The Six Days of Creation:

A Spatial Interpretation

 

From the standpoint of time, it doesn’t make too much sense to me that a perfect, omniscient and all-powerful god would need to orchestrate the creation of the world during six days. G-d would not have needed to plan out the world, nor space it out over the course of a week. Perhaps the seed of creation was planted, but I prefer to look at the Biblical story of creation from a spatial perspective.

 

Think about how each day can be a different view of the universe, as if we’re looking at it from a different angle. Notice that during any given day, the universe, give or take a few mood swings and current events, predominantly appears to be the same. No matter what angle we’re viewing it from, regardless of which direction we look, we see the same universe. This underlying symmetry is a very powerful reality which shapes everything from scientific knowledge to our personal perceptions.

 

In Genesis, Chapter 1, G-d creates the heavens and the earth and light is created in its midst. Everything created is good. Goodness is found everywhere, in any direction and at any time. That is the nature of G-d’s creation. The goodness precedes the existence of human beings. People are later created to inhabit the world, but the world did not solely exist for these people.

 

Now, what geometric object puts this all together? Why, the Star of David of course! Let the six days of creation correspond to its six points. We draw this shape with a pencil on a piece of paper without ever lifting the pencil. We start at the top and move clockwise. To navigate from the first point (Sunday) to the closest one (Monday), draw two lines, one representing day and the other night. We continue doing this until we reach the last point. At that point, we draw one line to represent Friday during the day and stop drawing because the Sabbath is a day of rest. On Saturday evening, we resume drawing the last line until we reach the starting point. Then, we repeat the weekly cyclical ritual. In a respect, the universe is recreated each week!

 

From any given point, we see the same Star of David (SOD). This is the same as the universe appearing to be the same in any direction. Furthermore, directly or indirectly, all the points are interconnected. By analogy, all days link up to each other. The straight lines of the upright triangle connect odd numbers (days) while the lines of the downward triangle connect even ones. Here, we have the primary separation of numbers. Also note that the Star serves as a rich source for fractal geometry. We can create all sorts of brilliant shapes and designs using the SOD as our inspiration!

 

More fundamental than its shapes is what it represents and how it was created. We see that at each point, G-d’s works of beauty are revealed. Within the context of this model, on any particular day, we can grasp the entire universe through good works and deeds, charity (tzedakah), upright intentions (kavanot), and a caring and loving attitude. It is through these specific actions that we behold the goodness of the entire universe.

 

In more scientific terms, the system’s collection of encoded information is exhibited through any specific part. The macrocosm is fully accessible through the microcosm. What I think we have here is a holographic model of universal goodness, and the hologram that’s created is the Star of David!

 

Light is an absolute necessity to create a hologram. And G-d said “let there be light”; and it was good (ki tov). With the light, the hologram of goodness can be created. The second requirement is that the light must be split. In Biblical terms, we say “separated”. The heavens were separated from the earth, the sky from the sea, and night from day. To create the hologram, the light of day is projected at some point to give it definition. The “split” or separated light beam, projected at a delayed time, is superimposed at that same point to give it body and extended dimensionality.

 

Here, it all fits together. First, there is light. As stated in Genesis 1:16, it is separated into the light of day and the light of night. The light of day (dare we say “light light”?!) is first projected forward, then the delayed light of night (I dare say, let’s call it the “dark light”) is projected at the same point. And what is night but the day delayed?! Night is the day that has exchanged its “light light” for “dark light”. Night is a wanna-be day that is too burned out, too exhausted to light itself up.

 

And the hologram of goodness projects itself through all the points in space and time. We are all conduits into this universal goodness. We can view, behold and cherist it from any perspective, angle, or direction.

 

Of course this all spills over into the mathematical theory of chaos. The idea of the macrocosm existing in the microcosm is reformulated into the Self-similarity Principle. A system can appear to be in a state of disorder, but it has discernable patterns of order nested within it. In turn, the patterns of order (think of this as “islands of stability”) will contain mini islands of stability, and the process is repeated with an infinite recursion. In other words, it’s order within order within order ... within apparent disorder.

 

Here’s an example. We’re at a social gathering with many people. They’re all talking very loudly and it appears to be a lot of noise and chatter. Yet if we tune in, we can distinctly hear someone speaking and recognize what is being said. The person speaks for five minutes. There is a definite pattern of ideas that is being articulated. In fact, if we take any given minute during the entire speech, we can hear a microcosm of the general message. The person can be speaking about work experiences that mirrors the tone, quality and presentation of the general set of experiences.

 

One visual representation of chaos is a fractal. Fractals are the geometries of self-similarity. Within our SOD drawing, we can create many mini-SODs. In fact, along any two adjacent lines, we can create a miniature replica. Each of these miniatures, in turn, can contain SODs. All “infinite recursion” means is that this nested process occurs without any letup (inifinitely). Self-similarity is the defining reality. The days fractalize into hours, hours into minutes, minutes into seconds. And, they’re all good!

 

Another property of chaos is that the system can’t be broken down into independent subsystems. Can we honestly say that a day can exist separately from a week? Doesn’t the energy of the yesterday flow into today? And doesn’t the current of today flow into tomorrow? As Lao Tzu said, “and what is IS the was of what will be”. Using the SOD model, no point (or day) can be isolated from the Star.

 

The third property of chaos is what is called “sensitivity to initial conditions”. This means that in a chaotic system, if there is a slight change, the results will be quite dramatic. For example, we nudge a boulder over a cliff. It will create quite a scene. Yet think about what happens when we procrastinate, or alternatively, give ourselves a little extra time. It can make all the difference in the world. Or what would happen if one day each week was slightly longer than the rest? Visually, the SOD would no longer be symmetrical and would lose its powers.

 

The chaos is at its most pronounced when we think we’re living in a bad world, but find goodness inside of it to latch onto. Think of the goodness as the “islands of stability” and the world as the “rough and turbulent seas”. We can make these islands our own worlds to live in. Or we can bring righteousness into the entire world not by being self-righteous, but by calming the seas. I think this means bringing the world into harmony, cultivating the wisdom, experience, good will and thoughts channeled into every one of us, and recycling it back into the world. This placates the rough waves. It’s a creative feedback system.

 

Of course, we can view the general world as being a basically good world to live in, but with imperfections. The nested “islands” will then house better modes of behavior, more upright intentions, and so forth.

 

In conclusion, our holographic, chaotic model of goodness means that we’re all capable of swimming in the universal calm seas of goodness. When we say that something is good, we really mean, in a deeper yet more subtle way, that we have tapped into this worldly substance of goodness, the essense of being good.

 

David Epstein

September 16, 1999