Merging Torah And Science: Lessons From The Life Of Dr. Binyomin Abrams

00:00 Speaker 1 The traffic here is terrible, and the price of gasoline wasn't so much better, so I bought a moped.

00:05 Speaker 2 That's Binyomin Abrams. He's a chemistry professor at Boston University. His moped purchase came at the beginning of fall semester about 10 years ago. He'd ride it to work along Commonwealth Avenue, the busy thoroughfare that runs through BU's sprawling campus.

00:22 Speaker 1 And so I'm, I'm riding my moped down Commonwealth Avenue, and one of the incoming first-year students snaps a photo of me with my beard flying in the wind, tzitzit flying everywhere. What does this incoming student do? They post it on Facebook, and they write, "So excited to be coming to Boston University. Where else are you gonna see an Amish person riding a moped?" Then the comments start coming in. The first comment is, "Hey, I don't think the Amish are allowed to ride mopeds." Then the second one was, "Hey, stop telling the Amish what they are and aren't allowed to do." And then the last comment was, "I don't think he's Amish. I think that's a Hasidic Jewish person, and I think he's our chemistry professor."

01:05 Speaker 2 Even then, just a few years into his distinguished academic career, Professor Binyomin Abrams was deconstructing stereotypes as he was helping a generation of promising scientists and medical professionals learn and understand science, and redefine their relationship with spirituality. He's been able to do that in no small part because of the support he's received from Chabad emissaries. You might say that they've been the catalysts in the ongoing experiment that is the life and career of Binyomin Abrams. I'm Gary Wolk, and this is Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances, and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Binyomin Abrams grew up in Montreal. He and his family belonged to an Orthodox synagogue, but they weren't particularly observant. For instance, Abrams says that when he and his family attended Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services-

02:34 Speaker 1 We always parked at least two blocks away from the shul. That was the running joke, right, is that, you know, my grandparents' generation parked three blocks from the shul. My parents' generation parked two blocks from the shul. Baruch Hashem, I did teshuva, or, or I would've literally driven my car into the building.

02:52 Speaker 2 But Abrams' teshuva would come later. In the meantime, Abrams attended years of Jewish day school, and he had a bar mitzvah.

03:01 Speaker 1 That was the one that I joke was more bar than mitzvah. That was the first and last time I put on tallit until I met Lubavitch.

03:08 Speaker 2 At first, the young Abrams thought he'd study medicine, but he didn't think he'd have what it took to deal with illness and suffering on a day-to-day basis. But he was most drawn to science, and to chemistry in particular.

03:20 Speaker 1 What's great about chemistry is, is that it's the whole world. Everything around you is atoms. You know, you know there's an old joke, never trust an atom. They make up everything.

03:31 Speaker 2 Oh.

03:32 Speaker 1 Yeah, I know. Uh, my c- my students don't necessarily like my jokes either, but there's truth in that, right? So everything that we see and everything that happens is a result of those atoms moving and functioning. You can see the result of the atoms and molecules, but the individual atoms and molecules you literally can't see.

03:51 Speaker 2 That fascination with the unseeable would later lead Abrams on a journey of spiritual discovery. But in 1998, it led him to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry. He says he was involved with a Jewish group on campus, but-

04:10 Speaker 1 I didn't really feel any impetus whatsoever to Jewish observance.

04:14 Speaker 2 Did you feel at that point that anything was missing in your life?

04:18 Speaker 1 No. I was not very self-aware during my college years. I was having a good time. I was, I was part of clubs. I had a lot of friends. I was studying. I felt pretty complete.

04:29 Speaker 2 But that was about to change. In 2003, he moved to Manhattan, where he began to study for a PhD in theoretical chemistry at New York University. A year or two later, he was thinking about the upcoming Passover holiday.

04:45 Speaker 1 I'd gone to Seders every year of my life. I loved Pesach.

04:49 Speaker 2 Abrams discovered that some campus groups were running Seders, but they were either all booked up or simply too expensive. And then-

04:59 Speaker 1 I got an email saying, "Hey," you know, "wanna come to our Seder?"

05:02 Speaker 2 It was from Rabbi Dov Yonah Korn, who, along with his wife, Sara, helped run a Chabad house at that time for NYU students near Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park.

05:13 Speaker 1 I don't know how I was even invited to this Seder. I'd never heard of Chabad before. I'm thinking to myself, "Who are these people?" So I go online, and I look up Chabad, which is kinda crazy, because how do you grow up in Montreal for 17 years and not know who Chabad is? Anyway, so I, I look them up, and I see them with the beards and the hats, and I'm like, "Oh, interesting. I mean, why would these people want me to come to their Seder?" But then I saw two words that would forever change my life, "totally free." So I'm like, "This is perfect."

05:46 Speaker 2 Abrams went the first night.

05:48 Speaker 1 So I show up at this Seder, and I'm wearing, I'm wearing a three-piece suit. It was a, a gray and white pinstripe suit, a paisley tie with matching pocket square and socks, and my favorite Ferragamo shoes. So I walk in, and this bachur is putting- tinfoil on tables

06:09 Speaker 2 That was bocher and now Rabbi Shmuel Krevitsky.

06:13 Speaker 3 And I'm running around. All of a sudden I see a guy walking with a suit. I'm like, "Hey, this is exciting." So when I saw Binyomin Abrams for the first time, I wasn't intimidated by the suit. I was intimidated by the, the, the goatee. I saw the things as a positive. This is a special person who, if we light this soul up, who knows what could happen?

06:34 Speaker 1 He says, "Do you know how to open wine?" I said, "Well, yes. I worked in my father's restaurant for many years in high school." He says, "Listen, I don't need your life story. I just need someone to open wine." I said, "Okay, how much?" He says, "Three." I said, "Oh, three bottles?" He says, "No, three cases." That's when I knew that this Seder was gonna be a little different than what I had experienced in my youth.

06:59 Speaker 4 Oh, Binyomin, such an incredible, incredible soul.

07:03 Speaker 2 That's Rabbi Dov Yonah Korn. He remembers that Abrams sat right up front. Abrams remembers that there were at least 100 people there.

07:12 Speaker 1 And it's like chick chick. One guy tried to read his paragraph in Hebrew, and Rabbi Korn was like, "N- no, no, we, we don't need you to flex your Hebrew. Just read the English. Let's, let's keep this thing moving." And from Kadesh until the meal was 40 minutes, including everybody chowing down two pieces of matzah. It was pretty impressive.

07:34 Speaker 2 But there was something else that made an impression on Abrams. It was something that Rabbi Korn said.

07:40 Speaker 4 And I said, "We're about to eat matzah. I don't care what you've done a few minutes ago or what you'll do a few minutes from now. This moment creates a bond and a connection with God that is permanent and profound."

07:53 Speaker 1 The message that I had gotten, the, the messaging, the branding that I had gotten when I was growing up behind Judaism was Judaism is an all or nothing thing. If you're not gonna do all the mitzvahs, then there's no value in doing any. This was the first time someone ever actually said, "No, every mitzvah you do has intrinsic value. Every mitzvah you do is like a diamond to Hashem, and if you're not doing a mitzvah, maybe pick one and do it." Every mitzvah has value in and of itself, something I'd never heard before.

08:28 Speaker 2 Korn said something else directly to Abrams that had a deep impact on him.

08:33 Speaker 1 Try to think of it like an experiment, and I'm a scientist, and I'm thinking to myself, "He's talking to me. I should pick a mitzvah. I'll try it for a certain amount of time. I'll collect the data, and then, you know, we'll see how it goes." And I decided right then and there I was gonna start putting on tefillin.

08:51 Speaker 4 And I recall his interest, you know, only growing throughout the first Seder. He came back to the second Seder that I don't think he was even signed up for, and then I started seeing him week after week after week to be attending the programs until I finally got a chance to sit down with him and understand his journey. I learned that he felt afflicted by this all or nothing mentality. He's an academic, and he's a, a thinker, so obviously for him, the way a concept affects him is pretty special. Reframing one Jewish concept changed his whole life.

09:23 Speaker 1 The experiment went well, and, uh, you know, when I realized how meaningful one mitzvah was, I decided to continue the experiment and try other ones.

09:33 Speaker 4 He's so honest intellectually. That's part of why he came to Yiddishkeit with such passion 'cause he finally heard some truth. Watching him grow was really beautiful.

09:44 Speaker 2 And Abrams grew very quickly. He came to Korn every Shabbos and began keeping all the holidays. Rabbi Krevitsky remembers that Abram's goatee, three-piece suit, and expensive Italian shoes gave way to a different look.

10:00 Speaker 3 He started becoming frum, and he got a very big beard very quickly. It's almost as if like he was making up for lost time, and he just kinda went for it.

10:10 Speaker 4 I remember early on he would also bring people by with some frequency because he had such exposure to a broad swath of, of student life and professor life, so he very early on became an ambassador for our work.

10:22 Speaker 2 Abrams says he was simply following the example set by Rabbi and Sara Korn.

10:27 Speaker 1 They were completely given over to the Rebbe and what the Rebbe's vision for what Judaism is and how it needs to be brought to everyone and to just love everyone, to show compassion to everyone.

10:44 Speaker 2 Abrams also began to study Torah with Rabbi Korn.

10:47 Speaker 1 I'm a scientist. I was born a Jew, so I was a Jew before I was a scientist, but I was trained as a scientist before I really delved into any kind of Torah observance or deep Torah learning. And what I can tell you is this: I took a very scientific approach to it.

11:03 Speaker 2 Soon Abrams was learning Chumash with Rashi, Talmud, and Hasidus. But every now and then Abrams conversations with Korn would drift towards science. Korn admits that he's no scientist, but Abrams helped him realize something.

11:18 Speaker 4 God is infinite. Torah is studying God's infinite being. And being that we're dealing with infinity both in the world that He's made and also in the creator itself, there's a similarity of the endlessness of the search.

11:33 Speaker 2 But isn't there a tension, even a contradiction between Torah and science?

11:38 Speaker 1 As I was growing up, I definitely got that sense.

11:41 Speaker 2 But Abrams adds...

11:42 Speaker 1 When you actually start to look up and collect the data, the data don't support that thesis. Throughout all of human history, there have been tremendous scientists who have also been very pious and spiritual people in our religion as well as, lehavdil, the other religions. It continues until today. And this is even before I learned that our Rebbe had studied engineering mathematics before becoming the most influential and prominent rabbi. You know, you start reading the Rebbe's letters on science and you s- and you realize, wow, the, the Rebbe knows what he's talking about, and the Rebbe knows Torah better than anyone. How could I disagree?

12:32 Speaker 2 The Rebbe had inspired Abrams to further his investigation with even more energy and excitement than before. One summer, in the middle of his PhD studies, Abrams attended yeshiva. It was a two-week program at Hadar Hatorah in Crown Heights called Yeshivcation. His doctoral studies continued unabated, but he was also learning more Hasidus. After a few dates, he says nine, she says eight, Abrams married his basheret, Leora. They moved to Crown Heights, right across from 770 Eastern Parkway, Lubavitch headquarters.

13:09 Speaker 1 So a block and a half away from Hadar Hatorah, and I basically split my days. I would learn Hasidus in the morning at the yeshiva and daven with them. I would go home. I would do a little work. In the afternoons I would go to 770. I made havrutas with people in 770 to learn Chumash Halakha, Hasidus.

13:28 Speaker 2 In 2008, Abrams earned his PhD in theoretical chemistry, and he had become a Torah-observant Jew. A few months later, Abrams was hired by Boston University as a professor and lecturer. But because he's a Canadian citizen, there were a few visa issues to work out at the last second. That meant that the BU course list hadn't been updated to reflect that he was teaching classes.

13:56 Speaker 1 So I was listed on the student rosters as professor's staff. Professor's staff is any time they don't know who's gonna teach the class, it says staff. So the students have no idea who I am. They go online, they can't look me up. They have no idea. So I walk into my first lecture. It's a, a class of about 180 first-year students taking advanced chemistry. Most of them are, are pre-health students or chemistry majors, biochemistry majors. So I, I walk in with my hat and my jacket and my tzitzit and my beard, the whole thing. I'm looking up at this class of 180 students, and I say to them, "Welcome to RN 375, Introduction to Mystical Jewish Thought." And the room went silent. Here they are, it's their first college class, and this one student in the front row says, "Professor, I think you're in the wrong room." I said, "Oh? Why, what class is this?" And they say, "This is chemistry." I said, "Oh, I could teach you that, too."

14:56 Speaker 2 It's a funny story, but in case you're wondering if Abrams uses classroom, lab, or lecture hall time to discuss his worldview and Yiddishkeit, he doesn't. He adopted a very strict policy from day one at Boston University.

15:11 Speaker 1 I'm there to teach them chemistry. They're paying to learn chemistry. They're paying a very good amount of money. Chemistry class is for chemistry. If you wanna come to my office and talk about Yiddishkeit, absolutely, I'm down. But in the classroom I'm there to do a very good job teaching chemistry.

15:32 Speaker 2 Abrams' first year at BU is where another Chabad emissary enters the picture.

15:37 Speaker 5 The first time I met him was when he arrived in Boston. I think we were having a little barbecue, and he showed up with his wife.

15:44 Speaker 2 That's Rabbi Shmuel Posner. Along with his wife Chana, Posner runs Chabad of Greater Boston, just an eight-minute walk away from Abrams' office.

15:54 Speaker 5 Chemistry was not my favorite subject in Chabad yeshiva. So I was like, all right, chemistry. I have no idea what it's all about. I don't really like it that much, but hey, great. Go for it.

16:06 Speaker 2 But there was a lot Posner and Abrams did have in common. Before long, Abrams and his family were celebrating Shabbos and holidays with the Posners.

16:15 Speaker 1 And, uh, we got to know him. I, I'll tell you, I, I knew right then and there that he was the real deal. This is a man who cares about every single Jew. He goes around campus tabling all day long, tefillin. He's always out there for Jews, and I, I knew right away, I'm like, "This is someone who I'm gonna admire and really enjoy being around."

16:35 Speaker 5 So yeah, we're in close, and the Chabad House is near Boston University. I see him a number of times in his office. You know, just meet up to talk about things we want to talk about.

16:44 Speaker 2 Which includes, of course, Torah and Hasidus, but-

16:48 Speaker 5 I have never discussed chemistry with him.

16:52 Speaker 2 But Posner has sat in on a class taught by Abrams. That didn't happen until just a few years ago, after Abrams had been teaching at BU for about 10 years.

17:03 Speaker 5 It was fascinating to watch him because if you closed your eyes, he was just a professor. When you open your eyes, there's this Hasid with this huge black beard who's teaching chemistry.

17:14 Speaker 2 In 2015, Abrams received a prestigious award for excellence in teaching.

17:19 Speaker 5 So in front of, I don't know, 5,000 people, he's up there on the big screen wearing the gown and his black beard that's always on, and his black hat on top. And I'm like, "This is unheard of." This is, you know... The stage is, like, 50 different professors from the, you know, they're wearing all their college regalia, and he's there with his black hat 'cause that's who he is, and he just won't take it off. He won't compromise one bit.

17:50 Speaker 2 Rabbi Shmuel Posner says that he's always looking for new students to learn with, but sometimes when he approaches one, they say-

17:58 Speaker 5 They say, "No, no, no, I learn with Dr. Abrams." Like, okay, cool. That's fine.

18:01 Speaker 2 Not that Abrams is looking to replace Posner.

18:03 Speaker 1 I remember the first time a student approached me about learning Torah with them. I went to Rabbi Posner. I said, "Rabbi Posner, you know, this is your area. You're the, the rabbi of Boston University. Would you prefer that I tell this person that they should come to you?" to learn with, or is it okay if I learn with this student myself?" You know, I didn't wanna step on anyone's toes. And I, I'll never forget this. There's this moment of silence, and he said, "Did you seriously just ask me permission to learn Torah with a Jew?" It was just like this incredulousness. He's like, "Obviously you have to learn with this person." And I took that as a, you know, go to town.

18:43 Speaker 6 We started with Tanya and learning other, um, Maamarim, and we continued that chavrusa for something like seven or eight years.

18:52 Speaker 2 That's Dr. Sam Rubin, who started his BU undergrad studies in 2009, a year after Abrams began his professorship. One of Rubin's classes that first semester was Intensive General Chemistry taught by Professor Binyomin Abrams. Rubin, who grew up observant but not Hasidic, waited until the following summer to begin learning with Abrams.

19:16 Speaker 6 He definitely taught me a lot about Hasidus, which I did not have exposure to previously, and as much as I was busy with my medical training, it was a way for me to kinda step back for an hour or two a week and study Torah, and I, uh, really appreciated that, and over the years we developed a great relationship.

19:38 Speaker 2 After 13 years of disseminating science and Hasidus in and around the BU campus, Dr. Binyomin Abrams still looks to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for guidance.

19:48 Speaker 1 If you read the Rebbe's letters on science, in addition to being scientifically accurate, I mean precisely scientifically accurate, there are some letters where the Rebbe talks about, actually uses science, very, very deep science as an analogy to help people understand the world that the Abster made and the Torah with which he made it. Obviously there can't be a stira contradiction between them. And so it of course makes sense that the Rebbe understood all of this science, because the Rebbe was a master of the entire Torah. So the fact that the Rebbe knows the spiritual side of things, it must be that the physical side of things mirrors it, and that there's no daylight between them.

20:35 Speaker 2 Abrams, who sometimes lectures on faith and science on the Chabad circuit, points out a fascinating synchronicity. In the late 1920s, a young Menachem Mendel Schneerson, still about 25 years from accepting Chabad leadership as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, studied at Humboldt University of Berlin. He especially enjoyed the lectures of Professor Erwin Schrödinger, a physicist who pioneered revolutionary ideas in quantum theory.

21:03 Speaker 1 Sitting in Erwin Schrödinger's class in the 1920s, who was teaching whom? The world had never heard of this idea of the superposition of opposites, the idea that something exists in a state of possibilities and the outside observer changes it. The Rebbe's in his class, and then suddenly Schrödinger is, is proposing that this is the way atomic theory works. The Rebbe for sure obviously knew all of the Hasidus that said exactly that before he went to the class. I don't think we'll ever know what actually took place in that class, but I do think the fact that what we understand about the world today matches Hasidus is not a coincidence.

21:51 Speaker 2 Rabbi Shmuel Krevitsky says that about 100 years later, Abrams is making the same connections.

21:57 Speaker 3 His mind is in heart and his, and his whole self is in Yiddishkeit. So he's no longer going from the science perspective to explain Judaism. He's a Jew who's now trying to make everything in science relevant and bring everything together. It's mind-blowing.

22:09 Speaker 1 What's the old saying? The first sip from the chalice of science could make someone an atheist, but if you drink all the way to the bottom, God's waiting.

22:22 Speaker 2 Two years ago, Abrams studied for and earned Rabbinic ordination. Now Rabbi Dr. Professor Lecturer Binyomin Abrams is teaching in his 14th academic year at Boston University. Rabbi Shmuel Posner is still roaming the halls of BU, looking for Jews to help and inspire. Dov Yona Korn is running Chabad House Bowery with Sara Korn. Shmuel Krevitsky and his family just moved to South Florida after many years of outreach in Western Massachusetts. Abrams is in touch with all three. He says that without them, he wouldn't be where he is now.

22:59 Speaker 1 All of the shluchim that had any impact on me, that had the tremendous impact on me, were these most authentic, loving people, and you need to be the Rebbe's person and be an authentic person and love every Jew. People feel that. That really affects people.

23:18 Speaker 4 He's really merging worlds, which is very Messianic and it's very futuristic, and that's kind of the dream.

23:25 Speaker 3 In Brooklyn, he's, uh, changing the world.

23:30 Speaker 2 For those who wish to catch a glimpse of chemistry professor Binyomin Abrams on his moped, weaving through Commonwealth Ave's thicket of pedestrians, skateboarders, bicyclists, buses, and automobiles, unfortunately those days are over.

23:45 Speaker 1 I switched from a moped to a bicycle. 100 miles a gallon is good, but, uh, bicycle's better for your health and, uh, even better with gas mileage.

23:56 Speaker 2 So s- students up and down Commonwealth Ave. will still be able to witness your beard flapping in the breeze, right?

24:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, absolu- absolutely.

24:12 Speaker 2 I'm Gary Wolk. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast@L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. To subscribe digitally to Lubavitch International Magazine or to receive it at your doorstep, please visit lubavitch.com/subscribe. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.