The Scientist Who Challenged Hawking: "The Universe Is a Product of Hashem"

It's likely you've never heard of Professor Jacob Bekenstein, who unexpectedly passed away last week. In our superficial age, the death of someone who was neither a celebrity nor a politician but 'merely' a top scientist—and a humble one at that—doesn't make many waves.

Among those who did know of Bekenstein, his passing did indeed make an impact. Even The New York Times and The Washington Post dedicated lengthy articles to him: Bekenstein was, after all, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of our time. Even those uninterested in physics theories have surely heard of Stephen Hawking, and much of Bekenstein's fame in scientific circles derives from his confrontation with Hawking on the correct understanding of 'black holes' (celestial bodies whose escape velocity is greater than the speed of light). The winner of that debate was, unequivocally, Bekenstein. In his famous book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking retracted his earlier misunderstandings and wrote about Bekenstein, 'It turns out that he was actually correct.'

Despite his contributions to the understanding of black holes and involvement in major discoveries associated with other renowned scientists, The Washington Post rightly noted: "Dr. Bekenstein was highly respected among his peers, but his many achievements never brought him public fame."

Professor Jacob Bekenstein

Bekenstein had no problem with that. Honor embarrassed him. As noted in the blog of Ofer Metuki, a physics PhD candidate at the Hebrew University who studied under Bekenstein: "He was one of the most humble and modest people I knew, driven primarily by the desire to explore and discover more about the world and pass that knowledge on. In 2005, I was privileged to be a student in his course on continuum theory. While it was apparent that teaching was not something he necessarily enjoyed, he saw it as of utmost importance. He meticulously pre-wrote all his lectures for the course, made his summaries available to students, and invested much thought in the exercises and exams he created. That year, he won the Israel Prize mid-semester. The day after he won, he entered the classroom as usual, and the entire class stood and began applauding him. In his characteristic modesty, he just stood there, embarrassed. Once the applause died down, he turned and began teaching.."

Besides the Israel Prize, Bekenstein also received the Rothschild Prize and the Wolf Prize—the second most prestigious scientific award globally after the Nobel, often a precursor to a Nobel prize itself.

Bekenstein found himself opposing Stephen Hawking not only on matters of black holes. Unlike Hawking, who in his last decade declared himself an atheist, Bekenstein was a religious Jew who wore a kippah and expressed his views succinctly: "I see the world as the work of Hashem. He set very specific laws, and we greatly enjoy discovering them through scientific work—seeing how everything fits together."

In 2006, when Stephen Hawking declared that our understanding of the creation of the universe didn’t require the intervention of a divine entity ("The Big Bang does not need the involvement of a deity"), The Jerusalem Post turned to Professor Bekenstein for a rebuttal. In his famous restraint, Bekenstein responded: "His new declarations are a bit too simplistic. We learn about the universe by observation and experimentation, but we are limited in our capabilities and can err in understanding physical laws. He reached a grandiose conclusion that even many scientists who aren’t believers in Hashem think is exaggerated."

Bekenstein added then: "More people worldwide would agree with Hawking's call to colonize the moon or any other planet than with his assertion that there was no need for divine intervention in the creation of the universe...I do not believe that if we succeed in replicating in the lab the specific conditions believed to have occurred during the Big Bang, we could create a new universe...Scientists at the particle accelerator in Switzerland are trying to understand certain aspects of the Big Bang, but even there, one cannot create all conditions and replicate them precisely."

Bekenstein was a prototype of a religious scientist who knew his priorities well. Perhaps the story that most characterizes him is the fact that when congratulatory messages failed to reach him by phone after he won the prestigious Wolf Prize three years ago, it was because Bekenstein had gone to the Western Wall—to thank Hashem for the award.

May his memory be a blessing.