Question: When did the Jewish people start believing the world is only 5773 years old? (This question was asked in 2012.) If the universe is indeed billions of years old what does 5773 commemorate? Finally why can’t orthodoxy accept the fact that the universe is billions of years old? The Torah does not state how old the universe is. It does not diminish the concept of a creator in any way.
Answer: There are several potential answers to your question. The simplest is that the year 5773 is counted from the creation of Adam and not from the beginning of the creation.That means that there are five and a half days until Adam was created that cannot be quantified in any way.
Below is one approach given by Rabbi David Gottlieb. There are other approaches as well—I suggest the book Thinking about Creation: Eternal Torah and Modern Physics by Andrew Goldfinger and also Fossils and Faith: Understanding Torah and Science by Natan Aviezer.
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Author: AskTheRabbi.org
Keywords: Age of the universe, Age of the earth, Evolution, Carbon dating, Mature Adam, God created mature man, potassium-argon, uranium, Speed of light, Tree ring, Mature earth, God created mature, Fossil, Dinosaur, Old earth, Young earth, Creation, God created
Bible reference(s): Genesis 1
Source: AskTheRabbi.org.
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