) is that the universe is expanding and all the stars are moving away from us equally in all directions as if we were at the very center of the universe.

Rabbi Winston asked, What is the purpose of all of stars around us if there is no life out there?  Man is incapable of comprehending infinity.  HaShem is infinite and even though the universe is finite it gives us a glimpse of infinity.

What an incredibly awesome thing it is, that we are at the very center of Hashem's universe.

Kol tov,
Shomeir