T orah P ortion
Theology, Science and the
Rabbinic Genesis
BY RABBI SHAI CHERRY
Parshat Bereshit
MORE THAN 20 years ago,
I wrote my doctoral disser-
tation on Jewish responses to
Darwinism. What I discovered
is how little Judaism needed to
adjust to accommodate biolog-
ical evolution.

Given the blatant contra-
dictions between Genesis and
evolution, that’s fascinating.

The later innovations by our
rabbis, for reasons of theology,
not science, created such
compatibility. Let’s begin with divine
providence — the claim that
God controls all events.

Pirkei Avot asks the
question, “Who is mighty?”
Their answer is “the one who
controls his impulses.” Since
God is almighty, God exercises
maximal restraint. The Talmud
makes this argument in the
context of the destruction of
the Temple and the Babylonian
exile (Yoma 69b). God “allows”
power politics to unfold
Conston Continued from Page 5
the resolution. It later referred
to her as, “The embodiment of
Jewish vision, and our value of
L’dor V’dor.”
Conston was born Shirley
Stanton on Oct. 9, 1926 and
graduated from the Friends Select
School in 1944. She married
Charles Conston in 1947 and
graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania two years later.

At both Friends Select and
Penn, she was class president.

“She was very active,” said
Conston’s daughter, Elisabeth
Conston. So after graduating from
college, she took maybe the
most active job there is: raising
kids. While her husband built
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without divine intervention.

By the Middle Ages, what
earlier rabbis had seen as the
virtue of divine self-restraint
was understood by both philoso-
phers and mystics as a necessary
byproduct of creation.

In the refrain of Genesis,
God reviews each day’s
products and pronounces
them ki tov. The 17th-century
commentator Shlomo Ephraim
of Lunschitz (Kli Yakar) trans-
lates ki tov as “potentially
good.” “Had human beings
not been created, all previous
creation would have been in
vain.” There was no guarantee
we humans would be created
— Stephen Jay Gould called
this radical contingency.

The Talmud’s story about
a mistaken invitation to a
banquet that resulted in the
Temple’s destruction pointedly
omits any mention of God. The
consequences of innocently
confusing Kamtza and Bar
Kamtza were catastrophic.

The rabbis, too, acknowledged
how easily history might have
turned out differently.

Another aspect
of Darwinism is that creation is
ongoing. Genesis, however, says
that on the seventh day God
ceased from all work of creation
(Genesis 2:2). Nevertheless, our
prayer book, which is as close
to Jewish theological doctrine
as we get, has God renewing
creation daily.

The commitment to contin-
uous creation is the rabbinic
counterpart to continuous
revelation through Torah
study. God operates in earth’s
history parallel to how God
operates in Jewish history.

Evolution is called the trans-
mutation of species. Genesis,
however, could not be more
explicit that each species was
created “according to its kind.”
Rather than accept the plain
sense of the text, the rabbis
imagine that each day’s creation
is like the ripening fruit of a
seed planted “in the beginning.”
In other words, for the
rabbis, creation was instanta-
neous — just like the giving
of both the written Torah and
the oral Torah at Mount Sinai
that subsequently unfurled
throughout Jewish history.

For the rabbis, instantaneous
revelation at Sinai justified
their distinctive interpretations
of the written Torah through
the oral Torah which they
exclusively possessed.

One of the oddities of
Genesis is that the sun does
not break through until day
four — calling into question
how long those non-solar days
were! On the sixth day, for the
first time, God partners up.

“Let us make ...”
Although the early rabbis
offered several interpretations
for the plural, by the Middle
Ages it was largely accepted
that God spoke to what had
already been created. Thus, as
early as the Midrash of Genesis
Rabbah (fifth century), rabbis
understood that we humans
were a coproduction of the
animal kingdom and God.

Genesis did not scoop
Darwin. Genesis is not inter-
ested in what we call science.

Nevertheless, the theolo-
gies that emerged after the
destruction of the Temple to
address our suffering despite
our conviction of God’s
ongoing concern are compat-
ible with God’s presence in
evolutionary history. That’s not
how Young Earth Creationists
read Genesis, but it is more
honest and more inspiring. l
the family business, 15 Plus
and the Charles Shops, a chain
of women’s apparel stores, she
ran the household.

The couple had three
children: Stuart, Elisabeth and
their middle sister Cynthia.

Elisabeth Conston remem-
bers her mother as a Girl Scout
leader and as the taxi service
for their friend groups.

But as her children grew
older, Shirley Conston no longer
wanted to just stay home.

When Stuart Conston
neared high school, she
started working in a mental
health facility for women and
girls who had suffered from
domestic abuse. By the time
her son got to college, Shirley
Conston began undertaking
advertising and public relations
for the family business.

But no cause galvanized
her like l’dor v’dor, or helping
and preserving the Jewish
community from generation to
generation. Charles Conston, like his father-
in-law, served as general chairman
of the Allied Jewish Appeal. And
together, the Constons went on
a mission to Israel through the
Jewish Federation.

In 1971, though, Shirley
Conston took her activism a step
further when she was elected to the
board of Jewish Ys and commu-
nity centers. It was the beginning
of more than two decades of chari-
table contributions to the local
Jewish community.

Conston grew up in a
wealthy family, then helped
build one of her own. Since
she always had money, she felt
a responsibility to give back,
according to her children.

“She had a lot of privileges and
resources,” Elisabeth Conston
said. “She learned you need to
take care of people who don’t.”
For Conston, the concept of
l’dor v’dor didn’t merely apply
to the wider community.

The matriarch lived long
enough to witness the births of
seven grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren. Through her grandchildren,
she had the opportunity to see
games, concerts and gradua-
tions, among countless other
events. And she attended them all.

“She adored them,” Stuart
Conston said.

Shirley and Charles
Conston took their grandchil-
dren on some of their many
foreign journeys. But more
than any other place, the
Constons repeatedly brought
their grandchildren to Israel.

After Charles Conston
died in 2005, Shirley Conston
mourned, then “reinvented
herself,” her daughter said.

In 2008, she moved to
Florida and started going out
with friends more. Then, for
the past decade, she built a
relationship with companion
Arthur Glick, although they
never married.

“But she wanted to have a
life,” Elisabeth Conston said.

“She just never gave up.” l
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rabbi Shai Cherry, rabbi of
Congregation Adath Jeshurun
in Elkins Park, is the author of
“Coherent Judaism: Constructive
Theology, Creation, and Halakhah”
and “Torah through Time:
Understanding Bible Commentary
from the Rabbinic Period to Modern
Times” and a featured lecturer for
The Great Courses’ “Introduction
to Judaism.” The Board of Rabbis
of Greater Philadelphia is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on
Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. The opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own
and do not reflect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM