Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a position once held by Isaac Newton died this week at 76 years. Famed as the most prestigious physicist of the modern era, he suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis since his early 20`s. Despite his total incapacity limiting him to a motorized wheelchair and voice-synthesizer, Hawking made seminal contributions to astrophysics, particularly in the study of black holes, veritable holes in the fabric of the universe.

The Black -holes correspond to the “Tzimtzum Ha`Rishon” (the “Initial Contraction”) by which the Infinite Creator chose to create the universe via an apparent contraction in which “He removed Himself”, thereby creating a momentary vacuum into which subsequent creation could occur. Under the laws of quantum mechanics, the black hole would slowly radiate energy back into space, before eventually evaporating. Together with physicist Roger Penrose, Hawking’s work cemented the case for a fiery Big Bang starting the universe.
This corresponds to Hawking`s concept of an entropic hole with absent space and Infinite mass from which energy would subsequently radiate an energy which was beyond the measurement of current technology.
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an 18th century Kabbalistic genius (known by his pseudonym “Ramchal” published a little-known work entitled “Dwellings of the Supreme” (Translated from the Hebrew text “Mishkney Elyon”). Central to his theme of creation was that all worlds derive from a point in heavenly “metaspace”. According to the Ramchal, the Creator`s Wisdom is preceded by another Beginning, referred to as His “Desire”, which is totally concealed, conceivably corresponding to Hawking`s Black-Hole discovery.