JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

pletely concealed nature, and this double use of the word gave
rise in kabbalistic literature to considerable confusion. There
is no doubt that from the beginning the intention was to use
the name in order to distinguish the absolute from the Sefirot
which emanated from Him. The choice of this particular
name may be explained by the emphasis placed on the infinity
of God in the books of *Saadiah Gaon which had a great
influence on the circle of the Provençal kabbalists. The term
also shows that the anthropomorphic language in which the
kabbalists spoke of the living God of faith and revelation does
not represent the totality of their theosophical theological approach.
At first there was no definite article used in conjunction
with Ein-Sof, and it was treated as a proper name, but after
1300 there were kabbalists who spoke of “the Ein-Sof . ”
At first, the term was used only rarely (even in the principal
part of the *Zohar its occurrence is very rare), but from about
1300 its use became habitual, and later Kabbalah even speaks
of several “kinds of Ein-Sof, ” e.g., the enveloping Ein-Sof, the
enveloped Ein-Sof, the upper Ein-Sof.
[Gershom Scholem]
Another possible source for the kabbalistic theory of
Ein-Sof is the term aperantos, which occurs in a Gnostic source
of late antiquity in a book in which interpretations of biblical
verses and themes are found. According to some kabbalists,
most eminently R. *David ben Judah he-Ḥasid, within Ein-
Sof there are ten supernal Sefirot, called Ẓaḥẓaḥot, which are
described by resorting to many classical anthropomorphic
terms. This view of the Ein-Sof reverberated in Safedian Kabbalah.
[Moshe Idel (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: G. Scholem, Ursprung und Anfaenge der
Kabbala (1962), 233–8. Add. Bibliography: M. Idel, “The Image
of Man above the Sefirot,” in: Daat, 4 (1980), 41–55 (Heb.); idem, “Al
Torat ha-Elohut be-Reshit ha-Kabbalah,” in: Shefah Tal: Studies in Jewish
Thought and Culture Presented to Berakhah Sack (2004), 131–48.
EINSTEIN, ALBERT (1879–1955), physicist, discoverer of
the theory of relativity, and Nobel Prize winner. Born in the
German town of Ulm, son of the proprietor of a small electrochemical
business, Einstein spent his early youth in Munich.
He detested the military discipline of the German schools and
joined his parents, leaving school after they moved to Italy. His
interest in mathematics and physics started at an early age,
and he avidly read books on mathematics. Unable to obtain
an instructorship at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute, from
which he graduated at the age of 21, he took a post at the patent
office in Berne, having become in the meantime a Swiss
citizen. This position left him ample time to carry on his own
research. In 1905 he published three brilliant scientific papers,
one dealing with the “Brownian motion,” the second one with
the “photoelectric effect,” and the third on the “Special theory
of relativity.” It was the last one which was to bring his name
before the public. He demonstrated that motion is relative and
that physical laws must be the same for all observers moving
relative to each other, as well as his famous E = mc2 equation
einstein, albert
showing that mass is equivalent to energy. Ironically, however,
when he received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921 it was for
his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Immediately after
the publication of that paper Einstein was offered a professorship
at the University of Zurich which he at first refused,
having become fond of his job at the patent office. In 1910 he
joined the German University in Prague, where he held the
position of professor ordinarius in physics, the highest academic
rank. Despite his absorption in his scholarly pursuits
he could not fail to notice the political strife and quarrels between
the rival feelings of nationalism, and felt great sympathy
for the Czechs and their aspirations. In 1912 Einstein returned
to Switzerland, where he taught at the Polytechnic, the
same place to which he had come as a poor student in 1896.
His friend and colleague, Max Planck, succeeded in obtaining
for him a professorship at the Prussian Academy of Science in
Berlin, a research institute where Einstein could devote all his
time to research. In 1916, amid a world in the throes of World
War I, Einstein made another fundamental contribution to
science contained in Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Relativitaetstheorie
(Relativity, the Special and the General Theory,
a Popular Exposition, 1920). In this theory he generalized the
principle of relativity to all motion, uniform or not. The presence
of large masses produces a gravitational field, which will
result in a “warping” of the underlying (four-dimensional)
space. That field will act on objects, such as planets or light
rays, which will be deflected from their paths. His prediction
of the deflection of starlight by the gravitational field of the sun
was borne out by the expedition at the time of a solar eclipse
in 1919. When the results of the solar eclipse observations became
known to the general public, Einstein’s name became a
household word. He was offered, but refused, great sums of
money for articles, pictures, and advertisements as his fame
mounted. During the early years after World War I he worked
for the League of Nations Intellectual Cooperation Organization
and became a familiar figure on public platforms speaking
on social problems as well as his Theory of Relativity. He
became more and more disappointed by the misuse of sciences
in the hands of man. “In the hands of our generation these
hard-won achievements are like a razor wielded by a child of
three. The possession of marvelous means of production has
brought care and hunger instead of freedom.” In 1932, Einstein
accepted an invitation to spend the winter term at the California
Institute of Technology. By January 1933, Hitler had come
to power. Einstein promptly resigned from his position at the
Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and never returned to
Germany. Many positions were offered him but he finally accepted
a professorship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in
Princeton, N.J., and later became an American citizen. During
World War II secret news reached the U.S. physicists that
the German uranium project was progressing. Einstein, when
approached by his friend *Szilard, signed a letter to President
Roosevelt pointing out the feasibility of atomic energy. It was
that letter which sparked the Manhattan Project and future
developments of atomic energy. However, Einstein was op-
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