The Jewish Trinity that Took Down the World :Marx-Freud-Einstein
Part 3 Einstein
This is the link to my presentation: https://youtu.be/AkuFVqsl20I
Of the Big
Three Trinity, Albert Einstein was the most openly and actively Jewish one.
Marx was antipathic, even self-loathing, Freud never denied it, but Einstein
most openly made himself a “Member of the Tribe”.
I open with a clip
from the opera Einstein on the Beach - by Philpi Glass. with videos of Einstein.
Einstein in his library, dapper and well groomed, as long as his wife was alive.
His theories, we well understand ,were revolutionary in his day.
Newton’s apple
would, at a certain speed, eventually freeze in place, light was bent by
gravity, and time was relative. One of the corollaries, from those who followed
in his path, was the “ Uncertainty Principal” and Shroedinger’s cat, who
famously, was simultaneously alive and dead. One good consequence- the promise
of unlimited energy for human need from nuclear fission, then fusion, and, as is too well known, one
disastrous consequence- unlimited energy from nuclear fission and fusion, to
evaporate us.
Some
highlights: (Excerpts From Wikipedia. My notes in [])
[Something of a smart kid:I can imagine his mother , like any
Jewish mother, bragging about “ my little genius”.]
. The 12-year-old Einstein taught himself algebra and
Euclidean geometry over a single summer.[25] Einstein
also independently discovered his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem at age 12.[26
Einstein started teaching himself calculus at 12, and as a
14-year-old he says he had "mastered integral and differential calculus".[28]
At age 26,in 1905,
his annus mirabilis ('miracle year'), Einstein published four groundbreaking papers.[12] ..
the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion,
introduced special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence. … led
him to develop his special theory of relativity. He then extended the theory to
gravitational fields on general relativity in 1916. In 1917, he applied the general theory of
relativity to model the structure of the universe.[13][14] He
continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory,particle
theory and the motion of molecules, the thermal properties of light
and the quantum theory of radiation, laid the foundation of the photon theory
of light. [His greatest work was done in that ten year time period.]
One of the greatest physicists of all time.
The theory of relativity, in other words, time and space are
not fixed but flex.
Led to the development of quantum mechanics [which he did not
like] Relativity and quantum mechanics are together the two pillars of modern physics.
[ For example, Heisenberg principal of uncertainty--we can know where a
particle is at a given moment, but we can not know its velocity, and we can
know the velocity of a particle, but we can not know its location at that
moment. What we do know is that electrons moveout of one shell around the atom
and appear at another shell at the same moment, and light is a particle but it
is also a wave, which is a contradiction. Schroedinger’s cat is either alive or
dead or both, depending on our observation.For what it’s worth, it’s what makes
computers work]
His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity
theory, has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation".[7] [In
simple terms, the energy released is equivalent to the mass of a body times its
speed( as measured by a constant, the speed of light) squared. When we are
running around the block, and hit a wall, we feel the energy, in old Newtonian
terms, F=MA, Force equals the mass times the acceleration. When we are driving
at 100 mph, and hit a wall, that’s plenty of force! But when you are at the speed of light, that
energy released is of an order of so many more times of magnitude. ]
[The other odd consequence, as you approach the speed of
light, your mass increases and your time slows down, in geometric proportions.
Gravity, rather than being a “force” exists as a warping of space in relation
to the mass of a body. Hence, light passing from a star towards us is bent by
the mass of the sun. ]
His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.
He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to
theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect",[10] a
pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.
Second, he attempted to devise a unified field theory by
generalizing his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism.
**********************************************
Ultimately, as one studies modern physics today, Einstein’s
work undermines everything the human mind can grasp about reality, including
our own being as physical bodies- black holes, worm holes, multiple universes,
multiple dimensions—, “Curiouser and
curiouser!” Cried Alice
It makes arcane
Kabbalah seem very rational. Multiple creations appear in midrash.Parallel
universes presumed by medieval Jewish philosopher, Big Bang-Lurianic Kabbalah.
Of the three in
the trinity of Marx, Freud and Einstein, only Einstein has not been dethroned-modified,
clarified, but not dethroned. Of the three iconoclasts, Einstein was the only
one close to restoring the idea of an underlying principle of the Universe,
which could be identified with God
How Jewish was
Einstein?
: I take this
from my notes on my father’s personal experience with Einstein:
My father often spoke admiringly of
Einstein and explained his belief that his brilliant insight into the inner
functioning of the universe was an example of the classical Biblical concept of
prophecy, the meeting of the human mind with the Divine in revelation. The proof,
he was sure, was that Einstein’s greatest work occurred within the span of one
year, in 1905, when Einstein was 26. The rest of his career, my father
contended, was spent in fruitless search for the Unified Field Theory, the
theory that would tie together all universal phenomena and force, what a
religious thinker would call ”God”. While Einstein rejected formal religion, it
is well known that he viewed the laws of the universe with a religious awe.
For example,
here are two of his well-known quotes:
“Knowledge of the existence of
something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and
the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are
accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute
true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious
man.”
“The theory [quantum mechanics] says a lot,
but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old
one." I, at any rate, am convinced
that He does not throw dice.” (Other
versions have “God does not throw dice”, but “He” is an intimate term,
following on “the old one”, even though Einstein rejected the idea of a
personal God. It expressed Einstein issue with quantum physics which injected
uncertainty into the universe, even though it was a consequence of his own
theories.)
My father, at that
time, a student at the rabbinical school of the Hochschule fuer die Wisseschaft
des Judentums, met with Einstein at his home in Potsdam to plan what would
become, unknown to them, Einstein’s last popular lecture in Germany. It was to
be a fund-raiser for the Jewish students group that my father headed. It was
held just before Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, and Einstein had left
for a lecture tour to the USA, and shortly thereafter, the gates of Berlin were
shut against him, just short of 200 years after Moses Mendelssohn arrived at
the gates of Berlin.
On Jewish
Einstein-(From Matheu Roth, My Jewish Learning)
***In 1921, Albert Einstein presented a paper on his then-infant
Theory of Relativity at the Sorbonne, the prestigious French university. “If I
am proved correct,” he said, “the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will
call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist. If
relativity is proved wrong, the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will
call me a German, and the Germans will call me a Jew.”
[During the
rise of Nazism, it was claimed that there was Aryan science and there was
Jewish science- Einstein was Jewish, therefore wrong. Later, as Einstein would
be proved right, it was claimed that he stole his papers from a dead German
soldier on the battlefield. This is why the claim that I see in some education
and academic circles of a “ white science” or “white math’ and some “ ethnic
science of math” which is equally true, or better, raises my hackles]
****…that conflicts between science and religion “have all sprung
from fatal errors,” and that “science without religion is lame, religion
without science is blind.”
There have been
attempts to distort Einstein’s attitude towards Israel
by conflating his earlier idea that Jews and Arabs could share a land together,
with his later realization, that there needed to be a specifically designated
state for the Jewish people. He protested what he saw as the dangerous violence
of the Etzel ( Begin’s movement) and the Deir Yasin massacre—but criticism of
what was then a small radical movement is not the same as denying the entire
concept.( Later historians would also clear Begin and his militia of the accusations
about Deir Yasin).
Best exposition
of the Zionist Case- by Einstein to Nehru ( I feel impelled to put the great Gandhi in
his place. He was an absolute monster on the Jewish question- Jews should turn the other cheek to the Nazis.
To put Gandhi in his place- he was a racist in many of his comments and had the
bizarre habit of sleeping naked with his nieces to prove that he had crushed
his sexual desires)
Letter from Einstein to Jawaharal Nehru PM of the Indian Govt, New Delhi, India
My dear Mr. Nehru:
…I should like
to discuss only one problem with you-the ethical issues involved in the Zionist
effort to recreate a Jewish homeland in Palestine. … I should like to dwell on
the factors of justice and equality which are involved, and whose violation I
would protest equally with you.
Long before the
emergence of Hitler, I made the cause of Zionism mine because through it I saw
a means of correcting a flagrant wrong. I refer to the peculiar disability
suffered by the Jewish people by which they were deprived of the opportunity to
live on the same basis as other peoples. The
bigotry of the chauvinists and racists, whose doctrines have brought so much
evil to mankind, has always been alien to me. …The Jewish people alone has for
centuries been in the anomalous position of being victimized and hounded as as
people, though bereft of all the rights and protections which even the smallest
people normally has. Jews have been persecuted as individuals; the Jewish
people has been unable to develop fruitfully as a cultural and ethnic group. The
spirit of the people as well as the bodies of its members have been assailed.
Zionism offered the means of ending this discrimination. Through the return to
the land to which they were bound by close historic ties, and, since the
dispersion, hallowed in their daily prayers, Jews sought to abolish their
pariah status among peoples.
The Advent of
Hitler underscored with a savage logic all the disastrous implications
contained in the abnormal situation in which Jews found themselves. Millions of
Jews perished not only because they were caught in the Nazi murder
machine but also because there was no spot on the globe where they could find
sanctuary.,,.
The Jewish
survivors demand the right to dwell amid brothers, on the soil of their
fathers. . . .Can Jewish need, no matter how acute, be
met without the infringement of the vital rights of others? My answer is in the
affirmative. One of the most extraordinary features of the Jewish rebuilding of
Palestine is that the influx of Jewish pioneers has resulted not in the
displacement and impoverishment of the local Arab population, but in its
phenomenal increase and greater prosperity.
…. They
bought every inch of the land on which they settled. Furthermore, and most
important for this phase of the argument, the Arab population of Palestine
doubled in size since the Balfour Declaration, whereas in the adjoining
independent Arab states, the population remained static.
. . . At the
close of world war 1, 99% of the vast, underpopulated territories liberated
from the Turks by the Allies were set aside for the national aspirations of the
Arabs. Five independent Arab states have since been established in these
territories. Only 1% was reserved for
the Jewish people in the land of their origin.
…. May I appeal
to you, as the leader of a movement of social and national enfranchisement, to
recognize in Zionism a similar movement whose realization will add to the peace
and progress of the Orient. Free Jewish immigration to Palestine, and the right
of the Jews to continue the upholding of their ancient homeland without
artificial restrictions, will increase the sum of well being in the world. It
is time to make an end to the ghetto status of Jews in Palestine, and to the
pariah status of Jews among peoples. I trust that you, who so badly have
struggled for freedom and justice, will place your great influence on behalf of
the claim for justice made by the people who for so long and so dreadfully have
suffered from its denial.
Yours very
sincerely, Albert Einstein
[Note: India
remained antagonistic towards Israel for most of 70 years. It is only in recent
years that they have maintained good relations. Simply, they no longer needed
the Arab world’s support against Pakistan.]
When
President Harry Truman recognized
Israel in May 1948, Einstein declared it "the fulfillment of our
(Jewish) dreams."[33]
In 1952, after the death of Einstein’s friend,
then-president Chaim Weizmann, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz printed an editorial nominating
Einstein as his successor. Ultimately, Einstein declined, saying, “I am
deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and
ashamed that I cannot accept it.”
It was joked, at
the time,that, with Einstein’s mathematical genius, he would have been able to
solve the mess of Israel’s poor economy in the early years.
Einstein as the
beloved scoffer.
“ The
definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly and expect a
different result.”
Addenda: The
account of my father, Rabbi Dr William( Wilhelm) Weinberg, and how he arranged Einstein’s last public lecture in Germany while he was a young rabbinical student.
The theory [quantum
mechanics] says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of
the “old one.” I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.
The
second quote is often incorrectly translated as “God does not throw dice,” but that
was not how Einstein wrote it. “He” is an intimate term, following on “the old
one,” even though Einstein rejected the idea of a personal God. It expressed
Einstein’s issue with quantum physics, which injected uncertainty into the
universe, even though it was a consequence of his own theories.
At that time, Einstein
was in his fifties and was very different from the Einstein of later years and
from the image that has been presented to us. He was well groomed and smartly
dressed, a man of cultivated manners. I was overawed by this chance to meet the
great mind of the twentieth century.
The door was opened for
me to Einstein’s apartment in Berlin, and I made my way up the stairs to his
study.
The life-size image of Sir
Isaac Newton presided over the wall.
On Einstein’s desk were
scattered letters from persons of renown. One name that stood out was Sinclair—either
Upton Sinclair or Sinclair Lewis. [Note: My father couldn’t recall for sure
which one, since both wrote of social issues in America. Perhaps the reference
is to Sinclair Lewis, who, in 1935, would write a parody of an America under a
Nazi-like regime.] I didn’t have the audacity to ask for just one memento, yet
all those letters would soon find their way to the wastebasket. A copy of Simon
Dubnow’s World History of the Jewish
People, dedicated by the author to Einstein, was also on the desk. [Dubnow,
soon to be a victim of the Holocaust, was one of the greatest Jewish historians
of the time.]
His secretary, a woman
in her thirties, stopped her typing to introduce me as “president of the Jewish
Students Organization” and “the young candidate for the Rabbinate.” In the
course of a half hour’s conversation, my nervousness subsided. I was uplifted
by the pipe-smoking scholar with the beautiful, expressive face. Einstein
inquired about my reading and personal interests and those of my fellow students
and their views and opinions. By the time I left, I felt as if I were taking
leave of a long-time friend.
Einstein, although not
a believer in the accepted sense, was deeply religious, sort of a secular
saint. He was not the withdrawn type, but was eager to be involved, and he was
concerned about the students’ wellbeing and attitudes.
He agreed to give a
violin recital if the opera star, Marie Inoquene, would join him. He gave me a
letter for Alfred Einstein, his cousin, the music critic, asking him to make
the necessary arrangements. The singer agreed to take part, but those were the
years of Brown Shirt terrorism and the rise of the Nazi Party, when Einstein
was constantly bombarded by hate mail and telephoned threats on his life. It
was therefore decided that instead of a recital, he would deliver a lecture.
After that first visit
in Berlin, I was invited to the Einsteins’ cottage in Caput-by-Potsdam. The
cottage had been presented to him on his fiftieth birthday by the city of Berlin.
Einstein had no telephone, and could be reached only through a neighbor’s
phone.
Einstein’s wife, Elsa,
who treated me to coffee and cake, insisted that I take some cake home. I also met
Einstein’s stepdaughter and her husband, the editor of a literary magazine, who
was the only one in the Einstein household whose realm of discourse was in a
field in which I had a background, political and social studies. (I had no
background in higher mathematics or physics.)
I rode together with
Einstein on one of the trips back from Caput to Berlin, and he asked me to join
him for an appointment with Henri Barbusse, the French novelist of socialist
fame and the author of Le Feu (Under
Fire), a powerful denunciation of war; until then, Einstein was known as a
pacifist. Barbusse was returning to France after having spent time in Moscow.
The conversation was in French, a language I had not studied. On the way back,
Einstein complained that Barbusse had no understanding of what was transpiring
in the Soviet Union; Barbusse soon thereafter published a book on Stalin. I
would in a few years’ time come to live under Stalin and observe firsthand what
had disturbed Einstein [about Barbusse’s writings]. [Note: Le Feu was the first
major novel to come out of World War I. Barbusse was a fervent believer in the
cause of the communist revolution].
During the weeks prior
to the lecture, I realized what an advantage Einstein had by not possessing a
phone at his country retreat. I could not sit quietly in my own apartment
because the phone rang ceaselessly at all hours with requests for tickets to
Einstein’s lecture.
By the night of the
lecture, there was tremendous social unrest and turmoil. Security at the
lecture hall was very tight. Police were stationed around the building and at
the entrance. In addition, bodyguards were positioned at the speaker’s platform
ready to handle any threats to the speaker that Brown Shirt thugs might pose. I
arranged for two businessmen to drive Einstein to the hall, which he entered
unobtrusively from the rear. Mrs. Einstein herself had asked me to keep an eye
on her husband. Einstein was bothered by the flashbulbs and asked me to keep
the photographers away. It was a hopeless task. I gave Einstein a letter someone
had asked me to deliver to him, and he asked his wife to read it.
A blackboard was set up
on the platform, and the lecture began and passed without incident. As Einstein
spoke, he drew numbers and signs on the board. The lecture was to be popular in
style; although I had read what I could on relativity and physics, I could make
neither heads nor tales of the presentation. My Talmudic and political studies
were of no help to me in understanding the new Kabbalah presented on the stage
that night of Einstein’s last lecture in Germany before the darkness of Nazism
set in.
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