@Always,
1) I hope so. Perhaps someone can reach out to relatives of Rabbi Rimmler (who is deceased) to learn the background of the correspondents.
2) From Wikipedia: “In the Soviet Union (mostly in the 1920s), philosophical criticism was expressed on the basis of dialectic materialism. The theory of relativity was rejected as anti-materialistic and speculative, and a mechanistic worldview based on “common sense” was required as an alternative … (On the other hand, other philosophers considered relativity as being compatible with Marxism.)”
@Gadolhadorah,
You seem to have misunderstood the quote, and you most definitely didn’t open up the chabad.org link that I attached.
In short: A Brighton Beach doctor was told by his local shliach (Rabbi Rimmler) that the sun rotates around the earth. The doctor was shocked, and wrote to the shliach that the Rebbe definitely doesn’t agree with such views, for the reasons quoted above. This letter was forwarded to the Rebbe, and he explained the Torah view, and how it is compatible with science.
Check out the link.
@Reb Eliezer,
The reason why scientists generally use the Copernicus model is because it is easier to use in diagrams and machinery.
This has nothing to do with how it actually is.
Why would Hashem make it like this? What a silly question! Why did Hashem make quantum physics so complicated? Why did Hashem make Gemara so complicated? Why can’t everything be simple and straightforward?
And how do you know that this way is indeed the simplest? Maybe that’s only how it is for today’s scientists, and at another time the science will change (like much of science throughout history).
To quote the PressConnects article that I mentioned above:
“The universe doesn’t change its behavior whether we think the sun revolves around the earth or vice versa”.
Boruch Hashem, we have the Torah that enlightens us on the truth of the universe, and there is no reason to argue, especially when it is fully compatible with modern science.
מנחם שמו