Original Title: "Jewish Contribution to the Atom Bomb" by Amnon Goldberg
by Amnon Goldberg
Abraham Zarem - one of the last surviving Manhattan Project scientists" (JT 22 March) reminded one of the contribution of Jews to the atom bomb's development eg Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Otto Frisch, Otto Hahn, Fritz Strassmann, Paul Wigner, Leo Szilard, Lise Meitner etc..
Thrice daily in the Aleinu prayer {A prayer said at the conclusion of ALL regular prayer services] we say "Therefore we hope to You to speedily witness the splendour of Your power" - tiferes uzzechah. Currently the most powerful thing that we can see with our physical eyes in this physical universe of Asiyah Hagashmi 9M (Physical Activity) is the instantaneous release of the Binding Energy of the atomic nucleus, either through the fission of an Atom Bomb or the fusion of a Hydrogen Bomb. But there is an even greater power: ' "Face to face Hashem spoke to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire" (Deuteronomy-Devarim 5): The fire from which the Voice emerged was not merely a raging conflagration ("like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain", Exodus-Shmos 24), but was even more fierce than an atomic fire, and it cast an appalling fear upon the spectators. We can hardly picture the effect of that Voice as it emerged from the fire' (R.Avigdor Miller, 'Fortunate Nation' p61).
"For a fire is kindled in My nostrils that will burn to the depths of She'ol, and devour the Earth and her produce and will set ablaze the foundations of the mountains" (Deiteronomy- Devarim 32). Rav Boruch Horovitz shlita (may he live) says that a special brochoh (blessing) should be instituted after Shacharis [morning prayer) each morning for the fact that there hasn't yet been a nuclear war!
The Kabboloh refers to the chochmah of Hashem that is concentrated in gashmiyus as being the koach mah — "the potentiality of what is" - of which the unlocking of the vast energy in the atom is a merely a remez.
The Midrash Shir Hashirim 2 speaks of the Moshiach coming in a generation deserving of destruction, and indeed that will be capable of destroying itself. "Damascus will cease being a city: it will be a heap of ruins" (Isaiah-Yeshaya 17). "....fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup" (Psalms-Tehillim 11).
"The L-rd empties the earth and makes it waste and utterly despoiled . . . the earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and fades away . . . the earth also is defiled under its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left . . . desolation is left in the city and the gate is battered to ruins" (Isaiah-Yeshaya 24).
"A noise shall reach even to the ends of the earth; for the L- rd has a quarrel with the nations . . . evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the L-rd shall be on that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground (Jeremiah-Yirmiya 25).
"And it shall come to pass that in all the earth two-thirds shall die . . . and I will bring the third through the fire and refine them . . . and this will be the punishment of the nations . . . their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth" (Zecharya 13 and 14).
With the power of the Atom bomb a person can be standing, and then in the next second before he hits the ground, be completely consumed. Before the Atom bomb, no weapon had the capability of such destruction.
May soon be fulfilled Hashem's promise: "Behold I will create a new Heaven and a new Earth; and the former one will not be remembered nor even come to mind!" (Isaiah - Yeshaya 65)