Wave-Particle Duality

One of the best known concepts of quantum mechanics is that there are wave and particle aspects of physical objects. In fact, as Niels Bohr described it, these two ways of characterizing an object such as a photon (the quantum of light) are really complementary phenomena. The behavior of both waves (distributed objects) and particles (localized objects) has been observed in experiments with light. We need to evoke both in order to fully account for all of the qualities of light. The question is: where do we find an expression of wave-particle duality in the Torah?

For the answer to this question we have to skip to the end of the book of Job where God poses 50 rhetorical questions to Job about the nature of Creation and Reality. In one of these (38:28) He asks: “…Who gave birth to drops of dew?” From the standpoint of human perception, dew, unlike rain which clearly emanates from the clouds in the sky, comes from out of nowhere. It just spontaneously materializes. But why emphasize that there are ‘drops’ of dew?

The word which is selectively and deceptively translated as ‘drops’ is one of most enigmatic words in the entire Hebraic Bible: eglei [אגלי]. The inherent polysemic nature of the Torah and the Hebrew language ensures that multiple meanings are concurrently transferred even through our attention will tend to focus on only one possible meaning at a time. The task of the commentary tradition is to unpack each level of meaning. Apparent conflicts of interpretation between commentators are really just another manifestation of Bohr’s complementarity. This is how the sages of the Talmud are able to assert that “these and these are the words of the living God”–that is to say, that each and every one of the canonized opinions is simultaneously correct even through they sometimes seem to contradict one another. The rarity of the word eglei does not exempt it from debate. The definitions that build the significance of this word must be viewed collaboratively. Each perspective adds something to it.

The standard translation that we gave above (‘drops’) follows the opinion of the Ralbag (Rabbi Levi ben Gershon also known as Gersonides [1288-1344]) for whom eglei tal is the equivalent of tipei tal “drops of dew.” A drop is the localized object like a particle (chelkik חלקיק). By contrast Rashi and others explain the word as through the Alef falls from its root leaving only Gimel-Lamed spelling the word gal which means a wave as in gali yam ‘waves of the sea.’ Thus, eglei truly is a wave [גל] even while it can be thought of as a particle. This is the one and only word in Hebrew that signifies (according the combined meaning of these two interpretations) a ‘wave-particle.’

Why would wave-particle duality be predicated of dew? Dew, which comes out of nowhere in terms of our everyday experience of it (like something from nothing), is itself an idiom of light as in the phrase from Yeshiyahu/Isaiah 26:19 ‘tal orot taleka’ which translates literally as ‘dew lights [are] Your dew.’ Rashi explains that dew is a property of light. Transitively we learn from both verses that A (wave-particle duality or eglai) is the equivalent of B (dew) thereby transforming B (dew) into becoming a signifier for A (wave-particle duality or eglai) then when B (dew) is predicated of C (light: orot) then it follows that A = C and light (C) has a wave-particle (A) description to it.

Since the Torah is likened to light we can cultivate a new understanding of wave-particle duality as it pertains to the behavior of the Torah itself. Sometimes, the Torah illuminates a specific context or a local phenomenon. In this respect, it is functioning like a particle of insight making a specific point or dealing with an localizable area of concentration. At other times, the self-same insight of the Torah appears to us as a wave, conducting and disseminating its energy over everything. The illumination of the Torah in this instance is non-localizable, carrying over to any and all contexts and phenomena. The wave property of the Torah enjoins us to consider its meaning at all times and places for all people. It has universal coverage and distributed significance.

In Part Two this wave-particle duality will be extended to the symbolism at play in the general formation of the earth and gathering of waters in the account of Creation in Genesis.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/new-earth-gathered-waters-physics-and-kabbalah-part-2/

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