Old Wine, New Flasks

Roald Hoffmann and Shira Leibowitz have worked together long and hard with a very ambitious project in mind, that is to establish or, better said, search and show possible connections between two of human cultural enterprises, religion (specifically Jewish religion) and science (particularly Chemistry). Sh. Leibowitz's deep knowledge of the byblical books and commentaries, and R.Hoffmann's extensive knowledge in Chemistry, Physics, Art, and Poetry, make up a very rich treasure box from where they have picked up different items, which then they developed as trees with many branches, by connecting or associating ideas. The tree metaphor also helps to express the divergent nature of their writing, without a specific idea to lay out, expose, prove, or simply develop. This characteristic in the process of the writing and specially the selection of items (somewhat by chance it seems), leaves the reader too much to himself, finding value in the text by his or her own wonderings, given that there is no conclusion established for the various links. It is a different style, most writers aim to convince, they guide the reader with frequent reminders as returning to the point of departure, or flashbacks to see the path followed. In this book R.H and Sh.L. only draw a picture with elements of two cultures, they express an open minded view of reality, and of knowledge, as something that is built by each person with the materials at hand. It's difficult to say what is it that one has learned after reading them, in the classical way, but there is a feeling of having travelled from the beginning of man's thought through the minds of many thoughtful men and women till our days, there is a feeling of the mind widenning, of an alertness that was not there before.

Indeed the style employed by the authors can in some ways be compared to that of the Talmud, which is an encyclopedia of Jewish law but often works quite associatively in presenting information. The authors have explored the synthetist view (also voiced by Maimonides and many contemporary orthodox Jewish scientists) that religion MUST BE reconcilable with scientific findings, even though they might not be at first glance. The Jewish sources are well researched. An intriguing read.