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"The Ramban's talmid happens to insert 15.8 billion years in between based
Below is an excerpt from my book "Explorations" Parshat Bhar where I explain the ideas with a little more depth:
Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra already intimated it when he wrote `the secret of the years of the world is alluded to in this place;' nowhere else in Ibn Ezra`s works is there a better statement than this which is indicative of his good [understanding of] Kabbala. (Writings of Ramban (english) page 117)
The Ramban refers here to a passage in Ibn Ezra's writings, which concerns the age of the earth, and the duration of the earth. The Ramban was privy to a teaching which is reported in an ancient mystical treatise called "Sefer HaT'munah" - the Book of the Picture. The Sefer HaT'munah teaches that there is a cosmic Shmita cycle, which effects the creation and duration of existence. The teaching itself is alluded to in a passage in the Talmud:
R. Kattina said: 'Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate, as it is written, "And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day"...' It has been taught in accordance with R. Kattina: Just as the seventh year is one year of release in seven, so is the world: one thousand years out of seven shall be fallow, as it is written, 'And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,' and it is further said, 'A Psalm and song for the Sabbath day, meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath' And it is also said, 'For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.' (Sanhedrin 97)
The idea which is taught in this passage is quite well known; the world is destined to exist 6000 years, followed by the culmination of history. Rather than choosing the more familiar model of days of the week and Shabbat, the Talmud utilized the model of Shmita to illustrate this concept. We cannot help but notice, though, the major difference between Shabbat and Shmita: Shabbat is 6 days of work and one of rest, Shmita is 6 years of work and one of rest. But Shmita does not exist within a vacuum. Shmita is part of a greater system known as Yovel - Jubilee. At the end of 7 Sabbatical years is the great Jubilee, in which everything returns to its natural place. The Sefer HaT'munah sees our existence within this larger framework of Shmita and Yovel. While existence as we know it may come to an end in the year 6000, another cycle may be awaiting us.
Furthermore, as Ramban said, belief in a G-d who created and sustains the universe is basic to Judaism. There is a secret, unfathomable from the verses alone, regarding creation; namely, that there may have been cycles before ours. "In the beginning G-d created heaven and earth" refers to the very beginning - arguably, in a previous cycle. The mystical commentaries have traditions and/or speculate regarding the question of which cycle we are in now:1 In a Kabbalistic tract entitled Ma'arechet Ha'Elokut it says "we don't know in which cycle we exist... however it would seem that we are not in the first.2 R' Dovid ben R' Yehuda haHasid, in "Livnat Hasapir," held the opinion that the progression of the worlds are in an ascending order within the "S'firot" and not a descending one, hence the first cycle, rather than the last, is "Malchut", while the last would be "Chesed". While others believe that we are in fact in the Sefira of "Gevura" or strict judgment (the second S'fira ). This in fact would seem to be the accepted view.3
Rav Yakov b. Sheshet of Gerona, a contemporary of Ramban,4 believed that we are in the cycle of "Din"5. A student of Ramban, Yitzchak from Acre also felt this is the cycle of Gevura:
This world, the Shmita (cycle) which we are in, is the S'fira of Gevura, as we see all the punishments in this world are via fire. (Yitzchak from Acre commentary on Sefer Yetzira) 6
Rav Yitchak from Acre returns to the topic of cosmic Jubilees in another treatise, where he states:
I, The insignificant Yitzchak of Acco have seen fit to write a great mystery that should be kept very well hidden. One of G-d's days is a thousand years, as it says `For a thousand years in Your eyes are as a day...' Psalms 90:4 . Since one of our years is 365 1/4 days, a year on high is 365,250 of our years... This is to refute those who believe the duration of the world is only 49,000 years which is seven Jubilees (Otzar Hachaim pp.86b-87b)7
The language which R' Yitzchak employs is somewhat reminiscent of Ramban. He speaks of "a great secret which should remain very well hidden ". He also gives a key to unlock the mystery. When we speak of time, inevitably we speak from a human perspective. Yet this vantage point seems unjustified, inappropriate, prior to the appearance of humanity. The Jewish tradition, as we saw above, treats G-d's day as if it were a thousand human years. If we were to apply R' Yitzchak's tradition, we would find that each cycle of 7000 years is actually 2,556,750,000 years from man's perspective. We should also note that R' Yitzchak was of the opinion that our history is not in the first cycle, but the cycle of "Din", which is normally understood as being the second cycle. If that is the case, when we speak of 5764 years, what we mean to say is 2.5 billion years of prehistory, after which Adam initiates our cycle, and our counting of time. [However, if "Din" is the 6th cycle, as per the opinion cited above, 5 cycles of 7000 years or 35,000 years as seen from G-d's perspective-- 12,783,750,000 years when seen from human perspective--transpired before Adam. We must note, that aside from a desire to approximate the current scientific understanding, we would have no reason to assume that when R' Yitzchak says Din he really means the 6th cycle. We should also note at this point that R' Yitzchak is not dealing with the question of the age of the world, rather with the duration of the world.8]
There has been some misunderstanding on this point in recent years. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan,9 who had intimate knowledge of both physics and Kabbala, has taught and written of this system in general and the understanding of R' Yitzchak in specific. R' Kaplan asserted that the view of R' Yitzchak is correct and we must multiply each day by 1000. He further asserts that the most authoritative interpretation of the Sefer HaT'muna is the Livnat HaSapir, who believes that we are presently in the 6th cycle: "When Adam was created the world was 42,000 years old." By multiplying 42,000 by 365,250, R' Kaplan concludes that the universe is 15 billion years old according to this tradition.
There are a number of problems with this approach. R' Yitzchak, whose system multiplies one day by 1,000 years, does not say we are in the 6th cycle, rather that we are in "Din", which would seem to be the second cycle. The Livnat HaSapir, who says we are in the 6th cycle, does not multiply a day by 1000 years. Furthermore, even if we are in the 6th cycle, the world has had 5 cycles pass, each of 7,000 years totaling 35,000 at the appearance of Adam and not 42,000.
Ari Kahn