The concept that this world is a simulation, wholly without reality and that our very thought that we exist is an illusion is an old Jewish idea. It did not originate with modern Cosmologists...but...


where Judaism and cosmologists differ is in the difference between the Hebrew terms נסוי (pronounced nissui - translated as experiment) and the related word נסיון (pronounced nission - translated as experience).

The cosmologists consider this world an experiment or simulation being carried out by an advanced culture on high powered computers.

Jews understood that everything in this world is filled with moral content and moral choice.


Every situation in which we find ourselves and every decision we make is loaded with possibilities for making moral choices or not.

The moral choices that we make, or do not, are actually the building blocks of the creation of a world that is currently hidden to us, but will be revealed.

The Sages said: One hour in the World to Come is equal in ecstasy to this entire world. But they also said: One hour in this world is equal to all the World to Come, for it is here that we are given the opportunities for moral action. – Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) Chapter IV, Teachings 16 and 17.

The western mind, in not taking into account the *primacy* of morality, in not being able to perceive that morality is built into the universe, misses the point of existence, even when they have understood the principles.


Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com