October 29, 2010 - The following teaching is a translation I made of a chapter from an unpublished book written by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook over a hundred years ago.  It deals with issues that caused young people of his generation to lose their faith in the Torah.  Since much of my website deals with cosmology and kabbalistic theories of Creation, I thought it would be nice to include Rav Kook's take on Evolution and the Story of Creation in Genesis.  (the italics are mine):
 

Rav Kook’s Guide For the Perplexed of the Generation

Chapter 5

The Rambam already wrote that the Biblical Story of Creation is not entirely literal, because  it also contains metaphoric depth.  In any event, it is not a foundation of the Torah to interpret the  Story of Creation merely literally.   He wrote that if he had proof that the Universe has always existed and was not created by God, as expressed in Genesis, he would have interpreted the Biblical verses that tell of the Universe being brought into existence in the same metaphorical way he interpreted verses that speak of God as if He was corporeal.   

However, in another place, the Rambam said that our rejecting the theory that the Universe always existed is not because of the Scriptural depictions of Creation, but rather because it contradicts the foundation of the Torah.   Because the theory that says the Universe has always existed does not allow for miracles and the changing of custom, and thus the pillar that the foundations of Religion lean upon would be annulled.

It is well understood that the new ways that preach the theory of evolution do not annul the foundations of the Torah at all.  They do not even annul the Scriptural descriptions of Creation.  One may claim that if the matter of planet Earth evolved over a period of tens of thousands of years, the 'hand of God' cannot be seen here.  Another may ask why God would need so much time, couldn't He create everything in just one moment?

These claims we will answer with reason and knowledge and say that the ways of evolution - and proceeding gradually in the order of Existence - has never distanced us from knowing God, on the contrary, it brings us closer to Him with love and an uplifted soul.  Because we see the ways of cause and effect happening before our eyes daily, and since we see that these things are happening in a wondrous Order, with much Wisdom and great Mercies, we recognize the One acting and animating everything as the Living God and His Council, Salvation, Lovingkindness and Mercy.

How is the spheres of the stars and planets taking tens of thousands of years to evolve according to their size, different from the embryo in the mother's womb taking many months to evolve?  And yet, "Your works are wondrous, and my soul knows this well… as I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Your eyes saw my unshaped form; for in Your Book all things are written" (Psalms 139).   

All the more so if we count the evolutionary Orders through which organic parts ascend from the time they were merely simple elements until they come to the state of a complete human being - living, intelligent, even just and true, with great power and might.  It is precisely the great span of Time and the ways that proceed slowly that testify for us to the Power of God when they come to their proper and inclusive objective.

It is evident to Torah scholars that only a small part of the Works of Genesis are described.  Our sages thus said in the Midrash Rabba:  ‘To tell the Power of the Works of Genesis is impossible, that is why the Scriptures say cryptically - In the Beginning God created’.  The foundation of this is that the Torah only spoke about what concerns our planet Earth, and even this only according to the content through which the moral-ethical side can be properly understood - that which has to do with rectifying Humanity’s ways in their external conduct and internal feelings.

If we look at the Order of the creation of our planet Earth from the place that the Torah begins to tell its story, we find that it was without Order; and from the abundance of thick, wet steam and vapor, the Earth was full of water and darkness.  The first step was that some of the vapors cleared until a little light could get through, but the air was not clear enough to be able to see the bodies of the luminaries.   Therefore only the light was created - from the perspective of our planet - but the luminaries themselves were not considered to be created yet, for if a person was standing on Earth he would not recognize that luminaries (like the sun, moon and stars) exist at all.  However there was morning and evening still because of the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

After that, the air cleared enough to be able to be called a ‘sky’ even though there was so much moisture above the realm of air which could be seen and felt if there was a person then upon the Earth.  After that was the gathering of the waters of the Earth to ‘one place’ (revealing land) and the evolution of plant-life.  And after that the air cleared enough for the luminaries to be properly seen in a manner that is also fitting for the intellectual evolution of human beings to be able to investigate their surroundings.  Only then was the air ready for living creatures, and birds were created who flew where the air was clear enough, and fish who have no need for such clear air.  After that when the air was especially cloud-free was it fitting for the formation of animals who walk the land and humans.  

Notice that it does not say in the Torah, ‘God made this on the first day’; ‘God made that on the second day’; rather these happenings are arranged in a proper and gradual order, and with each division of events is mentioned, ‘it was evening and it was morning, one day’; ‘….the second day’ etc.  We could interpret this as saying that these events took place in one complete 24-hour day but we can also say that the Torah is not telling us here how much time each advancement took.  Rather the understanding that is proper to depict in our mind is that everything was arranged according to an order, intention, and preparation fitting for the purpose of the Godly Wisdom and Justice, so that these impressions will act upon and effect human perfection.  Since the seventh day is holy to remember the Works of Genesis, therefore a division of six general ‘steps’ is understood here, which correspond to the six days of a week.  There is nothing in the Scriptures that prevent this kind of interpretation.  Nor does it diminish from the obligation of the holiness of the Shabbat which is according to the depictions in the minds of human beings.